Healthcare · Full Build-Out

Multi-Specialty Clinic

A Referral Becomes a Scheduled Visit

A referring physician sends a patient for a cardiology consult. If that referral gets lost between the fax machine and the scheduling desk, the patient — and the referring doctor's trust — is gone. Here's how to build the fix.

About & Business Case #

The everyday problem #

Referral Coordinator

"A referring physician sends over a patient for a cardiology consult. If that referral gets lost between the fax machine and the scheduling desk, the patient — and the referring doctor's trust — is gone."

Referrals that live in a fax tray or a shared inbox depend on someone noticing them. Meanwhile, different departments seeing each other's patient lists creates both a privacy problem and a cluttered one — nobody wants Cardiology sorting through Oncology's patients to find their own.

What good looks like

Referrals turn into scheduled visits automatically. Departments only see their own patients. Insurance sign-off happens before the visit, not after.

What you're building #

Record type	Kind	What it holds
Lead	Standard (built-in)	The incoming referral, before it's a confirmed patient
Contact / Account	Standard (built-in)	The Patient, and the referring practice's Account
Opportunity	Standard (built-in)	The Consult pipeline: Scheduled → Seen → Billed
Appointment	Custom (you build it)	Links to the Patient, owned by the assigned Specialist

Business outcome #

Referrals convert into scheduled visits automatically — nothing waits in a fax tray
Departments see only their own patients by default
Insurance sign-off happens before the appointment is confirmed, not after the visit

Implementation #

Step-by-step build #

Do these six pieces in order. Total time: roughly 35–45 minutes the first time through.

1 Capture the referral instantly #

Set up the referral formSetup → Object Manager → Lead → Sharing tab → Web-to-Lead section. Map your referral portal's form fields to Lead fields (Patient Name, Referring Physician, Reason for Referral).

Or connect the referring clinic's system directlyIntegrations → Webhooks → register an inbound Webhook so a referral from the partner clinic's system creates a Lead automatically, with no form needed.

2 Convert into a care episode #

Convert the LeadCreates the Patient Contact and the referring-practice Account — see the Lead-to-Cash Trail for the full walkthrough.

Create the Consult OpportunityOn the new Patient Contact, create an Opportunity representing this consult. Set its stage to "Scheduled" — you'll move it to "Seen" then "Billed" as the visit progresses.

3 Assign and schedule #

Create the Appointment objectSetup → Object Manager → New Object. Label: "Appointment", Plural Label: "Appointments".

Add its fieldsNew Field → "Patient", Type LOOKUP, related object Contact. New Field → "Appointment Date", Type DATE/TIME. Set the record's Owner field to the assigned Specialist.

4 Keep departments siloed #

Set the starting visibilityObject Detail → Sharing tab (on Appointment, and on Contact if needed) → set Org-Wide Default to Private.

Add a department Sharing RuleNew Sharing Rule: criteria department__c = "Cardiology" shared with the Cardiology team only. Repeat per department.

Open, not closed, by exception

Private is the safe starting point. Sharing Rules only ever open up access for the department they name — they can never take access away.

5 Automate the reminders #

Notify the front desk on bookingSetup → Workflow Rules → New Rule. Object: Appointment, trigger: On Create. Action: Notification to the front-desk queue.

Remind the patientAdd a second rule, trigger: field-based, 48 hours before Appointment Date. Action: Email Alert to the patient.

6 Verify coverage before confirming #

Create the approval processSetup → Approval Processes → New Process. Object: Appointment (or Opportunity, if pricing lives there).

Set the entry conditione.g. procedure_cost__c > 500 — routes any higher-cost procedure to the insurance-verification team.

Activate itThe appointment can't move to "Confirmed" until this step approves.

How to Use #

Day-to-day: referral coordinator #

New referral arrivesA Lead appears automatically from the portal form or the partner clinic's system.

Convert and scheduleConvert the Lead, open the Consult Opportunity, and create the Appointment record with the assigned Specialist as owner.

Day-to-day: front desk #

Get notified on new bookingsA notification appears the moment an Appointment is created — no need to watch a shared calendar.

Confirm insurance sign-offFor higher-cost procedures, check the Approval Inbox before marking the appointment confirmed.

Day-to-day: specialists #

See only your own patientsYour Appointment list only shows patients in your department — Sharing Rules keep Cardiology and Oncology separate automatically.

Move the Opportunity forwardUpdate the Consult Opportunity's stage from Scheduled → Seen → Billed as the visit happens and gets billed.

What to try next

Look at the Sharing Rules and Approval Processes trails to go deeper on the pieces used here.