Referring Providers

At UCLA, we not only provide the best heart transplantation care, we also work proactively with referring physicians. Together, we can create a health care continuum that provides consistent care for your patients with serious heart failure.

To Refer a Patient or Receive Answers

UCLA physicians are available to consult with you regarding patient care opportunities or referral. We offer several ways to reach us:

• Call the UCLA Heart Transplant Center:
  • For adult patients: 310-825-8816
  • For pediatric patients: 310-267-8279
  • For heart/lung transplant: 310-825-6068
• Call the Physician to Physician Access Line (P2P) at (844) 4UCLADR (482-5237) or visit our Physician to Physician Access Line page at uclahealth.org/p2p.
• For information about cardiomyopathy care at UCLA, please call (310) 825-8816.

Why Choose UCLA for Patients Who Need Heart Transplant or VAD?

We offer one of the largest programs in the country for the following:

• Adult heart transplant
• Pediatric heart transplant
• VAD and artificial hearts

Physicians regularly seek us out to care for a wide range of cases, including the most challenging. We provide care to Southern California and beyond.

Our highlights include:

• Top hospital: UCLA Health consistently ranks among the top five hospitals in the nation, and the Best in the West, according to U.S. News & World Report's annual Best Hospitals survey.
• Outstanding outcomes: Our patient outcomes for heart transplant have been consistently exceptional since our program's inception in 1984, and remain so:
  • Our graft survival rates and patient survival rates regularly rank higher than expected, according to the Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients - notable since we routinely take on challenging cases.
  • Our pediatric surgical mortality is virtually zero, unusual among pediatric heart transplant programs.
  • Our donor-heart rejection rate is the lowest in the country (just 5 percent of patients), and evaluated with a UCLA-developed blood test.

Your Partner in Post-Mechanical Circulatory Support Care

Patients who receive a ventricular assist device (VAD) or artificial heart as mechanical circulatory support require special post-procedure care.

In addition to highly personalized patient education and information, we have developed a shared care sites program for physicians.

The program means that after you send patients to us for mechanical circulatory support, we'll work with you to co-manage their care:

• We come to your site to train your staff on how to co-manage patients with mechanical devices.
• We provide additional support from our device manufacturer partners.
• We're always available on-call to answer questions or step in as needed at the referring physician's request.

We have found this practice particularly helpful for physician groups far from UCLA, since patients temporarily remain in Los Angeles post-procedure before returning home.

Specialists in Difficult Heart Failure and Heart Transplant Cases

In addition to our surgical expertise in heart transplant, our team offers specialized care for the most challenging adult and pediatric heart failure patients:

• Adult congenital heart disease: We offer one of the nation's major programs to treat adult congenital heart disease.
• Multivisceral organ transplantation: We are the largest thoracic transplant program on the West Coast. Combined, our heart and lung transplant volumes are among the largest in the U.S.
• Pediatric-to-adult transition: UCLA provides transplantation and follow-up care for patients from birth through all phases of adulthood, in one facility, with one collaborative medical team. Our specially trained transition to adult care coordinators address each patient's individual needs.