Patient leakage denotes the process of patients seeking out or being referred out of network by healthcare providers. Ways to reduce patient leakage can return a significant gain on revenue for healthcare providers. Accordingly, patient leakage is sometimes known as network leakage or referral leakage.
Patient leakage is estimated to reduce as much as 20 percent of a health system’s revenues every year. It occurs when patients move from an in-network primary care physician (PCP) to an out-of-network specialist or laboratory, imaging, or ancillary service.
There are many reasons why patients aren’t getting to that next step in care:
- clinical specialties
- capacity constraints
- geographic proximity
- narrow network
exclusions patient preference
A typical scenario: A patient is at the doctor’s office, and the physician orders an MRI for the patient. The GP/receptionist prints the referral letter out, hands it to the patient, and tells the patient they can go wherever they want to get that test; instead of setting an appointment while the patient is in the office.
That lost appointment, or even a referral that results in a patient no-show, can cost the hospital system, currently, only 54% of patient referrals become appointments. But beyond the lost revenue, the missed appointment may mean a worsened clinical outcome for that patient, and potentially a
If the referral appointment for the patient is created while he/she is at the GP or specialist’s office, increases the likelihood that the patient will attend that appointment. The challenge of this comes by the increased workload on of making calls, printing letters and other manual tasks increase this challenge. Hospital call centers are already extremely busy, and in many hospitals, they are not always just responsible for scheduling, but they’re responsible for all of the pre-registration tasks that have to happen before the patient arrives, such as pre-tests, insurance checks, etc.
GetReferd addresses the challenges of scheduling patients and coordinating care more effectively with its cross-platform and web-based, closed-loop referral management solution.
GetReferd’s unique
Technology, when deployed in the right way, can have a profound effect on services. Making them more accessible, vastly more efficient and significantly more productive. At GetReferd we design consumer-focused applications that engage patients the way other patient-facing solutions can’t.
