Many moving parts make a behavioral healthcare facility run smoothly and efficiently. Several of the most crucial business and patient care steps occur before patients even enter the facility. One of these essential steps is tracking referrals. Keeping track of your facility’s referrals can help your business development team and beyond. Luckily, with Lightning Step Technologies’ all-in-one CRM (Customer Relation Management), EMR (Electronic Medical Record), and RCM (Revenue Cycle Management) system, tracking referrals has never been easier.
What Is the Significance of Tracking Referrals?
Referrals are a regular occurrence when working in behavioral healthcare. Whether another treatment facility or therapist is referring a client to your facility, referrals are always a part of the admissions process. Tracking referrals is essential for several reasons, including:
#1. Knowing Your Referral Source
Keeping track of your referral sources can help your business development and admissions team know who all of your referral sources are. When this information is easy to see and access, your facility can know who sends you the most referrals.
#2. Maintaining Relationships With Other Facilities
Tracking and knowing your referral sources allows your behavioral healthcare facility to maintain good relations with referral sources. For example, when you know which sources send you the most patients, you can send them complimentary items, such as flowers or food. This helps keep the relationship between you and your sources flowing and lets your referral sources know that you appreciate them.
When you know who is sending you referrals, you can also make sure you are sending referrals back when appropriate. For example, suppose you are in a residential facility and have an admissions call from someone looking for outpatient treatment, you can refer them to another facility that provides what they need. If you have an outpatient facility that regularly sends you referrals, you can, in turn, send them a referral back. Keeping the referral ground as even as possible is another contributing factor to maintaining positive relationships with your sources.
#3. Allowing Referral Sources to Know Status of Patients
In many cases, your referral source may not be another behavioral healthcare facility; it may be a therapist or psychiatrist. Often, these types of referral sources have been managing a patient’s care for months or years and will want updates on the patient’s status throughout treatment. When you can update a therapist or psychiatrist, they can make a plan for care once the patient leaves your facility.
Not keeping track of your referral sources can make it easy for this information to get lost in the loop. When you can easily view and track your referrals, you can make sure the necessary people receive updates about patients and reinforce the relationship with a referral source.
#4. Knowing Where to Best Market
A phone call that comes through the admissions team through marketing sources, such as a Google ad or Facebook ad, is also considered a referral source. With the ability to track referrals, you also can track how many admissions come in for each marketing number. When your facility can easily track these types of referrals and quickly see how many calls and admissions are coming in from which ads, you can know where to best put forth your marketing efforts.
Tracking Referrals With Lightning Step Technologies
At Lightning Step Technologies, our easy-to-use software makes it seamless to track referrals. Our straightforward layout makes finding and entering referral sources quick and simple. With one click into our admissions tab, you can find your referral sources and track them by the patient’s name or phone number.
Other features of our all-in-one system can help with the process of tracking referrals and maintaining referral source relationships, including:
#1. Integration With Call Tracking Metrics
When your facility chooses Lightning Step Technologies for your software needs, you will have the option to integrate your CRM with Call Tracking Metrics. With Call Tracking Metrics, you can easily track how you are getting your calls. For example, if an individual Googles the phrase “addiction treatment in Nevada,” your facility will automatically know what Google ad they called from. This integration makes tracking referrals seamless and makes your marketing team’s job more straightforward.
#2. A Client Portal
Patients can quickly access consent forms with Lightning Step’s easy-to-use Client Portal. Behavioral healthcare facilities are bound by HIPAA and CFR 42 Part II, meaning if a family member was to call and try to speak to a patient at a facility, the facility is limited on what they can relay. However, a facility can share information if a consent form is signed for specific people–such as a therapist or psychiatrist.
If your referral source is a personal psychiatrist or therapist who wants to be updated on their patient’s treatment status, a consent form will need to be signed. Having easy access to consents through our Client Portal makes this process seamless.
Keeping your behavioral healthcare facility running smoothly requires many moving parts, one of which is tracking referrals. Keeping track of your referrals helps you know your sources, maintain relationships with other behavioral healthcare facilities, allow referral sources to see the status of patients, and know where to best market. Having a quick and easy way to track referrals can make the flow of your business seamless. Luckily, Lightning Step Technologies has made tracking referrals easier than ever. With our straightforward layout and easy-to-use software, you can make sure all your needs are met for referrals. We can also help your business track referrals and maintain client relationships with our Call Tracking Metrics integration and Client Portal. Made by behavioral healthcare professionals for behavioral healthcare professionals, the all-in-one system at Lightning Step can help you and your patients from admissions to discharge. To learn more about the solution, schedule a demo today.