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General Surgery Referral

Case Profile	The general surgery service provides referral surgical consultations for congenital, traumatic and neoplastic soft tissue conditions. Examples include; abdominal, thoracic, urinary, oral, and perineal surgery, skin reconstruction, and head and neck surgery. The soft tissue service works in coordination with the both the internal medicine and oncology services to provide in-house consultation and surgical services.
Initiating a Referral	Referring veterinarians should contact us at 334-844-4690 for available appointments or use the online referral form provided.
Referring an Emergency Case	Emergency referrals are seen at the discretion of the attending surgeon. For genuine emergencies, immediate referral is almost always available. When the patient needs to be seen ASAP, the attending surgeon will try to make all reasonable accommodations. Again, it is important to contact the AU-SATH appointment desk so that all parties can work together.
What about work completed prior to referral?	Referral should include all information generated by the referring veterinarian (blood work,preventive health information, radiographs, biopsy results, etc) and a summary of the course of the case. Some items may be repeated but this should not discourage the RDVM from a thorough work-up. Where appropriate, we will avoid duplication. Most of these issues can be discussed with the attending clinician during the initial referral communication. For sample collections, it is still best to have patients arrive on an empty stomach and without urination.
Important Owner Information About Referral	To prevent the unnecessary referral of clients, discussions about the cost of care and the working of a veterinary teaching hospital should be conducted before referral. Referral of a client who does not understand the cost or the mechanics of a veterinary teaching hospital can result in bad feeling all around. The General Surgery service seldom completes a diagnostic work-up in a single day. Advanced diagnostics (such as ultrasound, biopsy, CT or MRI) involve scheduling among several services and limited slots are available each day. In addition, as a teaching hospital, student instruction and participation is important but not always efficient. In some cases the initial diagnosis is enough to allow for patient admission with the owners returning home. Surgery is generally scheduled for the DAY FOLLOWING admission. It is rare to have surgery the day of admission or on an "out-patient" basis. The average stay, in cases of admission for surgery, is between 3-5 days. Students will be in contact with owners on a daily basis and some limited visitations can be arranged in some cases.