Refer a Patient

If you are unsure whether to refer your patient, please call our Clinical Intake Nurses at 206-987-2080, option 4. To locate or expedite a referral, call Clinical Intake Coordinators at 206-987-2080, option 2.

If you are referring a patient to Inpatient Rehabilitation, please call the inpatient rehabilitation intake line at 206-987-0163.

Appointment availability

Updated June 2023.

We are accepting new patients. Referrals from a treating provider are not required unless the patient is being seen for concussion or visiting our Neuromuscular clinic. However, we encourage all patients to get a referral so that we may schedule them with the right provider and communicate back to their referring provider. In most cases, our wait time is 2 weeks to 2 months. To reduce wait times and improve access, we review referrals daily and prioritize patients who need specialty care most urgently.

Access for subspecialty clinics:

• Surgical tone management (hospital campus only): 2 weeks
• Neuromuscular (hospital campus only): 2 weeks for initial intake appointment
• Traumatic brain injury: 2 weeks
• Arthrogryposis (hospital campus only): this a quarterly clinic, access is 3 to 4 months depending on time of referral

Referral requirements

If you are referring a patient to Inpatient Rehabilitation, please call the inpatient rehabilitation intake line at 206-987-0163.

If you are referring a patient to outpatient rehabilitation medicine services, please see below.

Please submit a referral that is complete. This helps us schedule your patient’s appointment in a timely manner and ensure their first visit is smooth and productive.     

Please include:

• Service/specialty clinic requested
• Reason for referral: what is the clinical question for the specialist?
• If the referral is urgent (see within 4 weeks) or routine (next available)
• ICD-10 diagnosis – required
• Visit type:
  • New patient consult, transfer of care, second opinion or return visit/ongoing care
• All relevant clinical documents
  • Clinic notes
  • Medication history
  • Growth charts/curves
  • Lab reports
  • Imaging and diagnostic reports (images can be uploaded to PowerShare)
  • Previous specialty evaluations
• Patient’s full name, DOB, sex, address, guardian contact information and insurance
• Referring provider’s name, phone, fax and the referral coordinator’s email address so that we may contact you if additional information is needed
• Preferred clinic location
• If an interpreter is needed
• Any known barriers to performing a successful telehealth (video) visit with the family
• Therapy notes (occupational, speech, physical therapy)

Please note:

• We see patients through age 20 except for concussion, which we see through age 17. Please refer patients age 21 and older to a provider for adults (age 18+ for concussion).
• Hypertonia/cerebral palsy: To learn if your patient with hypertonia may benefit from selective dorsal rhizotomy (SDR) surgery, please feel free to contact our Tone Management Program Manager, Erin Hooper, RN, BSN, at 206-987-5917 or via email at [email protected]. You may also view our hypertonia algorithm for helpful guidance and watch our before-and-after video on SDR surgery. Learn more about SDR at Seattle Children’s.
• Concussion: We see concussion patients only after they have been treated in primary care and have a referral from their provider. See “Resources for Providers” below to find an algorithm to help you know where to refer your patient with concussion (Rehab Medicine, Neurology or Sports Medicine) and concussion management information.
• Back pain: We do not see patients for back pain when it is their primary complaint. Please consider referring these patients to our Pain Medicine Clinic.
• Brachial plexus: Please refer these patients to our Brachial Plexus and Peripheral Nerve Program. A referral is required.
• Wedges: We no longer fabricate 15- and 30-degree positioning wedges (including for infants with reflux) or accept referrals for the fabrication of these devices.

Submit a referral

New Appointment Request Form (PDF) (DOC)

Step-by-step guide to submitting a referral

New Patient Referral FAQ

If imaging studies (CT, MRI, X-rays) have been done, please upload to PowerShare or mail a disc to:

Seattle Children’s Rehabilitation Medicine
MS OB.8.410
PO Box 5371
Seattle, WA 98145-5005

Pease call our Clinical Intake Nurses if you need assistance at 206-987-2080, option 4.

Provider-to-provider communication

• For urgent clinical questions, defined as a clinical question that requires immediate attention due to its potential impact on patient health or safety but is not life-threatening, call our Provider-to-Provider line at 206-987-7777 or 877-985-4637 (toll free) to speak to our on-call rehabilitation medicine provider.
• If you are directing or transporting a patient to the Emergency Department or Urgent Care, please call Mission Control at 206-987-8899 or 866-987-8899 (toll free).
• For non-urgent clinical questions, please consider submitting an eConsult . (Providers outside the state of Washington do not have access to eConsults and may call the Provider-to-Provider line and indicate they have a non-urgent clinical question for our on-call rehabilitation medicine provider.)
• For co-management questions related to an existing problem for a shared patient, please send an InBasket message via EpicCare Link.
• If you would like to have one of our Rehabilitation Medicine team members provide in-person or virtual education with your clinic, please contact our Physician Relations team to coordinate.

What Your Patients Can Expect

• Please ask families to call us to schedule their appointment once you have sent the referral.
• Initial appointments are in person, with rare exceptions, and last approximately 45 minutes. Patients will be seen by a provider and may have a medical student, resident or fellow participate in their care.
• Telemedicine visits are 30 minutes.

Resources for Providers

• Concussion
  • Algorithm: Referring Your Patient With Concussion (PDF)
  • Pediatric mTBI management (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)
  • Online training for healthcare providers (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)
  • HEADS UP (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)
  • Standardized Concussion Assessment tool- 5th edition (SCAT 5)
  • About concussion
  • Concussion in children and adolescents: Management (UpToDate)

• Hypertonia/Selective Dorsal Rhizotomy Surgery
  • Selective Dorsal Rhizotomy Surgery at Seattle Children’s (PDF)
  • Before and After Video: Effects of SDR Procedure on a Child's Mobility
  • Selective Dorsal Rhizotomy: Grand Rounds video with Dr. Samuel Browd (November 2022)
  • Tone Management Program at Seattle Children’s (PDF)

To suggest additional resources from Seattle Children’s that would be useful to primary care providers, please email us.