As of Nov. 17 all Apricot clients in target cities are able to make and receive participant referrals from other organizations also in target cities on Apricot.

Please note organizations must be on Role-Based Rermissions and must have opted-in to the network (both at the organization-level and at least 1 program) to use the Referral Network.

Bonterra has been hard at work building a closed loop referral system that is accessible within Apricot.

We know that even large organizations may not have all the services an individual or family needs. Use Bonterra's Referral Network to search for community partners, securely refer participants, gain consent, and collaborate to get participants the help they need to make progress in their lives.

Apricot-to-Apricot is the second released in our phased approach to Network Referrals. Now, organizations can see their listings in action and access additional community programs for their program participants.

To learn more about Network Referrals, reach out to your Client Success Manager.

This release includes:

Administrators have flexibility when assigning permissions for Network Referral activity to standard user roles.

There is now a new tab in role-based permissions, “Network Referrals”.

Note: This is distinct from “Referrals”, which controls permissions on Internal Referrals. For this release, Internal and Network Referrals are treated distinctly. There is no overlapping activity; other programs within an organization will not appear in the Referral Directory.

Within “Network Referrals” permissions, Admins can select if users can work with outbound (sent), inbound (incoming) or both types of referrals. It is also possible to give view-only permission.

In outbound settings, users can create only, edit only or both.

This gives organizations flexibility if they would like to reserve changing referral details or retracting referral after it has been sent to only certain roles.

Within inbound settings, users can accept only, reject only or both. We recommend giving a role view-only access if you would not like that role to change any referral status.

The Referrals Directory is where users can see all network programs available.

Accessing Referrals Directory

The Referral Directory is accessed in the My Apricot tab > My Apricot Tools > Referrals Directory.

Navigating the Referrals Directory

This is the Referrals Directory. The Directory will always show a list of programs and the geographic area with pins denoting locations of programs.

The Directory includes both Apricot and non-Apricot organizations. Listings are for specific programs, not the organization (as organizations likely have 1+ programs).

Note: Apricot listings always appear in search results first. This prioritization is indicated by the green icon next to sorting options for listings. Clicking the green icon will turn off that prioritization.

Non-Apricot program listing are maintained by Bonterra staff. If you notice an error, please reach out to networkreferrals@socialsolutions.com.

In this release users can only send to Apricot organizations and view non-Apricot program information.

In subsequent releases, Apricot will be able to send to non-Apricot with an option to accept or reject so the loop is still closed!

The left side of the map lists programs that meet the selected search criteria. Programs can be sorted A-Z, Z-A or by Distance from the input location.

As you can see, Moving Forward Austin ISD is the external friendly name of an opted-in, visible program.

The chosen services, location and contact information all match inputs from External Program Referrals.

To see more information about both the program and the organization, click the bolded Program Name.

This will show all services associated along with mission statement and other helpful information. The map view will home in on the selected program as well.

Click Back to Results to return to your search’s program list.

Users can search for programs by location, organization (provider name) and/or by services.

For location searches, users can type in a specific address, business, or landmark into the first box.

Users can also set the search radius at 10, 25, 50 or 100 miles away from the input location.

Additionally, users can interact with the map to see programs in a particular area. To change the area of focus, move the cursor into the map then click and drag the map. Users can also use the plus and minus controls in the bottom left corner to zoom in and out. Clicking the gray location pin will reset the map view to the organizational address.

For provider and program searches, users can enter partial or entire search criteria to return either a specific program or all the programs a particular organization offers.

Provider/program search is an exact match and not a fuzzy search.

For service searches, users can select one or multiple service offerings. This search will return all programs that offer the input service(s).

Users can search for a specific service or select from the dropdown.

In this example we’re searching on finding schools and 12-step programs in Austin, TX.

Users can clear search criteria by clicking the X. If user clears or changes search criteria, user needs to click the magnifying glass to load new results.

To create a referral, click the green turquoise button on the program you would like to send your participant.

This will open the Create Referral page.

There are several parts to creating a referral. This is to ensure the receiving program has information they need to make a decision, including sending caseworker contact information and consent.

Provider details are automatically populated upon referral creation. These details are important so that receiving programs know the sending provider and program.

My Details

One step further than Provider Details is My Details. My Details providers the receiving program who from the provider is making the referral.

Data is pulled in from the User Page. Note that either phone or email is required. However, providing both is best practice.

These details are important so that the receiving program can follow-up if there are additional questions or context needed. It also helps build rapport and relationships in communities of non-profits.

Next up is selecting who you are referring, a very important step.

In the participant box you can search or open a dropdown to see all participants eligible for this referral. Currently, that list is populated with records of the chosen Tier 1 in the General Participant Configuration.

After selecting participant, a green box will appear with referral information.

If the Tier 1 record you are attempting to send does not have Name, DOB and Cell Number, user will receive an error upon send attempt.

Additionally, there is validation built in on phone number. Phone numbers must have a real area code and be 10 digits.

Generally speaking, it is better to provide data in as many referral fields as possible. All the fields will be auto populated into the receiving program’s Tier 1 record.

Next, users should select the sending program. The sending program must be an opted-in Apricot program.

This is important for tracking purposes within My Referrals. The selected program will be visible to the receiving program.

Even though a participant may be assigned to multiple Apricot programs, only one should be selected here.

Next is selecting the services this participant needs or in interested in.

Users can only pick from services that are associated with the program they are referring to. Users can pick all or a subset of services.

