Ninety-six percent of healthcare executives say patient leakage is a priority, with lost revenue amounting to close to $1 million per physician per year. While the failure to schedule and attend referral visits has substantial financial consequences for providers and healthcare systems, the impact on patient care is also significant. Referrals are integral to managing care and patient outcomes. From referrals for diagnostics, such as imaging and testing, to specialized treatments, one in three patients is referred to a specialist every year; referrals make up half of all outpatient visits.

So why are providers and systems feeling the financial pinch from referral leakage? Because referring a patient for additional services doesn’t always mean that they actually receive the recommended care. Nearly 20% of patients don’t follow up on their doctor’s referrals to specialists, and that number rises to 50% among older adults. Referring physicians also lack visibility into whether patients actually have the tests or see the specialists to whom they were referred.

The result of this breakdown in the referral process? Patients forgo care that can result in early diagnosis and treatment, primary care physicians are unable to manage and coordinate patient care and specialists and hospital systems fail to realize revenue for referred services.

Nearly 20% of patients don’t follow up on their doctor’s referrals to specialists.
Source: Reinberg S, Many Patients Don’t Pursue Referrals, ABC News, March 2008.

Simplify patient outreach; ensure patients receive referred care

Part of the challenge with referrals is that managing them is both time and resource consuming. Once a referral is made, it’s up to the patient to follow through with scheduling the appointment and attending. For patients who may feel overwhelmed or frustrated by what can be a challenging system to navigate, this can lead to referrals being ignored or put off indefinitely.

While it would be nice if referring physicians had the ability to follow up with the patient to ensure those occurred, the reality is that allocating resources—and their time—to this activity would take time and staff away from patients. It’s a trade-off that doesn’t make sense and many physicians can’t justify. And, even if referring providers narrowed the task down to just those patients with the most acute need, it still requires making this trade-off and an entire population still goes unengaged.

There is a way to make outreach to patients easier, more efficient and consistent, however, with virtual agents.

Referring a patient for additional services doesn’t always mean that they actually receive the recommended care.

Automate outreach to referred patients with the Grace virtual agent

Gridspace Grace is the virtual agent that gives healthcare providers a more convenient and cost-effective way to ensure that patients schedule services with referred providers. With the most advanced, natural-sounding virtual nurses and administrators, and the ability to easily integrate with voice technology and data systems, Grace AI orchestration interweaves voice technology with existing human workflows. This gives referring physicians and healthcare systems a timely, easy way to confirm that patients have scheduled referred services and ensures that patients receive recommended care.

With Grace, healthcare providers and systems can:

• Perform outreach to 100% of patients who receive a referral.
• Improve patient care and the patient experience.
• Free up clinical and administrative staff to focus on patient care.
• Capture additional revenue from referred services.

Listen to Grace perform patient outreach for referred services here and discover how Gridspace is pioneering real-time speech infrastructure for healthcare.

Part of the challenge with referrals is that managing them is both time and resource consuming.