Case study · Healthcare
No referral lost between the letter and the appointment
Private clinic groups depend on referrals from GPs, consultants and insurers, and each one lost is a patient who went elsewhere. This is how we tracked referrals in Dynamics 365 from the moment they arrive to the booked appointment, and manage referrer relationships.
Project overview
Referral tracking and referrer management on Dynamics 365.
- Industry
- Healthcare
- Client
- Confidential
- Solution
- Referral management
- Platform
- Dynamics 365 + Power Pages
- Timeline
- 10–16 weeks
- Team
- 4 people
- Integration
- Practice management system
- Security
- Role-based access to clinical data
- Users
- Referral team, clinicians, practice managers
Expected business outcomes
What the client set out to achieve
Speed from referral to appointment is what patients and referrers notice.
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30–50%
Faster referral to booked appointment
Referrals are logged, triaged and assigned the day they arrive.
Target range; depends on clinical triage capacity
-
Near zero
Referrals without an owner
Every referral has a status and a person responsible.
Where all referral channels feed one queue
-
Monthly
Referrer activity reviews
Practice managers see which referrers send patients and which have gone quiet.
From referral source data
Business challenges
How referrals worked before
Referrals arrive in many ways and are tracked in none of them.
Arrival
Letters, emails, faxes and portal messages to different inboxes.
Triage
Clinicians review referrals from paper piles or shared folders.
Booking
Reception books appointments, but the referral record isn't updated.
Referrers
Nobody knows which GPs or consultants refer regularly.
Follow-up
Referrers rarely hear back, so they send the next patient elsewhere.
Proposed solution
What the Dynamics 365 build covers
Referrals as cases with a clear clinical workflow, and referrers as relationships.
-
Referral intake
All channels into one queue, with documents attached and key details extracted.
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Clinical triage
Clinicians review and prioritise referrals with urgency and specialty.
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Booking link
Booked appointments from the practice system update the referral status.
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Referrer relationships
Referring GPs, consultants and insurers with activity and contact history.
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Referrer portal
A secure portal for referrers to submit referrals and see status.
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Referral dashboards
Volumes, waiting times and conversion by specialty and source.
Project requirements
What the client asked us for
The request was to stop losing referrals. The design gives every referral an owner and a status from arrival to appointment.
Clinical data needs careful access control, so clinicians, administrators and business development see only what their role needs.
What the project had to deliver
- 01One queue for every referral
- 02Clinical triage in the system
- 03Status updates to referrers
- 04Referrer activity reporting
Key challenges & considerations
What made it harder, and what we did
-
Referrals received on paper and fax
What we did
Paper and fax referrals were scanned into the same queue as electronic ones, so nothing sat in a tray.
-
Practice systems with limited integration
What we did
Practice systems were integrated as far as each allowed, with a manual step clearly marked where not.
-
Strict access to clinical information
What we did
Access was designed around clinical roles, and every view of clinical information was recorded.
-
Insurer-specific authorisation steps
What we did
Authorisation steps were configured per insurer as part of the referral process.
What we watched for
- Design access around clinical roles
- Bring paper and fax referrals into the same queue
- Start with one specialty
- Tell referrers what happened, automatically
Development process
Intake, triage, booking, relationships
Each stage of the referral path goes live in turn.
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Referral pathway design
Intake channels, triage rules and statuses agreed with clinical leads.
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Intake and triage
Referral queue and clinical triage live for one specialty.
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Practice system link
Appointment booking updates referral status automatically.
-
Referrer portal
Portal launched with a group of friendly referrers.
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Rollout
All specialties and clinics live, with referrer dashboards.
Technology stack
Dynamics 365 with a secure portal
Standard case management, a referrer portal and practice system integration.
CRM
- Dynamics 365 Customer Service
- Dataverse security roles
Portal
- Power Pages
- Secure file upload
Integration
- Practice management system API
- Power Automate
- Document extraction
Reporting
- Power BI
- Waiting time dashboards
Quality assurance & deployment
Tested by the people who use it every day
A CRM succeeds when people choose to use it. Every process was tested with real users on real scenarios, and data migration was rehearsed until the record counts agreed.
- Scenario testing with users from each role
- Migration rehearsals, with record counts reconciled
- Integration tests for every connected system
- Security roles checked against real job roles
- Solutions moved between environments as managed releases
Deployment
- 01Referrer portalPortal launched with a group of friendly referrers.
- 02RolloutAll specialties and clinics live, with referrer dashboards.
- 03Phased go-liveOne team or region first, then the rest, each wave with training by role.
- 04Hypercare and warrantyDaily support through the first weeks, and six months of free bug fixing.
Final deliverables
Referrals that turn into appointments
Every referral is logged, triaged and tracked to an appointment, and referrers can see what happened to the patients they sent.
Practice managers know which referrers matter most and which relationships need attention.
- No referral without an owner
- Faster triage and booking
- A portal for referrers
- Referrer relationship insight
Handed over to the client
- 01Configured Dynamics 365Production and test environments
- 02Solutions and integrationsAs managed, documented releases
- 03Migrated dataWith record counts reconciled
- 04Training by roleWith short guides
- 05Six-month warrantyFree bug fixing after delivery
Success metrics
How success is measured
| Measure | Outcome | How it is measured |
|---|---|---|
| Faster referral to booked appointment | 30–50% | Target range; depends on clinical triage capacity |
| Referrals without an owner | Near zero | Where all referral channels feed one queue |
| Referrer activity reviews | Monthly | From referral source data |
Verified reviews
What clients say about our Dynamics work
Verified reviews from our clients on the same kind of work, published on Clutch.
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Custom Software Development
Web-Based Coupon App Development
The work produced by the team was of exceptional quality.
Jon Thies
CTO, Model Rocket Feb 2022 – Mar 2023
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Custom Software Development
Mobile & Web Platform Development & Design
Silver Scintilla was responsive, respectful, and enjoyable to work with, quickly addressing any questions or requests.
DeShawn Brown
CEO & Founder, Lithios Jun 2021 – Nov 2022
-
Custom Software Development
Web-Based HRM System Development
Silver Scintilla provided the best solution with scalable functionality, personalized features, and robust security.
Suheb Khan
Director, Collaborative Insight Technologies Jul 2020 – Jun 2022
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