While there are many acute and chronic illnesses and conditions that we can handle in our office, children sometimes need the expertise of a specialist in a given area. We are fortunate to have many pediatric subspecialists and other excellent specialists in this area that we work with directly to coordinate the best possible care for your child. We do not hesitate at all to refer children to specialists when necessary. Indeed, after years of working in children's hospitals alongside specialists in every field of pediatric medicine, we feel quite comfortable working along with them in the care of children.

Generally, a referral will be determined to be necessary during a visit to our office. We will advise you which specialist we think would be best in a given situation; sometimes we may give you several options from which to choose. Sometimes your choice of specialist will be limited by your insurance plan. Sometimes we know which plans a specialist is on, but this changes rapidly and there are many specialists, so ultimately you have to make sure that a specialist is on your insurance plan. After you make your appointment, if you plan requires a referral, just call our office and we will submit the referral to your insurance plan (we cannot do this until you have made the appointment because the insurance plan has to know which specific doctor you are seeing at any given specialist practice).

After your visit with the specialist, we usually receive a written report with recommendations. We will work together with you to determine the best course of action and to coordinate the care of your child along with the specialist or specialists.

Created: 11/1/2004
Last modified: 3/12/2005