Referrals

Sending a referral

Refer a patient to a colleague from the patient's chart (Refer) or from the Referrals page: pick the patient, pick the doctor, and say why. The doctor can be a clinic member or any email address — a colleague with an Angel account gets the referral in their queue with a notification, and an external doctor gets an email with a link to accept or decline that carries no patient details.

If the clinic's WhatsApp is connected, the patient is sent the referral letter the moment you send it, so it's on their phone whether or not anyone prints a copy at the desk.

What travels with it

A referral carries a copy, not access to your chart — the receiving clinic never gets to browse your records. Every referral includes the patient's basics: name, phone, date of birth, sex, blood type, allergies, ongoing conditions, and their smoking and alcohol answers. On top of that you choose what to attach — one visit (with its diagnoses), prescriptions, and documents.

What's sent is a snapshot taken at the moment you sent it. Later chart changes don't travel; send a fresh referral if something important changes.

The Notes field is part of the printed letter, and the letter is what goes to the patient over WhatsApp. Write clinical context there — not anything you wouldn't want the patient to read.

Who can do what

• Sending a referral, and accepting or declining one, are clinical acts — they need a practitioner: a doctor, or an owner with "Owner sees patients" on. An office admin can't sign one.
• Marking a referral completed, or withdrawing it, belongs to the referring clinic — its owner, admins and doctors.
• Everything else is open to the whole clinic: reading both lists, opening a referral and the records shared on it, printing the letter, and registering a referred patient. The desk fields "did the cardiologist accept?" all day.

The referral lifecycle

A referral is pending until the receiving doctor accepts or declines it — either way they can write a note back to you. While it's still pending, the referring clinic can withdraw it, which also kills an external doctor's respond link.

While a referral is waiting, both lists and the patient's chart show how long it has been waiting — Sent 12 days ago — instead of the date it went out, so one that has gone quiet is visible without opening it. Once it's answered, the date comes back.

Once it's accepted, the loop is closed by the referring clinic, not the recipient: when the patient comes back to you, mark the referral completed. That's deliberate — the referring doctor is the one who knows the patient returned.

An external doctor with no Angel account can accept or decline from their email link. If they never do, the referral stays pending, and Angel labels it External — patient carries the letter rather than implying a follow-up that isn't happening.

Closing the loop

When your referral is answered, you're notified — the answer goes to you and only you, since it's about your patient. The patient is told too, if WhatsApp is connected.

The patient's chart carries a Referrals block: who you've sent them to, the status of each referral, and the reply that came back — so before writing a second letter you can see whether one is needed.