For Healthy Kidz, the question wasn't whether they needed help with referrals. Their concern was whether they could hand that work to an outside team without changing the level of care their families received.
Before Elera, referral coordination took a significant amount of staff time. There were calls to specialist offices, follow-ups with families and constant tracking to figure out where each referral stood.
“Before Elera, referral coordination took up a significant amount of staff time in administrative follow-ups, phone calls, and tracking status updates. In pediatrics, timing is everything. Parents naturally want fast reassurance and quick specialist appointments for their children, so managing those expectations internally created a lot of extra stress for our team.”
The concern was handing it over
Healthy Kidz knew handing off referral coordination could take work off their staff. They just didn't want that to come at the expense of responsiveness or communication with parents.
“Our main hesitation at the beginning was handing over such a critical process to an outside team. Because working with pediatric patients requires quick turnarounds and careful communication with concerned parents, we wanted to be sure the care quality and responsiveness wouldn't slip.”
A referral isn't finished when the order is placed. Someone still has to find a specialist who takes the patient's insurance, is accepting new patients and has an appointment available.
Since April, Elera has coordinated 527 referrals across 23 specialties. ~60% of those referrals could not be placed with the first specialist office called. The office might not accept the patient's insurance, be taking new patients, see the right age group or have an appointment available.
Instead of sending a family a specialist's name and leaving them to figure it out, Elera keeps working the referral until we find an office that can see the patient and get the appointment scheduled.
Getting families to respond
Finding the right specialist is only half the job. The family still needs to respond and get the appointment scheduled. With Healthy Kidz, 95% of patients engage with Elera, and this includes communication with families across 7 languages. Elera's team keeps reaching out and works around a parent's schedule instead of relying on them to find time during the workday.
That makes a difference for the practice, too. Staff no longer have to spend hours checking on referrals or calling families to find out whether an appointment was made.
“After 5 months of working together, we can truly say Elera's work has been exceptional. It has taken a huge weight off our staff's shoulders. Their team stays on top of every single referral until the appointment is fully scheduled, allowing us to focus more on in-clinic patient care without spending hours following up on pending specialist visits.”
The result
The concern that responsiveness would slip turned out to be the opposite. Parents are getting answers and scheduled appointments faster, while the Healthy Kidz team has more time to focus on the patients in front of them.
“Parents get answers and scheduled specialist appointments much faster now, which gives them peace of mind during stressful moments. Knowing their child's follow-up care is actively being taken care of removes a ton of anxiety for them.”
For Healthy Kidz, handing off referral coordination didn't mean giving up control of the patient experience. It meant having a dedicated team handle the work that was taking time away from their staff, while making sure families continued to get the follow-up they needed.
Charlotte, NC · Pediatrics · With Elera since April 2026
