Using SystmOne Protocol automation to cut referral errors by over 80%, save time and reduce admin
How South Brent Health Centre automated referral pathways with SystmOne Templates and Protocols
“SystmOne gives us the power to automate so much of the referral process ourselves. We’ve built the checks, prompts, coding and routing directly into the workflow, and we can keep adapting it as requirements change. It’s incredibly powerful and flexible, and the results speak for themselves – fewer errors, less admin and more time for clinicians to focus on patient care.”
Holly Morcombe, Digital Lead, South Brent Health Centre
South Brent Health Centre has automated its referral pathways using SystmOne Templates and Protocols, replacing manual checks, form-finding and task routing with smarter, automated workflows.
Templates give clinicians a simple way to navigate the referral pathway, while Protocols power the automation behind them -checking information in the patient record, prompting when something is missing, generating documentation, applying coding and creating the right task for the right team.
They’re also straightforward to configure using standard SystmOne functionality, giving practices the ability to build and adapt Templates and Protocols themselves without additional software or external development.
For South Brent, that has delivered significant results: routine referral errors have fallen from 48% to 8%, urgent suspected cancer referral errors from 50% to 4%, and Two Week Wait referrals now take around a quarter of the previous time to complete.
At a glance
Over 80% fewer routine referral errors
Routine referrals needing correction fell from 48% to 8%, while urgent suspected cancer referral errors fell from 50% to just 4%.
Up to 75% less clinician time spent on referrals
Routine referrals now take around half the previous time, saving an estimated 40 minutes per month. Two Week Wait referrals take around a quarter of the time, saving approximately one hour per month just in generating forms and sending tasks.
Less admin, chasing and risk of delays
With checks and task routing built into the workflow, significantly fewer referrals need manual intervention, helping work reach the right team first time and freeing admin teams from unnecessary correction and chasing.
Better clinical performance and additional practice income
The proportion meeting the Lower GI qFIT requirement increased from 77% to 93.5% in just five months, taking South Brent above its 80% CAN02 IIF target and generating additional income for the practice.
Built in-house and scaled across 100+ pathways
South Brent has configured 91 urgent and routine pathways plus 12 suspected cancer referral types, all managed in-house and adaptable as requirements change.
Turning a manual referral process into a smarter SystmOne workflow
Making a referral at South Brent relied on clinicians navigating referral criteria, finding the correct proforma and making sure the resulting task reached the right team.
Referrals could be missed, left unassigned or sent to the wrong group, creating extra work and the potential for delays in patient care. Clinicians also had to navigate services the practice wasn’t commissioned to refer into, making it harder to identify the right pathway.
South Brent wanted to take those manual checks and decisions out of the process.
Putting SystmOne Templates and Protocols to work
Working together, Digital Lead Holly Morcombe and the practice secretary developed a suite of referral Templates powered by SystmOne Protocols, using standard functionality already available within SystmOne.
When a clinician selects a referral pathway, the Protocol can automatically:
- Check referral criteria and required clinical information, such as recent blood results
- Generate the appropriate referral documentation
- Apply coding
- Create the correct task and route it to the right team
Together, Templates and Protocols go beyond digitising the referral form. They create an automated workflow that combines clinical validation, referral generation, coding and task routing – building quality assurance into the process and helping prevent errors before they happen.
The Template guides clinicians to the correct pathway and proforma, while the Protocol builds the checks and actions into the workflow, helping ensure requirements are applied consistently.
And South Brent can configure those workflows around its own requirements. For example, when missing GP GMC numbers were causing errors in non-obstetric ultrasound referrals, Holly added a Protocol prompt at the point of referral – turning a recurring problem into a check built directly into the workflow.
That flexibility has allowed the practice to scale the approach. South Brent’s main referrals Template now provides access to 91 urgent and routine pathways, alongside blank letter templates, invoices and resources such as the Devon referral formulary. A dedicated Two Week Wait Template covers 12 suspected cancer referral types, including a choice of destination where patients can be referred to either of two trusts.
Protocols are also supporting more consistent data capture. 49 district nurse referrals were coded during the whole of 2023; by June 2026, 87 had already been coded, with coding incorporated more consistently into the workflow.
The approach continues to evolve. Holly is extending it to Right to Choose, bringing provider options together and guiding clinicians through differing information requirements. And because the Templates and Protocols are maintained in-house, South Brent can update its workflows as referral criteria, proformas and local services change.
Fewer errors, faster referrals and better outcomes
By building checks, prompts and task routing directly into the referral workflow, South Brent has reduced errors and manual intervention while making referrals faster and easier to complete. The impact can be seen across referral quality, staff time and clinical performance.
Over 80% fewer routine referral errors
Routine referral errors fell from 48% to 8%, even as referral volumes more than doubled from 31 to 65. For urgent suspected cancer referrals, errors fell even further, from 50% to just 4%.
Less correction and chasing for admin teams
South Brent’s experienced secretary previously caught and corrected many errors before referrals reached e-RS. With checks and task routing now built into the workflow, significantly fewer referrals need manual intervention, reducing correction and chasing and helping referrals reach the right team first time.
Referral time cut by up to 75%
Routine referrals now take around half the previous time to generate, saving an estimated 40 minutes of clinician time per month. Two Week Wait referrals take around a quarter of the previous time, saving approximately one hour per month just in generating forms and sending tasks.
“The templates are great – very quick and easy to do. So much better and more efficient.”
Dr Sarah Galloway, GP Partner, South Brent Health Centre
Better clinical compliance – and additional practice income
The Lower GI Two Week Wait Protocol checks for a recent qFIT before generating the referral, prompting the clinician to record an appropriate exception where needed.
Following the changes, the proportion meeting the qFIT requirement rose from 77% (47 of 61 patients) to 93.5% (29 of 31) in just five months, taking South Brent above its 80% target.
Meeting the CAN02 indicator generated additional income for the practice, while completing qFIT before referral helps prioritise colonoscopies for the patients who need them most.
Greater confidence for clinicians
With the correct pathway, proforma, checks and next steps brought together in one workflow, clinicians have greater confidence that referrals are complete and correctly routed. Feedback has been overwhelmingly positive.
While South Brent has configured the solution around its own services, the same SystmOne functionality can be applied more widely – giving practices the tools to build quality assurance, automation and consistency into their own workflows, and the flexibility to adapt them as their needs change.