eReferral is an electronic referral management system that allows physicians and clinic support staff to create, submit, track and manage referrals online through Alberta Netcare.

eReferral includes:

• Advice Request – Non-urgent medical questions answered by a specialist within five calendar days. In many cases, an Advice Request is all clinicians need to avoid an in-person specialist appointment and continue managing the patient in their medical home.
• Consult Request – A non-urgent request for an in-person specialist appointment. With a Consult Request, a referring provider can see approximate wait times for each specialty and choose a “Next Available” appointment with any specialist in their Zone.

For more information, including training resources and updates, go to eReferral online.

Status   

eReferral updates implemented June 15, 2023

On June 15, 2023, eReferral updates that affect referring, receiving, triage and Facilitated Access to Specialized Treatment (FAST) team members occurred. Change highlights include:
• Sheldon M Chumir Health Centre – Nephrology no longer accepting eReferral Advice Requests. With this change, Nephrology is no longer available for eReferral Advice Request in the Calgary Zone. Please use Specialist LINK for all Calgary Zone non-urgent specialty advice questions.
o Important note: All other Nephrology facilities in Central, Edmonton and North Zones are active and are receiving eReferral Advice Requests.
• Called Requesting Provider – Routine added as a new Complete Reason when responding with advice.
• Clinical Review/Triage Completed added as a new Complete Reason when responding with advice (review required).
• Screening and Consult added as new Appointment Types when Appointment Booked is selected from the Consult Request workflow menu. Note: Choosing an appointment type is not mandatory.
• Information Not Provided by Service added as a new Outcome option when Complete (T5) is selected from the Consult Request workflow menu.
• Reason for Referral added to all FAST generated letters to support referring providers know what referral the update is related to.

eReferral updates implemented May 18, 2023

On the evening of May 18, 2023, several eReferral updates were made including:

• Family Medicine – Menopause Outpatient Clinic added to eReferral Advice Request in the Edmonton Zone.
• When you choose an out of province provider on the Consult Request referral form, additional fields appear allowing you to include their name and contact information. This creates more transparency and supports referrals that are sent to Alberta from out of province providers. 
• New submission methods (e.g., eReferral, Connect Care, etc.) have been added to the standard Consult Request referral form for greater referral tracking.
• Facilitated Access to Specialized Treatment (FAST) Program teams will see letter changes like added characters to free text-fields, Referral IDs added to all letters, and a new Cancelled letter option.

Resources

A variety of learning resources have been developed to support clinicians as they learn to use eReferral. Visit our Resources page for additional information.

Contacts

• To request training, contact the eHealth Services Team
• If you don't have access to Alberta Netcare: find out how to register
• For general eReferral inquiries, email access.ereferral@ahs.ca  (Monday – Friday). Please note that we do not accept patient referrals via this email address.