Your First Appointment
At the time that your appointment is scheduled, we will confirm your mailing address and telephone number. One week prior to your appointment, you should receive a registration packet from our office that includes forms that we would like you to complete and bring with you to this first visit. This information along with the records from your referring doctor will help us better understand your medical history. On the day of your appointment:
- Plan to arrive 30 minutes prior to the scheduled time.
- Bring all insurance cards and be prepared to pay any co-payments that may be associated with your policy. If you do not have any insurance coverage, please ask about our self-pay financial policy.
- Bring all the medications that you are currently taking in their bottles. (This includes all prescriptions and any over the counter medications.)
During this first visit you will be asked to provide a urine specimen. After talking with the doctor, he/she may order blood tests that will be drawn in our office. There will not be any other procedures done at this visit.
Medications
It is important that you bring all your medicines to the office each time you come for an appointment. Please refill prescriptions before you are completely out of the medication. If you need refills, the fastest way is to contact your pharmacy and have them contact us with a refill request. If you are a dialysis patient, please have your pharmacy contact your dialysis unit for refills. We try to process all refill requests in a timely manner but some of the newer prescription plans require prior approval or prior authorization from your insurance plan. Please allow 48-72 hours for all requests to be processed. Call your pharmacy to be sure the prescription is ready before you go to pick it up.
Accessible to You 24 hours a Day
One of our physicians is always on call to respond to urgent needs 24 hours a day. If a true emergency occurs please call 911 for assistance. If not life threatening, please call our main office number (919) 477-3005. If the office is closed, our telephone answering service will relay information from you to the physician on call. He/she will return the call promptly. It is unlikely, but if you have not received a return call within 30 minutes, please call again. If during normal office hours, you need to relay information to your doctor, please call our office and let the front desk know that you wish to leave a message in our nurse voice mail. Please leave a detailed message that includes your name, a telephone number where you can be reached in addition to the nature of your call. Our clinical staff checks messages several times throughout the day and will take the appropriate steps to respond to your call. Any messages left after 3:00 pm will be handled on the next business day. In most cases, the messages are relayed to the physician and someone will call you back as soon as he/she has responded.
Hospitalization
Our practice has Admitting privileges at Durham Regional Hospital and is on the Consulting Staff of Granville Medical Center.
