For referring veterinarians
Send the case. Keep the client.
Surgical support that fits into your practice instead of pulling patients out of it. Procedures are performed in your surgical suite or at our outpatient center — either way, the estimate, the billing, the client relationship and the follow-up stay with you.
The arrangement
A surgeon who works with your practice, not around it
Operational Wellness exists to complement primary care. That is not a positioning statement — it is how the referral is structured.
Your patient stays yours
No transfer, no competing recheck schedule, no client wandering off to a specialty hospital and staying there. The case comes back to you because it never left.
Your team handles anesthesia
On mobile days your staff monitors anesthesia in your own suite, on equipment they know. The surgical instrumentation and implants travel with the surgeon.
Post-op support on request
Pain protocols, antibiotic choices, recheck and rehab timing — as much input as you want, none that you do not. Dr. Lombardi is a phone call away.
Referral process
How to refer a case
Five steps from your exam room to a scheduled surgical date.
- 01
Send the case
Submit a new case with your practice details, the owner’s contact information, and patient signalment — name, age or DOB, breed, species, sex and weight in kilograms. Call instead if the case is time-sensitive; a phone conversation moves faster than a form.
- 02
Include the work-up
Case summary, tentative diagnosis or reason for referral, current problem list, relevant history and current medications with dose and frequency. Attach bloodwork, imaging and any prior surgical reports.
- 03
Review and plan
The case is reviewed and you get a surgical opinion — approach, likely outcome, and whether the case is right for an outpatient or mobile setting. If it belongs elsewhere, you will hear that too.
- 04
Schedule the surgery
Mobile cases are scheduled into your surgical suite with your team on anesthesia and monitoring. Cases better served by a dedicated space are scheduled at the center in Lake Grove. Diagnostics should be current within roughly a month of the date.
- 05
Surgery day, and after
The surgeon arrives with instrumentation and implants. You keep the client, the billing and the follow-up. Post-operative recommendations — pain protocols, antibiotics, recheck and rehabilitation timing — are available whenever you want them.
Case submission
What to send with the referral
The more complete the submission, the faster the case gets a plan. Nothing is scheduled without baseline bloodwork and the imaging the case requires.
Referring practice & owner
- Your name, practice, email and phone
- Owner name, phone and email
- Patient name, DOB or age, breed, species, sex
- Current weight in kilograms
Case detail
- Case summary
- Tentative diagnosis or reason for referral
- Current problem list
- Prior medical history
- Current medications with dose and frequency
Laboratory
- Full bloodwork — chemistry and CBC at minimum
- Cytology or biopsy results, if performed
- Anything abnormal you want a second read on
Imaging & prior surgery
- Radiographs
- Ultrasound reports and images
- Advanced imaging — CT, MRI, endoscopy
- Prior surgical reports as PDFs
Timing: bloodwork and imaging should generally be current within about a month of the planned surgical date. If something has changed clinically since the work-up, say so in the summary — it usually changes the plan.
Procedures accepted
What comes through most often
Not an exhaustive list. If what you need is not here, call — you will get a straight answer about whether it suits an outpatient or mobile setting.
Orthopedic
- Tibial Plateau Leveling Osteotomy · TPLO
- Extracapsular Repair · Lateral suture
- Fracture Repair
- Femoral Head Ostectomy · FHO
- Patella Luxation Surgery
- Limb Amputation
- Tail Amputation
- Bone Biopsy
Soft tissue
- Mass Removal
- Splenectomy
- Abdominal Exploratory
- Foreign Body Removal
- Gastrotomy & Enterotomy
- Intestinal Resection & Anastomosis
- Subtotal Colectomy
- Gastric Dilatation Volvulus · GDV
- Prophylactic Gastropexy
- Liver Lobectomy
- Cystotomy
- Perineal Urethrostomy · PU
- Urethral Prolapse Repair
- Perineal Hernia Repair
- Body Wall Hernia Repair
- Anal Sacculectomy
- Total Ear Canal Ablation · TECA
- Brachycephalic Airway Surgery
- Laryngeal Paralysis Surgery
- Salivary Mucocele Surgery
- Mastectomy
- Episioplasty
Practice questions
What colleagues ask before the first referral
Anything not covered here is a good reason to call 631-946-8269.
See all questionsNext step
Refer a case or request a consultation
Send the records through the contact form and note that you are a referring veterinarian, or call for a surgeon-to-surgeon conversation about whether the case is a good candidate.