Surgical Referrals

As a specialty care clinic, the Pediatric Surgery Division sees patients by referral only. We provide equal availability of services to Tricare Prime and Tricare Standard beneficiaries. When we receive a referral, it is reviewed and dispositioned within one working day.

Referrals from providers at military treatment facilities are placed through our electronic medical record system. You may call the clinic directly or the Hampton Roads Appointment Center within two working days of the referral being placed to schedule an appointment.

Referrals from civilian providers are placed through Health Net Federal Services. You may call 877-TRI-CARE within two to five working days of the referral being placed to check on its status. When the referral has been assigned to our clinic, you may call the clinic directly or the Hampton Roads Appointment Center to schedule an appointment.

How quickly you are seen in our clinic depends on the urgency of the referral, the availability of open appointments, and your schedule. Referrals can be placed with different levels of acuity based on the clinical assessment of the referring provider:

• Urgent (ASAP) and acute referrals must be seen within 24 hours. A call from the referring physician to our urgent/after hours pager is required to facilitate these referrals.
• Seventy-two hour referrals must be seen within three days. A call from the referring physician to our urgent/after hours pager is appreciated with these referrals.
• Routine referrals must be seen within 28 days. The mean wait time for a routine appointment is two weeks.

Surgery is not usually performed on the same day as the initial consultation. If your pediatric surgeon recommends surgery, you will need to pick a date for the procedure and complete the preoperative paperwork and processing. This may be done on the same day as the initial consultation or at a later date, depending on the date of surgery and what is most convenient for you. Our goal is to minimize the number of trips that you have to make to the hospital and the number of school days that your child misses.