ReferralRight by Guident

For office managers and coordination leads

Medical-dental handoff checklist

Sent is not the same as settled. Six questions to answer before a medical-dental handoff leaves your office, free to print, with nothing to sign up for.

Why does sent not mean settled?

The common failure is a request that was sent and never confirmed received. The outgoing leg is well defined: someone composes it, sends it, and it reaches an office. The return leg is not defined by anything, and the deadline lives in a schedule rather than on the request, so nothing knows the case is overdue until someone asks.

A record that carries both legs fixes the part a list cannot. Each case holds four dates: referred, received, responded, and the date the answer was needed. Until then, these six questions put an owner and a date on every handoff.

The checklist

Nothing you type is saved or sent. It stays in this browser tab. Describe the request in general terms and keep patient names and identifiers off the page.

The specific question or action, in one sentence, so the receiver does not have to guess.
The treatment date, or the last day the team can act on the answer. Write it on the request itself.
A named person or office, not only a practice name.
The place and the person: an inbox, a fax line, a case record.
A date and time, set before you send rather than after the silence.
One name. A step that is shared is a step nobody owns.

Prepared by ____________________   Date ____________   Printed from referralright.com/medical-dental-handoff-checklist

Questions about the checklist

What is a medical-dental handoff checklist?

A medical-dental handoff checklist is a six-question list a practice completes before it sends a request between a medical team and a dental office: what is being requested, by what date the answer is needed, who is meant to receive it, where the answer comes back to, when the next check happens, and who owns the next step.

Is the checklist free, and is anything I type saved?

It is free, with no account. Nothing typed is saved, sent or tracked. The six answers stay in your browser and are gone when you close or reload the page, so the printed copy is the only copy.

Who is the checklist for?

A practice office manager or coordination lead who sends requests between medical and dental offices and wants each one to have an owner and a date.

Why does the fifth question ask for a date?

A request with no check date depends on someone remembering to ask. Setting it when you send makes silence visible on a known day.

Can the answer come back on the same record as the request?

Yes. A ReferralRight case carries four dates: referred, received, responded, and the date the answer was needed. Both offices see the same open case.

Send a clearance referral

Free, no account. You sign it; the dentist answers from a link.