The General Pediatric Consultation Clinic assists primary care providers who would like a second opinion from an academic general pediatrician for a child with perplexing signs and symptoms. This is ideal for a patient who has symptoms that are not referable to a single subspecialty clinic. Due to high demand, we are not able to see patients whose conditions clearly fit within the expertise of one of our subspecialists or to give a second opinion regarding a subspeciality issue (e.g. seizures, ADHD, rashes). 

In order to support the medical home model, we request that all referrals be made by the primary care provider. All referrals are reviewed by our Consultation Clinic physician coordinator to confirm that we have all of the information needed for evaluation and to verify that the patient will be best served by our clinic. The Consult Physician may occasionally recommend changing the referrral to a subspeciality clinic (such as Gastroenterology for constipation). 

To make a referral, please complete the referral form and fax all pertinent medical records, including the office visit from the week in which the referral is made. We request that referrals from nurse practitioners and physician assistants be evaluated for the referring problem by their supervising physician in a separate appointment prior to referral. 

Appointments

Consult clinic appointments are generally available every morning at 9am. Morning appointments allow us time to obtain laboratory results and order additional testing if needed. After the appointment, our doctors will call the referring provider to discuss our findings and plan. A followup letter including the clinic note and available test results will be sent within a week. The primary care provider will then assume primary management of the problem.

For patients who need more urgent assessment, please contact the Consult Pediatrician via the PAL Center, Pediatric Access Line (615) 936-2467. Your message will be returned within 60 minutes. For patients with emergent issues, please send directly to the Emergency Room. Call (615) 936-4444 if referring to the Children's Hospital's ED.