Results, Recalls and Referrals: From Task Creation to Confirmed Follow-up
Results, recalls and referrals go wrong in the gap between “sent” and “done”. This course gives reception, nurses and practice managers the defaults, the words and the checks that close that gap.
Already completed this training? Quick refresher
A quick reminder for experienced staff. Revisit only what you need.
- Distinguish a clinical recall from a routine reminder and a referral.
- Confirm the clinician, backup, next action and review deadline have been accepted.
- Sent, read or booked is a status; closure needs the outcome the clinician required.
Open the lessons and tools. Use current local procedures and sources.
This optional refresher does not record a new completion. Certificates require the full course and its assessments.
Who it is for
Receptionists, practice nurses and practice managers. Each lesson says who it is for. The principal GP sets the clinical defaults the course describes; your practice can change any of them.
What you’ll practise
- Telling a recall from a reminder and a referral, and checking a campaign before it goes out.
- Handing a task to a covering GP so it is actually owned, and the checklist for the week a doctor leaves.
- Relaying the GP’s recorded comment word for word, the patient who saw the result first, and the contact-attempt default.
- What an automatic “sent”, “read” or “booked” status does and does not prove.
- Recovering a lost referral (the document and the care), and what to check after an outage.
- A weekly check that finds follow-up which looks finished but isn’t.
How this differs from receptionist foundations
Receptionist foundations introduces safe front-desk habits for referrals, results and recalls. This focused course practises how the whole team assigns ownership, arranges cover and checks that follow-up is finished, including when messages or referrals go wrong.
Choose it for a relevant reception, nursing or management learning need. The foundation course is not a purchase prerequisite, and overlapping courses do not need to be assigned automatically.
How it works
Seven short lessons: six with a practice question each, then a final Friday-afternoon activity (four required tasks, four optional), followed by two quizzes. Allow about 35 minutes, including the assessments. Pass the knowledge quiz with at least 80% and the safety quiz with 100%; you can read the feedback and retry. The optional tools are for later reference.
The people and practice in this course are made up. The course is professional development, not accredited CPD, and it supports your practice’s own procedures rather than replacing them.
Explore the lessons
- Is it a recall, reminder or referral?
- Who will follow this up when the GP is away?
- Help the patient take the next step
- Automatic texts: what still needs checking?
- When a referral, message or appointment goes wrong
- Check whether follow-up is really finished
- Four tasks before the weekend
Sources
As at September 2026, accreditation uses the 5th edition of the RACGP Standards; no transition date for the 6th edition has been announced.
Keep a one-page desk guide
Open the printable desk guides (PDF), page 5. Print just that page for this course, and write your practice’s contact-attempt default and the covering GP’s name on it.