New: send referrals and clinical documents to providers who are not ReferralNet users.
Most practices and hospitals using secure messaging in Australia have a version of the same problem. The provider you need to send to has no secure messaging account, so the document falls back to fax, post or unencrypted email. Each of those routes costs your team time. None of them gives you a reliable record that the right clinician received the right information.
It happens in both directions. A referral out to an allied health provider who is not registered anywhere. A result or discharge summary back to a requesting GP at a practice that is not on your network. Correspondence to a service that still lists a fax number and nothing else.
With the new feature, the document goes to the provider’s email address, alongside the existing routes of delivery to a ReferralNet account or to fax. Nothing needs to be installed at the other end.
The document is not sent as an email attachment
This is the part that matters clinically. The provider receives a short, branded email containing a secure single-use link, an expiry date and support contact details. No patient information and no attachment travels in the email itself.
To collect the document, the provider verifies their identity and downloads it as a PDF. Once the document has been collected, the link is closed and the stored copy is deleted.
Addressing works the way it already does
There is no new workflow and no separate application to open. The address book shows providers from the national provider directory alongside your existing ReferralNet contacts, or you can enter an email address manually. ReferralNet then determines the delivery route:
- Registered ReferralNet users receive the document in their ReferralNet inbox
- Providers without a ReferralNet account receive it through the secure email channel
- You address the message the way you always have and ReferralNet handles the routing.
Safeguards apply to every send
None of these require configuration. It is set by default:
- No sensitive information is included in the notification email
- The link can only be used once and is intended for the addressed recipient
- Unopened links expire after 14 days, and the document is automatically deleted
- Documents are encrypted while stored, and removed once collected or expired
- Repeated failed identity checks lock the link
- Every send, access and expiry event is recorded against the original message.
That last point is what gives your practice an auditable record of clinical correspondence, which fax has never been able to provide.
Delivery visibility in one dashboard
A single dashboard shows the delivery status of every send, including:
- Sent
- Delivered and opened
- Not collected before expiry
- Rejected because the destination address did not accept the message.
If a referral is not collected before the link expires, Resend issues a fresh secure link in one step. There is no need to rebuild the referral or return to the clinical system to start again.
What it changes day to day
In practical terms, that means three things for your team:
- Fewer faxes to send, chase and re-send
- A clear delivery record in place of a traditional transmission report
- Providers you could previously only reach by fax or post are reachable from inside your existing workflow
For teams sending results and correspondence back to referrers, it also removes a recurring source of friction. The requesting GP or practice does not need to be on your network for the document to arrive securely and be traceable.
Practices can now reach allied health providers, specialists and other services that were previously fax-only or otherwise unreachable, whether or not those providers are listed in the national directory, without leaving their clinical system.
Every provider who collects a referral through the secure email channel sees how straightforward secure messaging can be. Over time, that is how a referral network grows from a handful of connected practices into a genuinely interoperable one.
Getting started
Secure email delivery is available to ReferralNet users now. If you would like to understand how it fits your workflow or you have questions about your current plan, contact our team or reach out to our support team.