Using Guided Consultations

The Guided Consultation page gives clinic staff one place to prepare for and run a referral consultation, capture the family's availability, plan the care team, and choose the referral's next step.

Open a guided consultation

1. Open Client Referrals.

2. Find the pending referral and select Start Consult.

3. Use the page during the call. If the referral includes siblings, switch between children using the child tabs; each child's intake readiness, care team, availability, and next step stay separate.

Work through the call

• Call guide: open each topic, use the suggested questions, and mark it covered.

• Care readiness: review missing documents and parent portal access before moving the referral forward.

• Care team: select the supervising BCBA and RBT. For sibling referrals, you can copy a staffed sibling's team and adjust it for the active child.

• Family availability: record days, exact time ranges, and service locations so schedulers have the details they need.

• Consultation notes: keep call notes with the consultation while you decide the next step.

Accept and schedule an assessment

1. Choose Schedule assessment as the next step.

2. Select the assessment date, start time, end time, clinician, and location. The end time is flexible, so you can schedule the duration the clinician needs, including 60, 90, or 120 minutes. Past start times cannot be selected.

3. Review the details in the confirmation dialog and accept the referral. The care-team selections and assessment details from the consultation are applied to the accepted client.

Request an RBT

If an RBT has not been identified, select I don't have an RBT yet in the Care Team section. Complete the acceptance step first. Once the client belongs to your organization, Alpaca opens the ATS requisition form for that accepted client. Submit the requisition, then return to scheduling. For sibling referrals, complete the linked requisition for each child who needs one.

View consultation notes after acceptance

After a referral is accepted, return to Referrals and select View consultation notes in that referral's Actions column. The notes open in a read-only dialog. For a sibling referral, the dialog shows a separate labeled section for each accepted child.

Take or replay the tour

The walkthrough opens automatically the first time each user visits Guided Consultation. Select Next and Back to move through it, or Skip tour to close it. Alpaca remembers that choice for your user account. To replay the walkthrough at any time, select the question-mark button in the top-right corner of the consultation header.

If something does not look right

• If a sibling's information appears missing, confirm that the correct child tab is selected.

• If the assessment cannot be scheduled, confirm that the start time is in the future and that an eligible BCBA and service location are selected.

• If the RBT requisition does not open, confirm that I don't have an RBT yet was selected for that child and that the referral was accepted successfully.

• If consultation notes cannot be loaded from an accepted referral, select Try again in the notes dialog.

• If you closed the walkthrough, use the question-mark button to start it again.