After selecting services, users can add any notes or context that the receiving care team would need to know.

Important: Do not include any sensitive information or protected health information in the notes section.

The final step in creating a referral is gathering participant consent. Consent is gathered each time a referral is made.

Users have two options to gain consent: by attestation or by on-screen signature.

If On-Screen Consent is selected, a signature box opens for participant signature. Consent language and signature is visible to the receiving care team.

Now users have all the component completed and can send the referral.

After sending a referral, users are routed to the My Referrals screens.

Users can also access their and their organization’s outbound referrals by navigating to “My Network Referrals” in the side navigation.

The outbound referral tab within My Referrals contains all referrals sent by the organization. Permissions are respected so staff will not see referrals they do not have access to.

All My Referrals tabs are organized by program.

To see all referrals sent from a program (understood from the sending program on the Create Referrals page), click the plus to expand the view. Click the minus to collapse the view.

Outbound referrals are searchable and filterable by referral status, program and time period.

Referrals are presented in a specific way: Sending program > Participant Name > Receiving program. Underneath will show the date and time that referral was sent.

Users can always see the status of their sent referrals. The status options are:

After viewing status, users can act on referrals.

If a referral is “Sent”, users can edit information, like notes or services requested.

Note: Anyone with program access can edit the referral, not just admins and the user who created.

Clicking on the pencil icon will open the referral drawer where edits can be made.

When desired edits have been made, click Update.

“Sent” status referrals can also be retracted. This is important in case the participant’s need changes or they received the service from another organization first.

If a referral is “In Review” “Accepted” or “Rejected”, users can clone and/or archive a referral. To take action, click the kebab menu and select desired option.

Cloning a referral is helpful if users want to retain participant information and resend the referral. This is useful if a referral was rejected because the receiving program needed more or different information.

“Accepted” and “Rejected” referrals remain in Outbound until direct action is taken to Archive. Referrals are not automatically to History because users may not have had the chance to see the status change.

Archiving a referral moves the referral from Outbound to History tabs. It does not remove visibility in Apricot.

Once archived, the record will appear in the Sent section of the History tab.

All incoming referrals appear in the Inbound tab of my referrals. Inbound is almost identical in structure to the Outbound tab.

This is what the inbound screen looks like for the receiving organization (different Apricot) that we sent April to.

New referrals across programs that need action can be spotted by the new label in blue. That label will also show how many new referrals are waiting in that program.

Users can also filter this tab to only show new referrals.

In this case, it’s just April, so one new referral.

Incoming referrals will have either a “New” or “In Review” status. Previously processed referrals, those that were assigned as “Accepted” or “Rejected” automatically move to the Received section in the History tab.

To see details of the participant that has requested services from your organization’s programs, click the eye icon next to the referral’s status. This opens the referral drawer.

The incoming referral drawer looks very similar to what would be opened in Outbound.

Users can see all information provided, including the contact information of the sending caseworker and the participant.

A referral is put “In Review” before “Accept” or Reject” options appear. This is so that the sending organization knows the receiving organization has seen and is evaluating the referral.

Users should click In Review at the bottom of the referral drawer. Users will then immediately see “Accept” and “Reject” options.

Now users can either accept or reject the participant.

In may be the case that a receiving program cannot accept a referral. They could be at capacity, or the participant may not meet eligibility criteria.

Users can reject a referral by clicking Reject and selecting a reason why. Reasons are standard and cannot be customized at this time.

Once a participant is rejected, the status is immediately updated in the sending program’s Outbound screens.

Rejection reasons cannot be edited at this time so users should exercise care when selecting reason why.

One of the most beautiful parts of Network Referrals is that when participants are accepted, their information is automatically moved to the receiving organization’s Tier 1.

After clicking Accept within the referral drawer, users are routed to a Tier 1 record page with referral information listed at the top of the page.

Because users have set up the General Participant configuration, Apricot will automatically populate referral information into the receiving organization’s unique Tier 1 form.

It may be the case that the Tier 1 required other fields that are not referral fields.

In this case, race, ethnicity, and primary language are required. Users should ensure all required information is filled out before saving the record.

Checking for Duplicates

Duplicate check for records created from network referrals is no different than any other type of record creation.

It is an Apricot best practice to always check for duplicates before completing a new Tier 1 record for a participant.

To keep with that best practice, we’ve built in search for duplicated into the accept referral workflow.

Click Search for Duplicated to launch search and use the referrals table as reference.

If users do find a duplicate, users should click on the existing record in search results. This will open the existing record with incoming referral fields populated and the referral table included for reference.

From here users can:

In this case, there are no Aprils in the system, so we can continue the process completing additional required fields.

When ready, click “Save Record & Accept Referral” or “Accept Referral”. Either of those two actions and only those two actions will change the referral status to accepted.

This is to ensure that if a user takes a break or walks away during Tier 1 record creation or update that the sending organization does see an erroneous “Accepted” status.

Once the record is accepted, the sending organization will see “Accepted” in their outbound tabs.

History is an important space. The space allows users to keep their Inbound and Outbound screens cleaner and more streamlined so actions can be taken quickly.

Inbound referrals that are accepted or rejected automatically moved to History. Outbound referrals need to be archived to move to History.

The History tab looks very similar to Inbound and Outbound, except History includes sections for both received and sent referrals. History is the one stop shop.

Tab into Received or Sent to see past referrals in each category.

Click into the eye icon to launch the referral drawer to review details.

Referrals in History cannot be edited.