Sending a referral by fax
Fax the referral to 905 625 5650. The fax line is monitored during clinic hours and referrals are logged on the day they arrive. You may use the DermCare referral form or your own referral letter or EMR referral template. What matters is that the information listed below is present and legible.
An Ocean eReferral listing is being confirmed and will be published here once live. Until then, fax is the only referral channel. Referrals are not accepted by email, and the contact form is not a referral pathway.
Complete the referral
Use the checklist below. A referral that arrives complete is triaged the same day it is reviewed and booked without a call back to your office.
Fax to 905 625 5650
One patient per fax. Include any images and recent relevant results as additional pages behind the referral.
Receipt is acknowledged
Our referral desk confirms receipt back to your fax number within a stated number of business days. If you have not received an acknowledgement, call 905 625 5600 before resending.
The referral is triaged by a dermatologist
Every referral is read by one of our dermatologists and assigned a priority. Suspected melanoma and rapidly changing pigmented lesions are booked ahead of routine cases. See urgent triage.
The patient is booked directly
We call the patient to arrange the appointment. Please tell patients to expect a call from a 905 number and to contact us if their phone number changes.
You receive a consultation report
A written report is returned to your office after the visit, and to the primary care provider where that is a different physician. See consultation reports.
Checklist: what to include
The following items are needed for every referral. Missing items are the single most common cause of delay.
Patient
- Full legal name as it appears on the health card, and date of birth
- Ontario health card number and version code
- Two working telephone numbers, and an email address if the patient has one
- Mailing address
- Preferred language, and whether an interpreter will be needed
Clinical
- Reason for referral, stated as a question where possible
- Presenting complaint and its duration
- Site, size and any change in a lesion, and an image where available
- Treatments already tried, including over the counter products, with duration and response
- Relevant history: prior skin cancer, immunosuppression, pregnancy or breastfeeding, significant comorbidities
- Current medication list and known drug allergies
- Relevant results: pathology reports, recent blood work, prior dermatology or biopsy records
- Urgency flag, and the reason for it
Referring provider
- Name, CPSO or CNO number and OHIP billing number
- Fax number and telephone number for the sending office
- The patient's primary care provider, if different from the referrer, with a fax number so the report can be copied
Common reasons a referral is returned
A referral that cannot be triaged or booked is returned to the sending office by fax with the reason marked. Resending with the missing information restarts the process at receipt, so it is worth checking these points before the first send.
| Reason | How to avoid it |
|---|---|
| No health card number or version code | Copy both from the card, not from memory. An expired version code is corrected by the patient, not the clinic. |
| No working telephone number for the patient | We book directly with the patient. Two numbers reduces the chance of an unreachable patient being returned. |
| No reason for referral | "Rash" or "skin check" alone cannot be triaged. State what you have observed and what you would like assessed. |
| Illegible fax | Typed referrals fax more reliably than handwritten ones. Check that the pages fed correctly and in order. |
| Cosmetic request without a medical indication | OHIP does not cover cosmetic assessment. If there is a medical question, state it. |
| Referral addressed to a named service we do not provide | Whether contact allergy patch testing and mole mapping are offered is being confirmed. Refer for the condition and we will advise. |
| Patient already has an open referral with us | Call the referral desk to update an existing referral rather than sending a new one. |
Images
An image attached to the referral is the most useful single addition you can make. It lets the triaging dermatologist see the lesion or rash directly, judge urgency and book the right length of appointment.
- Daylight or bright room light. Avoid flash where possible.
- One image from about 30 centimetres to show the lesion in context, and one close up.
- Include a ruler or a coin next to a lesion for scale.
- Label each image with the patient's name, the body site and the date.
- Dermoscopic images are welcome but not required. A phone image is enough.
Fax quality and images
Fax compresses images heavily. An image printed at full page size and faxed survives better than a small thumbnail embedded in a letter. Where an image is critical to the referral, note on the cover sheet that it is attached, so we can call for a clearer copy if the fax is unreadable.
Checking the status of a referral
Call 905 625 5600 and ask for the referral desk. Please have ready the patient's name and date of birth and the date the referral was faxed. We can tell you whether the referral has been received, its triage priority, and whether the patient has been booked or is still to be contacted.
If the patient's condition has changed since the referral was sent, tell us. A referral can be re-triaged at any time on new clinical information, and a routine referral can be upgraded by telephone without a new fax.
Please allow the stated acknowledgement period before calling about a referral sent in the last few days. Repeat faxes of the same referral create duplicates and slow the process for everyone.