How can I get my Animal Referred to the Range Animal Hospital for Advanced Care?

If you live out of the immediate area and your animal needs advanced care, it will likely be under the care of a veterinarian already. This is not a problem in any way. All veterinarians understand that they cannot provide all of the care an animal may need in its lifetime. All veterinarians understand the need to refer their patients to other doctors from time to time. They have gone through this procedure many times. And we certainly refer animals to other doctors that have skills that we do not!

If your animal is in need of advanced care, your doctor will probably have already informed you. If you have concerns that your animal is in need of care that your veterinarian cannot provide, you should ask your doctor about it. Very often your doctor will be able to provide the proper care for your animal, and he may say something like "You probably don't realize that we treat this type of problem frequently. But if you would feel better going somewhere else, I will help to make the arrangements" If you hear that, your animal will do very well to stay with your doctor. But very often your doctor is just around the corner from telling you that a referral is in order, and is relieved to know that you are willing to provide that level of care for your pet.

When the subject of a referral comes up, your doctor may or may not suggest the Range Animal Hospital. In either event, you certainly can. You may ask him if he is familiar with the care and procedures available here, and you may suggest that he call us to find out for sure. When he does, he will speak to one of our staff doctors, and he will have the opportunity to discuss your animals case. At that time your doctor and our doctor will decide if a referral to the Range Animal Hospital is right for your pet. If we decide that it is, we will handle all of the information needed for that referral, and possibly set up the appointment, or we may have you call for the appointment. If we decide that our hospital is not the place for your animal, we will discuss other possible hospitals that may be better for your situation. It is also possible that after all of this discussion, we will all conclude that your animal will do best to stay with your doctor!

"Wow, This seems like a lot of work. Can't I just call the hospital and make all of the arrangements?"

Actually we do this every day, and your veterinarian is familiar with all of these procedures. If you do call our hospital and your animal is under the care of another veterinarian, we will not give you any specific advice and we will not make an appointment for your pet. After many years, we have learned that referrals work the best for all parties involved if the doctors are doing the coordination. And very often your doctor has already done tests or taken X-Rays that we would need to do, if we did not have his information. This would be a waste of time and expense.

You may wish to print out the following information to give to your veterinarian, or have him access http://portup.com/~rah/procedur.htm for a listing of our advanced procedures:

The Range Animal Hospital

Dr. Donald C. Martinson - Surgery

Dr. Todd A. Grebner - Small Animal Medicine & Large Animal Medicine

E6116 US Highway 2

Ironwood, MI 49938

906-932-3531 - Local Calls and Emergency Referrals

1-888-380-6319 - Daytime Referrals - toll free

906-932-6017 - FAX

Revised 5-2-02