Rio allows you to control whether a valid referral must exist before an appointment can be booked. This can be configured at a system wide level, at an individual clinic level, or both. Understanding how these settings interact will help you configure the right behaviour for your organisation.
System wide referral setting
The AmsRefFlag system constant is the global switch that controls whether a valid referral is required before a diary appointment can be booked. This setting applies to all HCP diary appointments across the system.
Setting | Behaviour | When to use |
True | A valid referral is required to book a diary appointment. If no valid referral exists, the system prompts the user. The appointment can still be booked without a referral if the user chooses to proceed. | Most NHS mental health and community settings where all contacts must be linked to a referral for reporting purposes. |
False | No referral is required. Appointments are always booked without the need for a valid referral. | Settings where diary appointments are used for non patient facing activities or where referral tracking is not required. |
Clinic level referral setting
Individual clinics can also be configured to require a referral, regardless of the system wide setting. This allows specific clinics to enforce referral requirements even when the system constant is set to False.
To enable the referral requirement on a clinic:
Go to Rio Configuration, then click Clinic Maintenance.
Select the clinic from the left panel.
Select the Referral Required checkbox.
Click Save.
How the settings interact
System wide setting | Referral Required on clinic | Result |
True | Any | Referral required for all diary appointments. The clinic flag adds no additional restriction. |
False | True | Referral required only for this clinic. Other clinics and diary appointments do not require a referral. |
False | False | No referral required for any appointments. |
Map referral sources to specialties
Referral sources can be mapped to specific specialties so that only appropriate referral sources are available for each specialty. This prevents incorrect referral source selection and improves data quality.
Go to System Administration, then go to Referral Source Mapping.
Select a Referral Source from the pick list.
Select the specialties from the Not Available list and move them to the Available list. Only referrals to one of the specialties in the Available list can specify the selected referral source.
Click Save. Always save before selecting another referral source from the list.
Repeat for each referral source.