Preferred Referral Process for Veterinarians

Taking a pet to an emergency clinic is a high-stress event for pet owners just because of their worries about the health and wellbeing of their animals.

Unfortunately, that stress is compounded by the pet owners' worries about being referred by their regular veterinarians to an emergency clinic: Will the emergency clinic...

• know my pet's medical background?
• be able to provide the necessary care?
• charge exorbitant fees for its services?
• make me endure a lengthy wait before beginning medical care?
• really care about my pet?

At the Animal Emergency Center of West Houston, we take the added stress out of emergency-clinic referrals, starting with a seamless, simple transfer process that reassures pet owners they're getting the very best care for their animals when you refer them to us for emergency care. That seamless transfer of a patient from your practice to our emergency clinic begins with open communication between you and our doctors:

Step 1–Call us. A veterinarian-to-veterinarian phone call works best for conveying complete information about a patient, and it comforts your client and builds trust at the same time.

Our doctors are available by 5:45 p.m. on weeknights for phone consultations about patients you are planning to refer or for those you advise to come to the clinic "if things get worse." (The emergency clinic opens at 6 p.m. To ensure the best patient care possible and to avoid creating liabilities for our hospital, please do not refer critical or unstable patients before the doctor arrives.)

The initial phone consultation before the patient arrives at the emergency clinic allows you and our doctors to...

• clarify vital information about your patient,
• review discussions you have had with your client about diagnosis and prognosis, and
• generate a preliminary treatment-cost estimate to help you prepare your clients for the costs of emergency and critical-care medicine before they arrive.

Step 2–Clarify and verify information. Following our initial phone consultation, we will fax a patient-referral form to you or you may print and fax the form in Word Format or Adobe Acrobat Format. By completing and faxing back this important form and any pertinent patient records, you will be able to clarify and verify vital information that will ensure the very best care for your patient, cut your client's wait time by more than 50 percent, and prevent needless and dangerous duplication of treatments.