How to fax a doctor's referral in Canada

Get the referral package ready

Specialists triage referrals from what they receive, so an incomplete package often comes back or sits in a queue. Many offices publish a referral form or a checklist on their website, and some provinces have standard referral forms for certain services. Use the receiving office's form when one exists.

• The completed referral form, signed by the referring provider
• Patient name, date of birth, provincial health card number and contact details
• Reason for referral and urgency, written plainly
• Relevant recent results, such as lab reports or imaging reports
• Your clinic's name, billing number if the form asks for it, and a return fax number

Send the referral from your browser

fax-online.ca runs on FaxToFax.com, so you can send from any modern browser on a clinic computer, tablet or phone with nothing to install.

1. Scan the signed referral and attachments into a single PDF, or save the form from your EMR as a PDF.
2. Sign in with your email and the one-time code sent to you.
3. Start a new fax and attach the PDF. PNG and JPG files are also accepted.
4. Add a cover page with your clinic logo, the words Confidential: patient referral, the page count and a call-back number. Save it as a template for next time.
5. Enter the specialist's fax number and confirm it when prompted before sending.
6. Send, then watch the status change from In progress to Delivered.

Privacy considerations

Referrals contain personal health information, so the provincial health privacy law that applies to your practice, such as Ontario's PHIPA, and your college's guidance both matter. FaxToFax.com is built with safeguards for PHIPA and PIPEDA: encryption in transit and at rest, an append-only audit log of every view, download and send, and retention controls. Your clinic still sets its own policies on who can send and how long records are kept.