How to set up knowledge base for sleep study specialist r…

Gather the materials your team uses to decide which sleep study referrals go to a specialist versus a general practitioner. Include documents that cover:

• Referral criteria (e.g., when to flag complex apnea, narcolepsy, pediatric cases)
• Required prior tests or documentation (home sleep study results, PSG reports)
• Insurance pre-authorization steps and accepted plans
• A list of common patient questions your front desk answers by phone

Also plan the information you'll collect from referring providers and patients. Typical fields for lead capture: patient name, phone, email, referring physician, reason for referral, urgency, and whether prior studies exist.

If you're new to Chatref in a healthcare context, review the Sleep Clinics overview for the bigger picture.

1. Create a new agent
   In your Chatref workspace, create a new agent and name it something descriptive, like "Sleep Study Referral Triage". This agent will answer referral questions and capture new referrals.

2. Upload your knowledge source
   Add the documents you gathered - PDFs of your referral decision tree, intake checklists, and insurance guidance. You can also point Chatref at a public URL if your clinic website has a referral page. The agent will now ground its answers exclusively in that material.

3. Build the lead capture flow
   Under the agent's lead capture settings, add fields that match your triage needs:

   • Patient name, phone, email (required)
   • Referring provider and practice (required)
   • Reason for referral (choose from a list: suspected OSA, complex apnea, narcolepsy, pediatric sleep, other)
   • Prior sleep study? Yes/No, with a text field for details
   • Urgency (routine, semi-urgent, urgent)
   • Insurance carrier and plan ID (optional)

   Arrange the fields so the patient or referring office feels guided, not interrogated. A short welcome message at the start of the chat can explain what will be collected and why.

4. Install the widget
   Copy the widget snippet from your agent's settings and place it on your clinic's referral page, or share the direct chat link with referring offices via email. Only a single snippet is needed; Chatref handles the rest.

5. Review and fine-tune
   In the playground, ask the agent questions a real caller might pose: "Do you take Medicaid for sleep studies?" or "I have a patient with RLS and insomnia - should I refer?" Check that answers match your uploaded criteria and that the lead capture form appears when appropriate.

Before you go live, run through a few realistic scenarios:

• Straightforward specialist referral - Pose a clear-cut case from your criteria. The agent should reply with the right triage decision and prompt for lead capture details.
• Edge case - Ask about a condition not explicitly covered (e.g., "sleep eating disorder"). The agent should honestly say it cannot determine triage, and either escalate to a human or ask for more info.
• Lead capture validation - Submit a referral with missing required fields. The form should prompt completion before submission.

Use the conversation inbox to review the referrals that come in. Verify that the collected data is structured the way your front desk expects, and that any custom urgency tags are consistent.

Agent returns a vague or incorrect triage answer
Add the missing information to your knowledge base. If the document is too dense, break it into a short, clear FAQ and re-upload. Retest with the same query.

Lead capture isn't triggering
Confirm that the widget snippet is installed on the correct page and that your agent's lead capture feature is enabled. Also check that the flow is set to appear for new conversations (not just after a certain number of messages).

Collecting too many unqualified referrals
Tighten your lead capture fields: make "prior sleep study" and "urgency" mandatory, and add a qualifying initial question such as "Have you had an in-lab PSG?" that filters out inappropriate cases before the full form.

Agent answers outside your specialty
Ensure no generic documents or URLs are part of the knowledge source. If an answer references conditions you do not handle, remove the source and re-index.

What causes sleep study specialist referral triage problems for sleep clinics?

Phone-based triage creates inconsistent decisions because different staff apply criteria differently, calls go to voicemail after hours, and routine information-gathering eats up front-desk time. Referrals that arrive with incomplete records or without urgency markers often sit for days before someone can call back to clarify.

How do I improve sleep study specialist referral triage for sleep clinics?

Put your referral criteria and intake questions into a knowledge base that answers referring offices instantly, any time of day. Standardize the information you collect at the point of submission - name, reason, prior studies, urgency - so your team sees a complete picture immediately and can prioritize cases without back-and-forth phone tag.