Referrals and Transfers

At Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, we value our referring providers. Your convenience and patients’ well-being are our top priorities. Our tools and services help make it easier for you to access our specialized pediatric experts and stay informed about your patients’ care.

2 ways to make a referral

To make a referral to Children’s, use one of the following easy methods:

1. Referral forms: Make a referral using our online referral form or by choosing the appropriate form below.
2. accessCHOA: This free, secure, web-based electronic health record system provides physicians the ability to electronically submit referrals to Children’s specialists.

Referral guidelines

Below are guidelines to follow when referring a patient for a consultation to a Children's Physician Group practice. These are meant to be general recommendations. If you have a specific question, call 404-785-DOCS (3627). Note, guidelines for additional specialties are in-progress and will be posted as they are finalized.

• Endocrinology
• Quick guide to helping children with obesity
• Download a list of adult endocrinologists
• Gynecology
• Nephrology
• Neuropsychology
• Radiology: Sedation guidelines for CT and MRI
• Rheumatology

Ensuring a smooth and convenient experience for you and safe, quality care for your patient is our professional and personal commitment. For transfers or planned admissions, the Children’s Transfer Center will handle the details any time, day or night. The process starts with just one call.

Transfer with one call

For your convenience, the Transfer Center will arrange for the acceptance and admission of your patient with just one phone call. To transfer a patient 24 hours a day, seven days a week:

• Phone: 404-785-7778 or 888-785-7778
• Fax: 404-785-7779

The Transfer Center coordinates transferring patients to all three Children’s hospital campuses: Arthur M. Blank Hospital, Hughes Spalding and Scottish Rite. Whether your patient is being transferred from an emergency department, hospital or other facility, a specialized registered nurse will help you with:

• Finding a physician.
• Coordinating ground or air transportation for your patient.
• Arranging for a bed with the appropriate level of care to be ready upon arrival.
• Coordinating ground or air transportation for your patient.
• Initiating registration paperwork, including financial information and pre-certification.
• Inpatient transfer from other hospitals.
• Admission requests for direct admissions from the physicians on staff at Children’s.
• Consulting with a pediatric specialist if you are not sure your patient needs to be transferred.

Note: The Transfer Center only coordinates patient transfers for inpatient admission or transfers to our Emergency Department.

Planned medical admissions

Planned admissions require specific types of information from the admitting physician’s office, including authorization and other details. To streamline the planned admission process, the Transfer Center receives all of this information. To start the process:

• Call 404-785-7778.
• Fill out the Admission Request Form, and email it to transfercenter@choa.org or fax to 404-785-7779.

Inpatient transfer from another hospital

To meet the needs of all Georgia children who require pediatric hospital services, Children’s maintains a policy that hospitals:

• Transfer only those patients who require services that the transferring hospital cannot provide.
• Agree to promptly accept the return of patients once Children’s has rendered the specialized services needed.

Transferring hospitals will need to complete a Patient Transfer and Return Agreement Form before the patient can be transferred or, for patients with emergent needs, as soon as possible after the transfer is initiated. The form must be completed by an authorized representative of the referring hospital. The referring hospital will be responsible for identifying a representative for signing, even during evening and weekend hours.

Patients for scheduled or nonemergent transfer services will be accepted only after the transferring hospital has returned the signed form to the Transfer Center and payer authorization has been verified.

Whether a transfer is considered emergent or nonemergent is a physician’s decision, best accomplished with the referring physician and accepting physician at Children’s on the phone together, along with the Transfer Center’s registered nurse to document the decision.

To transfer a patient:

• Call 404-785-7778.
• Fill out the Patient Transfer and Return Agreement, and email it to transfercenter@choa.org or fax to 404-785-7779.

Upload radiology images (currently only available for cardiac patients)

Cardiac Radiology Images: Upload images for patient referrals and transfers