For referring physicians
A working partnership for podiatrists, primary care, vascular surgery, and other specialists. The surgical episode is managed by this practice; the rest of the patient's care stays with the physician who knows them. Care delivered alongside your practice, not in place of it.
The model
The friction in most surgical referral relationships isn't clinical — it's structural. Patients get absorbed into the surgical practice, follow-up care drifts, and the referring physician loses the thread. This practice is built around a different model: Dr. Patel manages the surgical episode and only the surgical episode. Everything else stays with you.
Track A
Manages the surgical episode
Track B
Manage everything else
The point is simple: the surgical episode has a defined beginning and a defined end. When it ends, your patient comes home — to you.
The promises
Five specific commitments — the kind a referring physician should be able to count on without asking.
01
When the surgical episode ends — typically within three to six months depending on the procedure — the patient is formally discharged from this practice and returned to your care. No drift, no extended follow-up creep, no quiet absorption into the orthopedic practice.
02
After the operation: the operative note, the post-op protocol, and the expected timeline back to you. Communication that reads as if you're on the surgical team — because for the patient's care, you are.
03
Call or text Dr. Patel directly with clinical questions about your patient. If a case needs a formal consult, the office will get them in quickly — same-week for most cases, same-day for urgent.
04
Charcot reconstruction. Diabetic limb salvage. Failed prior surgery. Post-traumatic deformity. The cases that other surgeons decline often benefit from a fellowship-trained foot and ankle evaluation. The practice welcomes them.
05
Not every patient sent for surgical evaluation needs surgery. If a case is better managed nonsurgically, the patient will be told that — and sent back to you with a clear recommendation, not lost in a series of repeat appointments.
Ideal referrals
Any foot or ankle problem can be referred. The cases below are where a fellowship-trained foot and ankle orthopedic surgeon adds clinical value beyond what's available in most general orthopedic practices.
Active or recently active Charcot in the diabetic patient. Early diagnosis is everything; deformity correction and offloading are time-sensitive. Reconstruction available for established deformity that has stabilized.
Patients with non-healing wounds, deep infection, or threatened amputation. The practice coordinates with vascular surgery, infectious disease, and wound care; not every limb is salvageable, but the cases worth saving are worth saving aggressively.
The total-ankle-replacement vs. fusion decision is consequential and depends on factors a generalist may not fully weigh. Patients with end-stage ankle arthritis benefit from a fellowship-trained foot and ankle evaluation before either path is committed to.
Persistent pain, hardware failure, malunion, nonunion, recurrent deformity. Revision foot and ankle surgery is technically harder than the index procedure; patient selection and surgical planning carry more weight.
Post-traumatic deformity, residual deformity from prior surgery, severe progressive deformity. Cases that benefit from staged correction, external fixation, or combined techniques.
Patients told they need surgery who want another set of eyes. Patients declined for surgery who want to know if a different surgeon would offer it. Both visits welcomed; both end with a clear written opinion sent back to you.
Acute ligament injuries, tendon ruptures, stress fractures, post-traumatic instability — particularly in patients who want to return to sport, work, or active lifestyle quickly and at a high level.
If a case is at the edge of your scope or the edge of your interest, that's a fine reason to refer. The practice is happy to take cases that other surgeons won't, and equally happy to take routine cases when the referring physician simply wants a surgical co-manager.
How to refer
Method 1
Direct to the practice's referral coordinator. Best for scheduling new patients and routine referrals.
Method 2
For general inquiries and scheduling when the dedicated line isn't reaching you.
Method 3
For clinical questions about a specific patient, urgent cases, or complex consultations. Available to physicians on a direct basis — the number is given by the rep or by request.
Imaging and records can be sent ahead of the visit or brought by the patient. Don't delay the referral over paperwork.
A note on compliance
The model described here — Dr. Patel manages the surgical episode; the referring physician manages everything else — is a clinical division of care, not a financial arrangement. There is no remuneration of any kind exchanged between this practice and referring physicians, and none is sought. Referrals are accepted on clinical merit alone, in accordance with the federal Anti-Kickback Statute and the Physician Self-Referral Law (Stark).
Refer a patient
Most new-patient appointments scheduled within one week. Same-week availability for urgent referrals. Direct access for clinical questions.