New Patients
Important Information for New Patients
Our practice uses one of the most sophisticated electronic medical record (EMR) systems available. Records are stored off-site on secure servers. The system allows us to electronically send or fax your prescriptions to your pharmacy and a report to the referring physician before you even leave the office.
What to Bring to the Appointment
New patients essentially need to bring the following four items to their first visit:
1. The completed “New Patient Questionnaire”
Please click the link below to print up a copy of the form if you did not receive it by mail or e-mail. It is important that this is completed before you arrive so that we may enter your medical information into our computer database as quickly as possible. The form will take 15-30 minutes to complete based on the complexity of your medical history.
2. Your recent chest X-ray or CT scan of the Chest
We prefer that Chest X-rays and CT scans are loaded on a CD (most studies today are digital and can be placed on a CD that we can download on our computers), but if they are on old X-ray film, we can view those as well. IMPORTANT NOTE: Many radiology departments will tell you that they will send the studies to our office, HOWEVER, they are referring to the formal, paper report and not the actual study images. We therefore recommend that you don't leave the facility without a CD copy in your hand. It is free and the radiology facility can make the CD in a matter of minutes after the study is completed.
3. Please bring your insurance information
4. Please bring any records the referring physician has given you for us
In some cases, there will be no records to bring. In other cases, your referring physician may have already sent your records to us electronically. If you have any records that you think may be pertinent to your problem, please bring them.
Early Arrival for Your Initial Visit is Important
New patients should arrive 15 minutes prior to the appointment time.
We ask that you arrive early to your first appointment with us so that we can enter your medical history (the New Patient Questionnaire) into our computer system and also to make sure that we have your complete insurance information. This early arrival is only necessary for the first visit when we must enter the bulk of your medical history into our system. Please realize that if you arrive late or without the completed New Patient Questionnaire, we may have to reschedule your appointment. We allot one hour of office time for a new patient consultation and a significant delay in that appointment can adversely affect the wait times for the multiple patients that follow you. Although we spend the appropriate time needed to take care of each patient thoroughly (which can, at times, cause delays), we do our utmost to get patients in for their appointments on time because we understand that your time is important!
