In plain English
This means asking a healthcare provider to make an official recommendation for a patient to get care somewhere else. That recommendation directs the patient to another provider, a specialist, or a service.
In context
Here, it means starting an ask for a healthcare provider to make a formal recommendation that a patient receive care from another provider, specialist, or service.
- Situation
- Booking appointments, checking in, joining waitlists, and handling referrals
- What it communicates
- menu item to start asking for a referral
Meaning limits
This term names the act of asking for the formal recommendation, not the recommendation itself.
Examples
“At the checkup, he requested a referral from his doctor to a skin specialist, but none had been written yet.”
“After her back pain flared again, she called the clinic to request a referral for physiotherapy.”