Refer a Patient
For our most current wait times by specialty and location, see our Access Dashboard.
How to Refer a Patient
If you are unsure about whether to refer your patient, please call our Clinical Intake Nurses at 206-987-2080, option 4.
Appointment availability
Updated November 2023.
We are accepting new referrals. A referral is required in order to make an appointment. Wait times for new patient visits are typically 2 to 3 months and shorter for more urgent conditions. Some patients can be seen by telemedicine.
Referral requirements
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.
Your patient may not be scheduled until we have received a referral that is complete.
Please include:
- 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
- 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
- For urinary tract infection (UTI), send urinalysis and urine culture reports demonstrating infections and any documentation of recurrent UTIs.
- For vesicoureteral reflux (VUR), send voiding cystourethrogram (VCUG) study images and report, if completed
- For kidney stones, send patient/family medical history, urinalysis and stone testing images and reports, if completed
- For testicular symptoms, send testicular ultrasound images and report to ensure no testicular torsion is present
- Any ultrasound and radiographic studies
Please note:
- Patients who have not been seen by our department in the last 3 years will need a new referral.
- We see new patients through age 17. If your patient is age 18 or older, please refer them to an adult provider.
- If you are referring a patient to our Spanish Urology Clinic in Seattle or Bellevue, please indicate so and include Dr. Nicolas Fernandez’s name on your referral.
- If you are referring your patient for any of the following conditions, please review the algorithms and other primary care provider (PCP) information provided in “Resources for Providers” below to know when to refer your patients to Urology and, when appropriate, how to manage their condition in primary care.
- Enuresis/incontinence (daytime and nighttime)
- Hydronephrosis
- Hypospadias
- Phimosis
- Undescended testes
- UTI
- Varicocele
- VUR
Submit a referral
New Appointment Request Form (PDF) (DOC)
Step-by-step guide to submitting a referral
Pease call our Clinical Intake Nurses if you need assistance: 206-987-2080, option 4.
We’re committed to partnering with you
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 urologist.
- 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 urologist.)
- 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 Urology team members provide in-person or virtual education with your clinic, please contact our Physician Relations team to coordinate.
Learn more about managing your patients at Seattle Children's, including viewing your patient’s records.
Meet the Urology team.
We see patients at the hospital and our clinics in Bellevue, Everett, Federal Way, Olympia and Tri-Cities. See our locations.
What Your Patients Can Expect
- Families may call us at 206-987-2509 to schedule an appointment once we have their referral.
- Families may ask to be added to our cancellation list.
- We review openings and the patient referral queue daily.
- As openings become available, we call families to schedule based on provider availability and the patient’s condition and acuity.
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Resources and research for families
- Books and Websites about Bladder and Bowel Health
- Incontinence
- Daytime Wetting(PDF) (Spanish)
- Bedwetting(PDF) (Spanish)
- Bedwetting and ‘Accidents’: Solutions for Children (Yale Medicine)
- What I Need to Know About My Child’s Bedwetting (Kidney & Urology Foundation of America)
- What Is Nocturnal Enuresis (Bedwetting)? (Urology Care Foundation)
- Pelvic Floor Dysfunction
- Pelvic Floor Physical Therapists
- Hydronephrosis
- Phimosis
- Testicular Self-Examination
- Grab Your Gonads
- Testicular Self-Exam (Young Men’s Health)
- Undescended Testes
- Undescended Testicles (PDF) (Amharic) (Arabic) (Farsi) (French) (Russian) (Simplified Chinese) (Somali) (Spanish) (Vietnamese)
- Care for an Uncircumcised Penis (HealthyKids.org)
- Urinary Tract Infections (UTIs)
- Varicocele
- Vesicoureteral Reflux (VUR) also known as Urinary Reflux
Resources for Providers
- Antenatal Hydronephrosis and Undescended Testes: A Q&A With Dr. Paul Merguerian
- Enuresis/incontinence (daytime and nighttime)
- Antenatal hydronephrosis: Algorithm
- Hypospadias: Algorithm
- Phimosis
- Undescended testes
- UTI
- Varicocele: Algorithm
- VUR
To suggest additional resources from Seattle Children’s that would be useful to primary care providers, please email us.