For many health systems, patients and revenue are lost in the space between a provider’s recommendation and a completed patient visit. Referral leakage and fragmented workflows continue to erode both patient outcomes and organizational performance.
During a recent conversation hosted by Becker’s Healthcare and Tennr, leaders from Jefferson Health, Novant Health and MUSC Physicians joined Tennr’s chief medical officer to examine where referral leakage originates, how to close them and what organizations need to strengthen patient flow.
Here are four key takeaways from the conversation:
1. The breakdown happens fast
Panelists agreed that momentum is lost quickly once a patient leaves a clinical encounter without a scheduled follow-up. Amy Nyberg, president of ambulatory services at Jefferson Health, described the stakes plainly: If a patient walks out the door without an appointment, the likelihood of capturing them in-network drops by roughly 80%.
Her team has made point-of-service scheduling a top operational priority, emphasizing connection with patients before the encounter ends.
2. Leakage has real consequences
Beyond the immediate financial impact, panelists emphasized that referral failures carry serious clinical consequences like delays in care, missed diagnoses and disrupted continuity that can all lead to worse outcomes.
Bill Schiff, senior vice president and chief payer strategy officer at Novant Health, noted that capital allocation decisions are directly shaped by how well patient flow is managed, making referral performance an enterprise-level concern.
Mr. Blackman also pointed to brand risk. “You said I needed to go see someone, but you can’t get me in for two months,” he said. “We have to be a good partner with our patients.”
3. Technology as enabler
Panelists cautioned against deploying technology before addressing foundational workflow issues. William Morris, MD, chief medical officer at Tennr, emphasized that process redesign must come first.
“Automating a broken process just automates more expense,” Dr. Morris said.
He urged health systems to map the end-to-end patient journey, from referral intake to visit completion and reimbursement, and standardize workflows that determine how data moves between teams before layer on AI or automation tools.
Where technology can add value, panelists pointed to reducing administrative burden, such as eligibility checks, prior authorization and data entry so staff can focus on higher-touch interactions.
“Let’s elevate the worker, not replace them,” Dr. Morris said.
Elliot Blackman, COO of MUSC Physicians, said understanding the gap between what a provider recommended and what the patient ultimately does is essential before designing solutions.
“I don’t want to hypothesize on what the problem is,” Mr. Blackman said. “Once we understand that gap of what patients are doing and why, that’s going to really lead us to prioritize what real changes we need to make.”
4. Rethinking the right metrics
Leaders should move beyond traditional measures like slot utilization and instead evaluate the full patient flow continuum.
Ms. Nyberg described measuring patient perception of access at every ambulatory encounter to enable real-time course correction. Mr. Schiff emphasized tracking diagnostic intervals and ensuring resources are aligned with patient demand.
Panelists stressed that referral performance is inseparable from the broader care promise a health system makes to its community.
For Ms. Nyberg, the path forward begins with connection. “There has to be that established relationship human to human,” she said, “and then we can use AI smartly to remove those barriers and learn from them to make the system better.”
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