How to Use the Ortho2 Edge Referral Analysis Report Each Month
The Referral Analysis report in Ortho2 Edge is under Reporting, in the Patient section. It shows how many patients each referral source sent in a date range, plus primary referral counts for the last 6 months and last year. For a true month by month or year over year view by dentist, pair it with the Referral Report's Summary, Dual Date Range option, then export both so you can line the months up yourself.
Everything below comes from Ortho2's public Edge Cloud help pages. If a label looks different on your screen, trust your screen.
Where is the Referral Analysis report in Edge?
On the Home ribbon bar, open Reporting, then choose Referral Analysis Report under the Patient section. The settings that matter most:
- Start and End Dates. Any range, or the same date twice for a single day.
- Filter By. Entry Date (when the patient was entered into Edge), Start Date (the start of the current treatment phase), Exam Date (a kept appointment with the "exam" procedure type) or Referral Date (the date the patient was referred to you).
- Referral Type. Professional, Patient and Other. For dentist relationships, Professional is the one you want.
- Include Secondary Referrals. Off means only the primary referral source counts.
- Office, Orthodontist / Doctor, Specialty and Subgroup filters for multi office or multi doctor practices (Specialty appears only in Edge Specialist).
What does each column mean?
| Column | What it tells you |
|---|---|
| Referral Name | The referring dentist, patient or other source |
| # of Primary Referrals (and # of Referrals, if secondary is on) | Referrals in your date range |
| # of Patients Treated by Dentist | Referred patients that same dentist also treats (Professional sources only) |
| % of Patients Referred | The share of referred patients who are both referred by and treated by that dentist |
| # of Referrals in Last 6 Months / Last Year | Primary referrals counted back from the start date of your range |
That last pair is easy to misread. Ortho2 says these count primary referrals in the 6 months and the year before your range's start date. A dentist shows up even with zero referrals in your range, which makes quiet referrers easy to spot. Useful context, but not a monthly trend line.
The bottom of the report totals Professional, Patient and Other referrals, Total Patients Referred, Total Patients Not Referred and the Percent of Patients Not Referred. Total Patients Not Referred only means something when you filter by Entry, Start or Exam Date. Filtered by Referral Date, patients with no referral source are left out entirely.
How do I compare this year with last year for each dentist?
Use the Referral Report, also in the Patient section of the Reporting window. Its Summary, Dual Date Range type compares two sets of dates and shows the percentage of change between them. Ortho2's own example is comparing this year's referrals with a year ago.
A setup that works well for a monthly review:
- Run Summary, Dual Date Range with last month in the first range and the same month a year earlier in the second.
- Run it again with the trailing twelve months against the twelve before that. One bad month is noise. A twelve month slide is a pattern.
- Turn on Group By Practice if several dentists share an office. Edge groups by the practice listed in your Professionals editor and adds a practice level summary.
- Save each one as a Quick Report so next month is one click. Quick Report folders run several reports in order.
The Summary reports also show patients started, start percentage and treatment fees per source. Note that the Referral Report counts primary referrers only.
How do I see a real trend across months?
Edge gives you one or two date ranges per run. To see a dentist's last twelve months side by side, you need twelve monthly runs in one place. Export is available on every report from the General section of the ribbon: pick a format and a save folder.
Then build a grid: one row per referring dentist, one column per month, plus change versus the same period last year. Sort by that change and the story usually jumps out: a few offices climbing, a few slipping, and a few who sent steadily last year and nothing lately.
What should I do with what the report shows?
Treat the numbers as a to do list for relationships, not a scorecard.
- Increases get a thank you, ideally a short personal text from the doctor within a day or two. Our thank you texts for referring dentists post has wording you can borrow.
- Decreases get a friendly check in visit. The cause is often ordinary, like a staff change. Our guide on why a dentist stopped referring walks through a warm way to ask.
- Steady referrers stay on your normal visit rotation so they never feel taken for granted.
What data entry gaps skew the report?
Edge can only count what the front desk records. The common gaps:
- No referral source at all. These patients land in Total Patients Not Referred (only when you filter by Entry, Start or Exam Date).
- The wrong source type. A dentist saved as an Other referrer won't show up when you filter to Professional.
- Switching date filters. Referral Date one month and Entry Date the next makes the trend meaningless. Pick one and keep it.
Common questions
Does the Referral Analysis report count secondary referrers?
Only if you turn on Include Secondary Referrals. With it off, Edge uses the patient's primary referral source alone. The Referral Report always counts primary referrers only.
Which date should I filter by?
Edge offers Entry Date, Start Date, Exam Date and Referral Date. Pick one and keep it the same every month so your numbers stay comparable. Referral Date matches when the dentist actually sent the patient.
Occlu can build the monthly grid for you
If you'd rather not rebuild that grid every month, Occlu builds it from the exports you already run; become a founding practice and we'll handle the setup.
Or email us at info@getocclu.com