Explainer
Your product already has the data. Maybe it read a faxed referral, matched a booking request, or collected an intake form. The last step is entering it in the clinic's EMR. When the vendor's API isn't open to you yet, or doesn't cover that step, someone on staff types it in by hand.
It's the cleanest route when it's open to you. For Accuro, you email QHR, sign a Terms of Use, and build in a sandbox that stays active for 6 months. Production comes after certification and a signed agreement, and each clinic may need its own approval.
Ocean moves referrals between clinics through a FHIR API, and lists Accuro, PS Suite, Med Access, CHR, OSCAR Pro, and Juno among its integrations. It delivers the referral and carries status back. Filing it in the receiving clinic's chart still depends on that clinic's EMR.
Ocean profileThis is the default, and it costs staff time on every case. A 2020 time study at UCSF measured about 12 minutes of staff work to process one faxed referral into the EHR. A 2024 NHS case study put manual entry of one referral at about 10 minutes.
Software repeats the clicks and typing a staff member does, through the same screens. Before typing, it confirms it's in the right patient's chart. After saving, it reads the record back through a second route, such as a read-only API, and compares it with what your product sent. Without a second route, a person confirms the saved record. When something doesn't match, it stops and asks a person.
Illustration. Steps vary by clinic and EMR.
Read the referral
Today
Your productYour product pulls out the patient, the reason, and the urgency.
With a checked write
Your productNo change. Your product still does this.
Open the EMR
Today
StaffA staff member opens the EMR, sometimes inside a remote desktop window.
With a checked write
AutomationThe automation opens the same screens on a computer that you or the clinic control.
Find the patient
Today
StaffThey search for the patient and pick the chart.
With a checked write
AutomationIt searches the same way and checks that it's the right chart before typing. If two charts look alike, or none match, it stops before saving anything and asks a person.
Enter the details
Today
StaffThey type the fields, attach the letter, and add the patient to the waitlist.
With a checked write
AutomationIt types the same fields and saves.
Confirm it saved
Today
StaffWhether anyone checks the saved record depends on the clinic.
With a checked write
AutomationIt reads the saved record back through a second route, such as a read-only API, and compares it with what your product sent. A match means the case is done and checked. A mismatch goes to a person with what the automation found. Without a second route, the case comes back as finished but not checked, and a person confirms it in the chart.
If a save is uncertain
Today
StaffStaff decide whether to enter it again.
With a checked write
A personIf the automation can't tell whether the save went through, it doesn't retry on its own. A person checks the record first.
What comes back
Today
StaffA status that someone updates by hand.
With a checked write
AutomationA receipt for each case that shows what was entered and what was checked, plus the reason for each case that stopped.
They stop typing every case. They handle the cases that stopped, and each one arrives with the reason. If the EMR has no second route to read the record, they also confirm each saved case in the chart.
The clinic keeps its EMR, its user accounts, and its approval rules.
Enter your own volume. The result covers re-keying only.
Example value. Use your own.
About 10 to 12 in the two studies above.
Staff time today
9.2 hours a week
About 39.7 hours a month
Measure the after side on your own cases: how many still need a person, and how long each one takes. For comparison, one NHS trust that automated this step with a different tool still sent about 5% of referrals to staff.
Disclosure
OpenAdapt publishes this directory and sells software for the fourth option above. A person shows the task once while OpenAdapt records it. OpenAdapt turns that recording into an automation that enters the data through the same screens. It reports a case as done and checked only after it reads the saved record back through a second route. Without one, a person confirms the record.
OpenAdapt has no partnership with any vendor listed here, and a profile in this directory doesn't mean OpenAdapt has run on that EMR. Before an automation goes live on a clinic's EMR, it gets a readiness test on that clinic's setup with the clinic's own cases.