May 2026

On May 1, with my husband’s help, I called to schedule an appointment with a specialist for a consultation. Although my primary care doctor had already submitted a referral, I had not received any call, text, or email from the specialist’s office for nearly two weeks. After informing my doctor about the situation, she gave me the specialist’s phone number and asked me to contact them directly. After waiting on hold for eight minutes, I finally reached someone and successfully scheduled the appointment.

This experience reminded me that a truly seamless referral process is still not easy to achieve. Communication among the primary care provider, the patient, and the specialist’s office was neither fast nor efficient, and it was unclear who was responsible for keeping the process moving. Without proactive follow-up from the patient, the referral might simply stall—at least that was my experience this time.

Thankfully, patient portal apps like MyChart made it possible to message my doctor and help coordinate the situation, although the process still felt far from real-time or seamless.

5月1日，在队友的协助下，打电话预约Specialist进行某项身体健康方面的检查与咨询。这是因为虽然家庭医生帮我做了Referral，但我在近两周时间内并没有接到来自Specialist的电话或短信或邮件，告知家庭医生这个情况后她就给了我对方电话让我自行联络。电话打过去，等了七八分钟，终于有人接听并预约成功。

看来真正实现丝滑的Referral流程并不容易，家庭医生、患者、转诊处这三者之间没有实现快速而有效的互通，也不知由谁负责这个互通。如果患者不积极主动咨询，这事就几乎没法推进，至少在我这次事件中是这样。所幸有Patient portal APP比如My Chart ，可以跟家庭医生互通消息，协调此事，但过程也并不一定丝滑与实时。