01
Referral-to-placement workflow
Every stage has an owner, a next action, and a definition of done, from referral source through placement or a recorded lost reason.
Admissions & referrals
Make the path from referral to placement easier to manage.
Lost referral opportunities, slow intake movement, and disconnected handoffs are workflow problems. Solvhaus maps how referrals move through your team today, then implements ownership rules, tracking, authorization visibility, and the pipeline view admissions leaders can run every week.
Referral management for behavioral health, stage by stage.
Solvhaus implements referral management for behavioral health programs and the admissions software workflow around it: intake ownership, speed-to-contact rules, VOB and authorization visibility, bed allocation, and a pipeline admissions directors can run every week. Every referral source gets a record, an owner, and a closed loop back to the partner who sent it.
01The operational problem
Most lost admits never get a reason. They just vanish.
Admissions directors know the feeling: a strong referral, a slow first call, a missing VOB, a partner who never heard back, a bed that was open yesterday. The work is real. The system around it is not, so opportunities leak between stages and nobody can see where.
- Referral partners send someone and never hear the outcome.
- Inquiries sit in a shared inbox until the right person is on shift.
- Eligibility and authorization live in a different tab from the person.
- Nights, weekends, and UR handoffs drop context.
- Pipeline meetings are anecdotal because the board is not trusted.
02The system
Five stages. Five places it breaks.
The workflow below is the one every treatment center runs, whether or not it is written down. The failure points are where manual versions lose referrals. Each stage needs an owner, a next action, and a record.
Five-stage admissions workflow: referral source, inquiry and intake, verification of benefits and clinical review, bed allocation, then CRM and EHR sync. Each stage lists where the manual version breaks.
- 01Referral sourcePartner, web inquiry, crisis line, or alumni, attributed at the first touch.Where it breaksSource recorded as “Google” or not at all. Partner never hears back.
- 02Inquiry / intakeOne owner, a next action, and a speed-to-contact standard.Where it breaksSits in a shared inbox until someone on shift notices.
- 03VOB / clinical reviewEligibility and clinical fit on the same record as the person.Where it breaksVOB in one tab, screening in another, decision in a text thread.
- 04Bed allocationOpen beds visible to admissions and BD, by program and house.Where it breaksCensus is yesterday’s email. A bed is promised twice.
- 05CRM / EHR syncAdmit, lost reason, and authorization status land where reporting reads them.Where it breaksDouble entry, or no entry. Leadership sees three versions of the week.
Every stage needs an owner, a definition of done, and a place the outcome is recorded. That is the system BedFlow and the surrounding architecture are built to hold.
03Run it yourself
Run the leak on your numbers.
Set your monthly inquiries and the share that advances at each stage today, then the version with owners and next actions. The difference is arithmetic on your inputs, not a claim.
Five stages from referral source to CRM and EHR sync. For each stage you set the share of records that advance, once for how it runs today and once for the version with owners and next actions. Bars show how many records enter each stage in each scenario, and the difference in placements per month at your volume.
Editing pass-through for
- Today
- With owners and next actions
- Leaked at this stage
- 01Referral source6060
- 02Inquiry / intake5155
- 03VOB / clinical review3645
- 04Bed allocation2738
- 05CRM / EHR sync2135
Placed today
19
32% of inquiries
Placed with owners
34
57% of inquiries
Difference / month
+15
At the numbers you entered
Leaking today
41
Records without a recorded outcome
| Stage | Today · enter | Today · leak | Target · enter | Target · leak |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Referral source | 60 | 9 | 60 | 5 |
| Inquiry / intake | 51 | 15 | 55 | 10 |
| VOB / clinical review | 36 | 9 | 45 | 7 |
| Bed allocation | 27 | 5 | 38 | 4 |
| CRM / EHR sync | 21 | 2 | 35 | 1 |
| Placed | 19 | 34 |
This model runs on the numbers you enter. Defaults are illustrative placeholders, not client results, and nothing here is a forecast or a promise.
04What we build
What an admissions system has to hold
02
Speed-to-contact and ownership rules
Routing, coverage, and escalation so the first human response is not a matter of luck.
03
Referral-source tracking and follow-through
Partners, channels, and campaigns attributed at the inquiry, and the loop closed back to the partner.
04
Eligibility and authorization visibility
VOB and auth status on the same record as the person, with dates the team can act on.
05
Bed allocation tied to census
Open beds visible to admissions and BD by program and house, so a bed is not promised twice.
06
Pipeline visibility and operating rhythm
A board admissions, UR, and leadership look at together, plus the weekly cadence to use it.
05Fit
Who sits in this work
- Admissions directors and coordinators
- COOs and executive directors
- Business-development leaders who live on referral conversion
- Multi-program operators who need one pipeline language
06Questions
Before you book a conversation.
07Continue
Related systems.
Behavioral health CRM
Where the admissions pipeline is configured and adopted.
Behavioral health operations software
The wider operating model this workflow sits in.
BedFlow
Referral queue, bed availability, and authorization tracking in one working system.
Behavioral health marketing systems guide
How referral sources and paid inquiries end up in the same pipeline.
Next step
If this is the pressure point, start here.
A systems conversation is a working discussion with someone who owns admissions, operations, or growth. Bring the messy version.