Otolaryngology has experienced a sharp rise in referrals, which has increased wait times for new patients to two to three months. New referral policies will go into effect May 3, 2023, to help ensure those patients who most need specialty care from Otolaryngology have timely access to our specialists. We will reevaluate our capacity and referral policies every three months.
Effective May 3, we will not see patients with the following conditions:
- Allergic rhinitis
- Ankyloglossia for children 3 years old and older
- For concerns about ankyloglossia impacting speech, we recommend submitting a referral to our Childhood Communication Center (CCC) with subspecialty VPD Clinic for a Speech Language Pathology evaluation focused on the impact of oral structure on speech function. Our Speech Language Pathology team will collaborate with Otolaryngology if any concerns are identified that would benefit from our intervention.
- Chronic cough
- Globus sensation
- Hyperacusis
- Speech delay
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- For concerns about general oral anatomy impacting speech, we recommend submitting a referral to our Childhood Communication Center (CCC) with subspecialty VPD Clinic for a Speech Language Pathology evaluation focused on the impact of oral structure on speech function. Our Speech Language Pathology team will collaborate with Otolaryngology if any concerns are identified that would benefit from our intervention.
- For concerns about hearing loss impacting speech, we recommend submitting a referral to Audiology for a hearing evaluation.
- Throat clearing
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To continue to improve access and patient care, we anticipate making some changes to the Provider-to-Provider Line (“Q7” line) in early 2023. Please be assured the line is not going away; we recognize its importance to our community. Our goal is to meet the needs of our referring provider community while alleviating the strain the Q7 line places on our specialties, which field high call volumes. Any changes we make will be based on input we gather from community providers and Seattle Children’s providers.
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Ophthalmology Opens Referrals to More Types of Patients
Due to capacity improvements, Ophthalmology has made recent changes to its referral guidelines to see more types of patients. As of August 2022:
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Washington’s free referral service connecting kids with mental health therapists has expanded this year to meet rising demand. With new state funding, Washington’s Mental Health Referral Service for Children and Teens this summer added two referral specialists and an intake coordinator.
Wait times: Currently, the service is able to schedule an intake call for families with Medicaid within a few days to a week of the initial request. Privately insured families typically will have an intake appointment within two weeks. Times are subject to change.
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Did you know that most cancer patients in their 20s should be referred to a pediatric cancer center for treatment rather than an adult one? Yet the pediatric oncologists at Seattle Children’s routinely talk to new patients who initially were sent to an adult cancer program because they were over 18 years old.
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Seattle Children’s has been able to significantly reduce the referral backlog that has slowed our intake process over the last two months. We are now taking 24 to 36 hours to process incoming referrals (which means to finalize them and put them in the queue) – down from 2 to 3 days earlier in January. They are triaged and scheduled after that. The backlog in referrals originated with unanticipated staffing shortages in our clinical intake team in December. We are continuing to train and onboard new staff to ensure prompt attention to all provider referrals. Thank you for your patience.
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As a reminder, patients referred to Psychiatry for medication management will receive consultation and short-term management. We do not provide ongoing medication management.
Short-term medication management can range from two visits — for intake and recommendation/prescription — to taking over care for a few months to oversee a trial of medication. We require patients to be in therapy before considering medications, but therapy does not have to be with us. If the patient is requesting a second opinion on medication, we will see them and then provide recommendations to the referring provider, who would continue to provide ongoing care and medication management.
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Rebecca Stark
Rebecca Stark, MD, FACS, is a board-certified pediatric surgeon in the Division of Pediatric General and Thoracic Surgery at Seattle Children’s and an Assistant Professor of Surgery at UW. She is director of the Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia Program and surgical co-director of the ECMO Program at Seattle Children’s.
What is CDH?
Dr. Stark: When a baby’s diaphragm doesn’t form completely before birth, it leaves a hole between their abdomen and chest. Organs that should grow in the belly go through the hole up into the chest. Babies with CDH have small lungs as a result, and the lung tissue itself is different. Babies with CDH may have serious breathing problems starting soon after birth, as well as a low blood pressure and elevated heart rate. Read full post »
A new telephone line is now available for providers who have questions about referring to Seattle Children’s outpatient psychiatry and behavioral medicine (PBM). Providers are welcome to use it to find out what services we have available now or may have available soon and ask questions about the referral process or the status of a referral already submitted.
Outpatient psychiatry referral intake team: 206-987-2164, option 2.
The line is staffed Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Messages will be answered within 48 hours.
The phone line is also open to patients and families who have questions about our PBM services.
