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Assign a referral to a provider

Assigning hands a received referral to one provider at your practice, so the rest of the team can see whose desk it is on. Here is who can assign, what the assignee sees, and when Syncroly assigns for you.

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What assigning does

A referral arrives for your practice, not for one person. Assigning names the provider it belongs to.

Once a referral is assigned:

  • Its row on the Received tab names the provider, for everyone at your practice who works the practice-wide inbox. The list shows this once your practice has two or more providers.
  • Anyone else working that inbox no longer sees it marked New.
  • Notifications for messages on the referral's conversation go to the assignee. Your front desk keeps receiving them either way.
  • The referral's History records Assigned to and the name.

Assigning does not change the referral's status, and it does not change what the referring practice sees. Their timeline shows what happened to the patient, not how your practice divided the work.

Who can assign

Assigning a referral by hand takes a role that manages the practice inbox.

  • Primary Admin, Admin, and Coordinator can assign.
  • Practitioner cannot. A practitioner works their own referrals and cannot hand work to a colleague.

Anyone else can see who has a referral but cannot change it.

Assign a referral

  1. In the sidebar, open Referrals.
  2. Select the Received tab.
  3. Open the referral you want to assign.
  4. At the top of the page, under the next step, select Unassigned.
  5. In the list that opens, select the provider the referral belongs to.

The list opens on the providers whose specialty matches the referral. To see everyone, select Show all team members; to go back to the shorter list, select Show matching specialty.

The names come from your practice's provider profiles, so a practice with none set up has nobody to assign to.

A received referral with the assign list open under its next step. Below the step, a line names who the referral was addressed to, then Unassigned. The list under it names the practice's four providers with their specialties, three in Orthodontics and one in Periodontics, above Show matching specialty, which narrows the list back to the providers who match the referral.
The assign list on a received referral, after selecting Show all team members.

Assign several at once

  1. On the Received tab, tick the box beside each referral.
  2. In the bar that appears, select Assign.
  3. Select the provider, or Unassign (shared inbox) to return them all to the whole practice.

The bar offers Assign on the practice-wide inbox, when your practice has two or more providers to assign to.

When Syncroly assigns for you

Some referrals arrive already assigned, with no action from anyone at your practice.

When the referring practice addresses a referral to exactly one provider at your practice by name, Syncroly assigns it to that provider as it is sent. That is why a referral can arrive already assigned without anyone ever having used the control.

A referral addressed to your practice rather than to a named provider arrives unassigned, and stays that way until somebody assigns it.

What the assignee sees

Assigning hands the referral to a new owner, so it reads as new work for them: the referral shows as New for the assignee even if a colleague had already opened it. Opening it clears that mark, the same as any other referral.

A referral the referring practice addressed to a colleague by name is a separate signal, and assignment does not clear it. It stays New for that colleague until they open it themselves. See Your received inbox, and finding a referral you can't see.

Assignment also decides visibility when your practice keeps referrals narrowed to the provider they belong to. Under that setting, a practitioner sees a referral the referring practice addressed to them by name, or one somebody assigned to them, and nothing else. Assigning is how everything the practice receives without a name on it reaches a practitioner at all. See Inbox visibility: who on your team sees what.

Reassign, or return it to the shared inbox

Once a referral is assigned, the same place reads Assigned to and the name. Select it to open the same list.

  1. On the referral, under the next step, select Assigned to and the name.
  2. Select a different provider to reassign the referral, or select Unassign (shared inbox) to return it to the whole practice.

Reassigning moves the referral, and the message notifications with it. Unassigning puts it back on the shared desk and records Returned to shared inbox in the referral's History.