Collaboration withveterinarians

Primary veterinarians remain at the center of care for patients with heart disease. Collaboration with a board-certified veterinary cardiologist adds specialized expertise in cardiac imaging, diagnosis, and treatment, while supporting continuity of primary care. This collaboration improves outcomes. Dogs with congestive heart failure had significantly longer median survival when managed collaboratively by a primary veterinarian and veterinary cardiologist (254 vs. 146 days). AAHA also emphasizes collaboration between primary and specialty care teams as an important part of high-quality patient care.

References: Lefbom BK, Peckens NK. J Am Vet Med Assoc. 2016;249(1):72–76. doi:10.2460/javma.249.1.72. American Animal Hospital Association. 2025 AAHA Referral Guidelines.

If this is your hospital’s first time working with SCOUT, please begin by completing our Request more Information Form under the “New Clinic” button. If your hospital is already registered with SCOUT and you would like to refer a new patient, complete a New Patient Request Form on our timeless portal under “Refer a Case”. Once we receive your request and the patient’s information, SCOUT will contact your team with a proposed date and time. You can confirm the appointment or let us know if another time would work better for your hospital.

Patients scheduled with SCOUT should be at your hospital and ready for their evaluation before our arrival. Because cardiac imaging requires patients to remain relatively still and comfortable, patients who are anxious or difficult to handle should receive appropriate pre-visit medications at home when indicated, such as trazodone or gabapentin. Families should also let your team know whether they authorize additional sedation, including IV sedation, if it becomes necessary to safely complete the evaluation. In some patients, a small amount of hair may need to be clipped to obtain the best-quality images. We recommend making families aware of this possibility ahead of time. When SCOUT arrives, we will need an appropriate space to perform our evaluations as well as assistance from one member of your veterinary team for patient positioning and handling.

SCOUT bills your hospital directly for the cardiac services we provide. Request the current Service & Fee Schedule using the Request more Information form at the bottom of this page. Your hospital remains responsible for billing the client directly. This allows your practice to account for the time, space, staff, coordination, and ongoing care involved in your patient’s visit. Even when you ask SCOUT to communicate directly with a family about their pet’s cardiac findings, all financial discussions remain between your hospital and your client. SCOUT will not discuss pricing or fees with pet owners.

Whenever possible, SCOUT will speak with you directly on the day of the evaluation to share the most important findings and initial recommendations. A complete written report will be sent to your hospital by email within 24 hours. Reports will also remain available through SCOUT’s medical record system, Timeless Veterinary Solutions, so your team can access them when needed.

Absolutely—if you would like us to. Our standard approach is to communicate our findings and recommendations directly to the primary veterinarian, allowing you to guide the conversation with your client and integrate our recommendations into the patient’s overall care. If you would prefer for the family to speak directly with our veterinary cardiologist, you may request a Client Consultation as part of the patient’s SCOUT visit.

Not always. SCOUT’s sonographer has been personally trained by our veterinary cardiologist to obtain comprehensive, high-quality diagnostic studies. When our cardiologist is not physically present, she remains involved in the study remotely, viewing echocardiographic imaging in real time and guiding additional imaging when a finding warrants further investigation. Following the examination, the complete study—including images and measurements—is uploaded for detailed review by our veterinary cardiologist. All echocardiographic interpretation, clinical assessment, and patient management recommendations are performed exclusively by our veterinary cardiologist. In the uncommon event that a study does not contain all of the images needed for a complete cardiac evaluation, SCOUT will repeat the echocardiogram at no additional charge and credit 10% of the original visit.