For Referring Medical Professionals

Thank you for choosing the Ayer Neuroscience Institute Memory Care Center for the continuation of care for your patient.

The Memory Care Center focuses primarily on the diagnosis and continuing care for older adults with cognitive and memory problems. We also see younger individuals with cognitive complaints, but these visits will be on a consultation basis only. All referrals are reviewed before patients are accepted for scheduling.

In all cases, a referral from a primary care medical professional is required.


Appointments at the Memory Care Center require that the patient:

  • Have a referral from a primary care practitioner
  • Be at least 21 years of age
  • Be free of an active workers’ compensation claim related to cognitive performance
  • Reside in the community (a non-long-term care facility)

Referrals

Please inform us if a patient needs the services of an interpreter and if so, what language is required.

Please ensure that you have informed patients and their care partners that you are making the referral to the Memory Care Center and that they are agreeable to attending visits with us.

Please avoid starting cognitive or psychiatric medications before referral to us. Doing so makes our job more complicated. If you plan to treat the patient, please re-consider the need for a Memory Care Center evaluation.

Please do not make simultaneous referrals to the Memory Care Center and related clinicians, such as a geriatrician, a movement disorders specialist, a neuropsychologist or a neurologist. Doing so can create confusion and unnecessary redundancy in care. Please pick one specialty, allow the evaluation to occur and then seek additional care if, and as, warranted.

Please do not suggest that we consider or obtain PET, SPECT, CSF analysis, or genetic testing. Most of these procedures are still largely the purview of research centers and are NOT readily available to clinical centers like the Memory Care Center. It is exceedingly unlikely that such procedures will be covered by insurance.

For Hartford HealthCare entities to find the referral in Epic:

  • Enter “memory” in the “New Order” box in the lower left screen
  • Select “Ambulatory referral to Neurology – Memory Care Center”
  • Please enter the cognitive screening instrument performed and its score

For other neurological complaints or non-cognitive geriatric psychiatry, please refer directly to those specialties.

For non-Hartford HealthCare entities

For non-Hartford HealthCare entities, please fax us a completed referral form:

Download Patient Referral


Important Information Before Making a Referral

  • We request that referring medical professionals provide us with a few sentences about the nature of the memory problem or other cognitive complaint that precipitated the referral to the Memory Care Center.
  • We request that your referral include your most recent Progress Note, a complete medical history, and a list of current medications.
  • We also require the results of a cognitive screening test, such as the Mini-Cog, Memory Impairment Screen, MMSE, SLUMS, or MOCA.
  • A detailed mental status exam may in some cases suffice instead of formal screening instruments.
  • There is no need to order blood work or imaging such as MRI. We will take care of that as part of the evaluation.
  • Should your office already have relevant results (especially thyroid function tests, vitamin B12 levels, CT or MR imaging discs/reports, or neuropsychological testing), please send them to us if they are not available within EPIC.

For the First Visit

  • In most cases, the initial diagnostic assessment occurs over the course of multiple (usually three) visits. Domain-specific cognitive testing is a common procedure we offer and most (but not all) patients should expect to undergo this, with Dr. Kristin Slyne, the Memory Care Center’s neuropsychologist
  • Please make sure patients and their care partner(s) understand that a diagnosis will usually NOT be available at the first visit.
  • Please inform your patient and their care partner(s) that the initial visit will last somewhere between one and two hours so that they can plan accordingly.

Meet & Greet

If you would like to schedule a “Meet & Greet” about efficient performance of cognitive screening tests – such as to fulfill the cognitive requirement on the Medicare Annual Wellness visit – please contact the Memory Care Center and we will be happy to make arrangements for you. There is, of course, no charge for this service.

Memory Care Center

  • Location

    Address:
    1260 Silas Deane Highway
    Suite 101
    Wethersfield, CT 06109
    Get Directions >>

  • Contact Us

    Phone: 860.545.7550
    Fax: 860.545.7180

  • Hours

    Monday – Friday
    8:00 AM – 4:30 PM