Method and apparatus for managing physician referrals
Method and apparatus for managing the physician referral process, whereby a referring physician (e.g., a primary care provider) refers a patient to another physician (e.g., a specialist) for a particular medical procedure, analysis or care. An aggregator provides systems and methods available to physicians and their administrative staff (herein collectively referred to as physicians or doctors) to: book appointments on behalf of their patients online through a doctor directory and calendar function; filter available doctors by specialty, subspecialty, procedure, insurance participation and/or hospital network; transfer a patient's personal information, medical history and pre-selected insurance forms from one doctor's office to another's, electronically; transfer and upload relevant forms and paperwork via fax from one doctor's office to another; track referrals historically (over time) on a by-doctor or by-patient basis; facilitate referrals to and from doctors in a certain network or group.
1. A method comprising:
providing, on multiple practice group servers, a synchronizer application configured to automatically synchronize appointment availability data from the multiple practice group servers to an aggregator database;
providing, by an aggregator server and to a user computing device, an online interactive user interface having a plurality of dynamic input fields;
receiving, by the aggregator server and from the user computing device, an electronic request specifying an input into one or more of the dynamic input fields, the input comprising a specialty and a geographic location;
comparing, by the aggregator server, the request with physician profile data and the appointment availability data in the aggregator database to generate a display of available appointment times for physicians associated with the specialty and within a predetermined distance to the geographic region;
displaying, by the aggregator server and on the interactive user interface, a filtered listing of the physicians and their available appointment times based on the comparison;
receiving, by the aggregator server and from the user computing device, a selection of an available appointment time via the interactive user interface;
booking, by the aggregator server and to a selected practice group server chosen from the at least one of the practice group servers, the selected available appointment time as a referral appointment for a patient via the synchronizer application;
transferring, by the aggregator server and to the selected practice group server, the one or more digital records for the patient, wherein the one or more digital records are stored in the aggregator database;
receiving, by the aggregator server and from the selected practice group server, tracking information for each referral appointment, wherein the tracking information includes at least an appointment status and an appointment history for each referral appointment, and storing the tracking information in the aggregator database;
receiving, by the aggregator server and from the user computing device, an electronic tracking request for at least one referral appointment;
generating, by the aggregator server, a referral history in response to the tracking request, the referral history including at least the appointment status and the appointment history for the at least one referral appointment;
modifying, by the aggregator server, the interactive user interface to display the referral history;
receiving, by the aggregator server and from the at least one of the practice group servers, one or more updated digital records for the patient including medical treatment information; and
displaying, by the aggregator server and on the interactive user interface, the patient medical treatment information.
2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the tracking information includes accepted appointments, shared documents and communications with the selected practice group server.
3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the tracking information is filtered based on one or more of:
a date range;
a patient;
a referred-to physician; or
a specialty or a procedure of the referred-to physician.
4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
generating, by the aggregator server, a comparison of multiple referral histories for display on the interactive user interface.
5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the referral history further comprises suggested actions.
6. The method of claim 5 , wherein the suggested actions include one or more of:
generating a communication with a patient for booking a Previously Presented appointment;
displaying patient information supplied by the practice group server;
displaying patient clinical information;
displaying appointment history information;
displaying physician notes concerning the patient;
entering a message to the patient;
entering a message to the practice group server; or
downloading a file on the network from the practice group server.
7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
receiving, by the aggregator server and from the practice group server, shared documents, and storing the shared documents in the aggregator database.
8. The method of claim 7 , wherein the physician profile data includes affiliations of a referred-to physician with one or more of the practice group servers, and wherein the applicable available appointment times are filtered based on the affiliations of the referred-to physician.
9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the applicable available appointment times are filtered based on the specialty or a procedure.
10. The method of claim 9 , wherein the interactive user interface displays a filtered listing of referred-to physicians including their respective specialties, procedures and affiliations.
11. The method of claim 1 , wherein the physician profile data includes affiliations of a referred-to physician with one or more of the practice group servers, and wherein the tracking request is based on one of the affiliations of the referred-to physician.
12. The method of claim 1 , wherein the physician profile data comprises affiliations of a referred-to physician with one or more of the practice group servers, and wherein the tracking request is based upon one or more of a patient, the referred-to physician, an affiliation, a specialty or a procedure.
13. The method of claim 1 , wherein the referral history comprises one or more of:
the appointment status;
the appointment history;
clinical information;
patient identification information;
a referred-to physician;
an appointment time; or
further actions regarding the patient.
14. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
receiving, by the aggregator server and from the user computing device, a request to establish communication via the interactive user interface with the practice group server.
15. The method of claim 14 , wherein the communications comprise one or more of a reminder to a patient or providing patient information to the practice group server.
16. The method of claim 14 , further comprising:
displaying, on the interactive user interface, a history of the communications.
17. The method of claim 1 , wherein the interactive user interface comprises a website.
18. The method of claim 1 , wherein the user computing device comprises an Internet enabled device.
19. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
receiving, by the aggregator server and from the user computing device, patient clinical information uploaded via the interactive user interface.
20. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
receiving, by the aggregator server and from the provider group server, patient clinical information.
21. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
displaying, on the interactive user interface, a booking receipt comprising the selected available appointment time of the referral appointment.
22. The method of claim 1 , wherein the synchronizer application is configured to automatically synchronize physician profile data and appointment availability data from multiple practice group servers prior to booking the referral appointment.