General Office Policy
Scheduling
Appointments are made by calling the office, Monday thru Friday between the hours of 8:30am and 5:00pm (702) 933-9393.
First Appointments
Prior to the first visit, there will be Patient Information, Patient Registration, and History forms to complete. Our office will text and/or email you an appointment reminder at which time you will be prompted to fill out these forms. Please fill these forms out as soon as you receive them in order to alleviate extra wait time at your appointment. If you do not receive a text or email to confirm your appointment, you may contact us and request that we send them to you. This will allow us to process your information prior to your appointment. Aside from the demographic information, a brief medical history will be taken. Research information is also recorded at this time to help in the study of patient outcomes from various forms of intervention. This information, as well as the entire medical record, is considered confidential.
You may also create an online account through our patient portal to access your medical records. You can find this patient portal on our website at www.orthopedics-sportsmedicine.com.
If you do not speak English please bring an interpreter with you to your appointments. It is very important that we are able to speak with you about your diagnosis and treatment.
Follow Up Appointments
Follow-up appointments usually require much less time than first appointments. Their purpose is to evaluate results of treatment or occasionally, to review results of tests or studies obtained. The patient should try to return at the interval previously specified by the physician unless there is a significant change or problem that warrants an earlier review. If there is an emergency or a rapidly worsening problem do not wait for an appointment. Go to an emergency room for evaluation.
Cancellations
Please try to give as early notice as possible if you must reschedule an appointment so that other patients may take advantage of the time slot. Occasionally, your physician must cancel patients’ appointments as a result of emergencies. For this reason, it is important for us to have a phone number where you may be reached so as to save you from unnecessary travel.
Waiting Time
Each patient’s time is extremely valuable and no one should be kept waiting. Unfortunately, however, there are significant limitations on our ability to predict exactly how long each patient’s visit will take. If a few patients run over the predicted time, it then makes all other appointments behind schedule. In addition, emergencies or unanticipated problems can put us behind schedule. Our policy is to never rush a patient and to be as thorough as needed. However, this sometimes means a delay in the schedule resulting in waiting time. Our physicians apologize for any delay in seeing you.
Surgery at Surgical Arts Center
If you are having surgery at Surgical Arts Center you will need to fill out several forms. Please go to our patient portal and login to your account. If you do not have an account you will need to create an account. Once logged in you will find several forms that will need to be filled out prior to your surgery at Surgical Arts Center.
A Word On Managed Care
The many evolving changes in health care are improving some things and making others more difficult. On the plus side, we are all becoming more knowledgeable about the costs and administration of health care delivery. This should eventually lead to more thoughtful decisions about how we all want the system to work. On the minus side, however, managed care, at least as it is presently constituted, is not necessarily allowing the patient or the physician to make those decisions. Managed Care insurance involves the administration of health care wherein most aspects of a patient’s care must be preauthorized or verified. You should know that from the physician’s standpoint, there are ever-increasing hurdles we must jump over to give you the care we feel important. Preauthorization and verification of coverage procedures are becoming a very time consuming and complex. Most of the care that we feel is necessary for you cannot be given until approval has been obtained, and this approval process sometimes requiring weeks, not just days.
We will continue, along with you, to try our best to influence new health care policy so that you are always put first and so that the most efficient and cost-effective methods of caring for you are maintained. Until we are able to accomplish this goal, we must all accept the fact there will be delays and frustrations.