The OrthoTrac Wilting Referral Report, Explained
The Wilting Referrals report in OrthoTrac lists the outside doctors whose referrals to your practice have declined, for the month and year you pick, with the 11 months before it shown next to each one. You run it from the Referrals window in OrthoTrac, set how big a decline counts, and get a list of dentists worth a friendly visit or call.
Use it to decide who to visit, not to grade anyone.
What does "wilting" mean in OrthoTrac?
Carestream's help docs describe it plainly: the report "shows the decline in patient referrals from outside doctors." It sits in Referral Tracking next to two other reports:
| Report | What it answers |
|---|---|
| Referrals (In) | Who are our largest referral sources, and what production came from each? |
| Referrals (Out) | Which patients did we refer out, and to whom, for a date range? |
| Wilting Referral | Which outside doctors are sending fewer patients than before? |
Referrals (In) tells you who matters most. Wilting tells you who has slowed down. Together they give you a short list of offices to see first.
How do you run the Wilting Referrals report?
According to Carestream's OrthoTrac help page, the steps are:
- From the main menu, click Referrals, then select Wilting.
- Under Referral Source, leave Outside Doctors to include every doctor type, or click Select Doctor Type and pick one from the list (pediatric dentists only, for example).
- Under Wilting Referrals, type a number from 1 to 100 in Declines Greater Than. Type 0 to see every referral source for the month instead of just the declines.
- Under Report Dates, choose the month and year.
- Click OK. The results open in the Detail Referral List for Outside Doctors window.
To see the actual referrals from one doctor, select that row and click Print.
If your screen looks different, check the help page for your version.
Which settings should you choose?
Doctor type. Start with all outside doctors, and narrow it later if you manage general and pediatric dentists separately.
Declines Greater Than. This is the one that shapes the list. Set it high, like 50, and you see only the steep drops. Set it low, like 10, and you'll see more names, some of them normal month to month wobble. Carestream's page doesn't spell out which numbers the percentage compares, so check two or three rows by hand against the monthly history before you lean on it.
Run it at 0 once. With 0, you get every source for that month and a "Monthly Totals" row, a good baseline before you filter.
Mind the totals. The help page notes that totals reflect 12 months of referrals, and that filtering to one location or one doctor may not match the combined totals if a patient's location or doctor was changed. If numbers look off, check that first.
How should you read the results?
Look at the whole year, not just the last month. A dentist who sent 3 patients most months and then none in August is a different story from one who sent a single patient last spring.
For each name, ask:
- Did something change at their office, like a retirement, a new associate or front desk turnover?
- Is this a seasonal dip that shows up every year around the same time?
- When did anyone from your office last visit or say thanks?
- Could the referrals still be coming in but landing under "Dentist" or a misspelled name?
A referral recorded without the doctor's name makes the dentist who sent it look slower than they are. For the conversation itself, our post on why a dentist stops referring has a warm check in plan.
Here's a fictional example. Dr. Rivera (not a real person) usually sends 2 or 3 patients a month and shows zero for two months in a row. Your rep calls the office manager and learns their longtime hygienist retired, and the new one doesn't know your practice yet. A lunch for the hygiene team is the natural next step.
What does the Wilting report miss?
- Unattributed referrals. If a referral was never tied to a specific doctor, it can't show up under one.
- Growth. Filtered for declines, it hides dentists who are sending more than usual. Run it at 0, which lists every source with its 11 prior months, or compare two Referrals (In) runs for different date ranges.
- Offices new to you. A dentist who has never referred, or one who just joined an office down the street, isn't in your referral history at all. Finding them takes a separate step, like the methods in our guide to finding new dental offices near you.
What's a simple monthly routine?
- Early in the month: run Wilting for last month at your usual threshold, and once at 0 for a baseline.
- Clean up: fix "Dentist" or misspelled entries, then rerun.
- Sort the list: steady senders who dipped get a visit this month; one time referrers get a lighter touch.
- Log what you learn at each office so next month's run has context.
- Thank the risers: in the run at 0, look for doctors sending more than their usual pace and thank them.
Risers, decliners and new offices can live on one screen
If you'd rather see risers, decliners and new offices together without rebuilding this monthly, Occlu does the setup from your existing exports. Email us to become a founding practice.
Or email us at info@getocclu.com