Neurosciences Center

Refer a Patient

For our most current wait times by specialty and location, see our Access Dashboard.

View Seattle Children’s Access Dashboard

US News & World Report Best Children's Hospitals for neurology and neurosurgery graphicIf you are unsure about whether to refer your patient, please call our clinical intake nurses at 206-987-2080, option 4. If you are a provider needing assistance with care coordination or patient/cultural navigation for an epilepsy patient, please call 206-987-7474 or email epilepsycarecoordinator@seattlechildrens.org to reach our Epilepsy Care Coordinators.

Patients need a referral in order to schedule an appointment.

Appointment availability

Updated July 2023.

We are accepting new referrals.

Referral requirements

We ask that providers submit a referral that is complete. A complete referral helps us schedule an appointment for your patient in a timely manner and match them with the right specialist and clinic location. It ensures a productive and smooth first appointment for your patient. It also helps us assess the needs of our community and plan to have the capacity to meet those needs. 

Please include:

  • Referring provider’s name, phone, fax and the referral coordinator’s email address so that we may contact you if additional information is needed
  • Complete demographic information for the patient, found in the top portion of our New Appointment Request Form (NARF)
  • Patient’s clinical records related to the reason for your referral
  • Growth charts/curves that are pertinent to the referral
  • Pertinent laboratory testing reports
  • Previous specialty evaluations for second opinions or transfers of specialty care; include neurologist’s name and location
  • If you have imaging studies (EEG, CT, MRI, X-rays), please upload them to PowerShare. For EEGs, please include both the images and the report. Other options are to have your patient hand-carry a disc to the clinic or mail a disc to:

Seattle Children’s Neurosciences Center
MS OA.9.220
PO Box 5371
Seattle, WA 98105

  • For transfers of care, send all previous neurology records, diagnostic studies and pertinent notes.
  • For headaches and tics: Please provide notes about your prior treatment plan, brain imaging report if performed and the reason for referring your patient to specialty care. We may not schedule an appointment without this information due to capacity constraints and the need to prioritize access for the most acute needs. To learn about managing headache and tic in primary care, please see “Resources for Providers” below.
  • For macrocephaly and babies under 1 year old being referred for neurosurgery: Send head circumference and head growth charts.
  • For first seizure patients, no call to the Provider-to-Provider Line is necessary. Please follow the usual referral process. Include the date and description of the seizure activity and ED/urgent care reports if applicable. Read First Seizure: Understanding Next Steps for Patients and Families.
  • For developmental delay, include complete developmental assessments, including parent questionnaires, and any developmental testing reports, for example, therapy evaluations and individualized education plan (IEP), if completed.
  • For concussion: If your patient has only ongoing headaches following concussion, they are appropriate for neurology evaluation. Patients having more symptoms than headaches may be more appropriate for our Sports Concussion Program in Orthopedics or Traumatic Brain Injury Clinic in Rehabilitation Medicine. Call our Provider-to-Provider Line at 206-987-7777 if you need assistance.

We see patients from birth through age 17 for a broad range of neurological conditions, including:

  • Cerebral palsy
  • Developmental delay
  • Epilepsy
  • Headache
  • Mitochondrial and other neurometabolic disorders
  • Movement disorders
  • Seizures
  • Stroke

We see patients from birth through age 21 for surgical treatment of:

  • Brain and spinal cord tumors
  • Congenital/developmental anomalies of the brain and spinal cord
  • Epilepsy
  • Hydrocephalus
  • Spine disorders
  • Trauma
  • Vascular diseases of the brain and spinal cord

We also provide fetal neurology consults.

Please note:

  • Patients who have not been seen by our department in the last three years will need a new referral.
  • If you are referring your patient for headache or tic, please review the “Resources for Providers” section below if you are in doubt about whether to refer. Many patients with headache or tic can be successfully managed in primary care.

Submit a referral

New Appointment Request Form (PDF) (DOC)

Step-by-step guide to submitting a referral

New Patient Referral FAQ

Pease call our clinical intake nurses if you need assistance: 206-987-2080, option 1.

We’re committed to partnering with you

If we evaluate your patient and determine they do not have a condition that requires ongoing evaluation and management in a specialty setting, we will return them to primary care with an appropriate plan of care.

We are creating tools to support referring providers in caring for patients who have conditions like headache and tic that can frequently be managed in primary care.  See “Resources for Providers” below.

We are always available to answer questions and support your care of your patients.

  • Diagnosis and treatment options: call 206-987-7777 (Provider-to-Provider Line)
  • Epilepsy care coordination or patient/cultural navigation: call 206-987-7474 (Epilepsy Care Coordinators)
  • Referring or transporting a patient to our Emergency Department or Urgent Care: call 206-987-8899 or toll free 866-987-8899 (ED Communications Center)
  • Questions about scheduling and referrals, including locating or expediting a referral: call 206-987-2080 (clinical intake nurses)

Learn more about managing your patients at Seattle Children's, including viewing your patient’s records.

Meet the Neurosciences team.

We provide services at the main hospital in Seattle, as well as our clinics in Bellevue, Everett, Federal Way, Olympia, Tri-Cities and Wenatchee. See our locations.  

What Your Patients Can Expect

  • Once we receive your referral, your patient can call us to schedule an appointment. If the patient’s condition is urgent, we will call them directly to schedule. We review openings and the patient referral queue daily.
    • Patients under 12 months of age referred for hypotonia will be scheduled in our Neurology Clinic on a next-available basis. If there are additional concerns about progressive weakness, lack of reflexes, or elevated muscle enzymes (creatine kinase), then they will be seen as soon as possible in our Neuromuscular Clinic.
    • Patients referred for first seizure are typically seen within 10 days.
    • Patients referred for nonurgent headache and tic will have longer waits, currently up to three months. Please see “Resources for Providers” below for guidance on managing these conditions.
  • Families may ask to be added to a cancellation list
  • Resources and research for families

    Even if we do not have openings right away, there are many resources through Seattle Children’s and in the community that can help. This includes headache and tic resources to assist patients with these conditions who have longer waits if their condition is nonurgent. 

    See Seattle Children's online resources for Neurosciences Center patients and families.

Resources for Providers

To suggest additional resources from Seattle Children’s that would be useful to primary care providers, please email physician.relations@seattlechildrens.org.

Concussion

Headache

Tic

Epilepsy and seizures

Providers, to learn more about our innovative epilepsy treatments and surgery, see the resources below.

If you need assistance with care coordination or patient/cultural navigation for an epilepsy patient, please call 206-987-7474 or email epilepsycarecoordinator@seattlechildrens.org to reach our Epilepsy Care Coordinators.