Regional Referral Program

Assisting patients, doctors and health plans to meet their needs in a high-quality environment.

1-888-637-2762  |  The Transfer Center  |  Specialty Physician Referrals  |  General Public Calls


1-888-637-2762

What We Do

CPMC’s Regional Referral Program has seven primary functions:

  • Assist in patient transfers from other hospitals to CPMC
  • Answer general public calls for physician referral and services offered at CPMC
  • Process referrals to specialists at California Pacific Specialty Services and Physician Foundation
  • Monitor external medical transport services assisting physicians, patients, and third party payers with these resources
  • Network development of specialty services
  • Support and liaison to CPMC specialty services outreach clinics throughout Northern California and Nevada
  • Liaison to San Francisco Primary Care physicians

    The CPMC Regional Referral Program Call Center is open 24 hours per day, seven days per week. There are three types of referrals handled by this program:

  • General public calls for referrals to CPMC physicians and services
  • Specialty referrals to CPSS and Foundation Physicians with prior authorizations
  • Transfers of patients to CPMC from other hospitals, facilities, and physician offices

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    The Transfer Center

    Call the Transfer Center at 1-888-637-2762. This center is operational 24 hours per day, seven days per week, with trained nurses collecting patient information, then contacting a CPMC specialty physician, bed control nurse, admission and finance department staff, case managers, and appropriate clinical staff.

    The Transfer Center will facilitate the process, and also coordinate and/or arrange to meet the medically necessary transport services for the patient.

    Please have the following information available when requesting transfer:

  • Patient’s name, address, telephone number, date of birth
  • CPMC medical record number (if previous patient and known)
  • Diagnosis and care related issues
  • Referring physician and name of facility/hospital
  • Admitting physician (if known)
  • Patient’s present location
  • Patient’s mode of arrival and transport company if applicable, and estimated arrival time
  • Whether transport assistance is required
  • Insurance information

    The Admitting Department will be notified of your patient’s pending admission.

    Parents/responsible parties will be asked to come to Admitting to sign required admission documents.
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    Specialty Physician Referrals

    Normal hours of operation are Monday through Friday from 8:00 am to 4:30 pm. Referrals to specialty physicians may be requested by telephone (1-888-637-2762) or by fax (1-415-6002955). Please have the following information available when requesting physician referrals or consultations:

  • Name of referring medical group, health plan and product type (HMO, PPO, POS)
  • Referral Authorization form, which should include:
    • Authorization number
    • Patient name, address, telephone number, date of birth (includeing the insured's name and SSN if patient is a minor)
    • Diagnosis/ICD-9 code
    • CPT code(s)
    • Specialty requested
    • Reason for referral
    • Referring physician or PPCP's name, address, phone and fax

  • Clinical notes (very important), chart notes, reports, H&P, labs and anything pertinent to the referral (CPSS specialisits prefer to review this information prior to the patient's appointment.)

    To further expedite the referral process, you can fax the CPCC referral form to 415-600-2955 (24 hours/day).

  • Download a PDF of the referral form.

  • Online patient referral is also available. Physicians interested in this tool may contact us to obtain a token. Please call 888-637-2762.

    NOTE: If you already have a Sutter user name and password, you may proceed directly to on-lone referral.
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    General Public Calls

    Normal hours of operation are Monday through Friday from 8:00 am to 4:30 pm. Referrals may be requested by telephone (1-888-637-2762). This service provides information to general public callers regarding CPMC clinical services/programs, and CPMC physicians.
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