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About Our Practice
Our practice is focused on the specialty areas of Obstetrics and Gynecology. Our
physicians are all Board Certified by the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology (ACOG) and have
many years of experience in this specialty field. Because of this, we work closely with
primary care physicians in maintaining communication and continuity regarding your care. It is
important that you identify a primary care physician (Internal Medicine or Family Medicine) to
manage your overall health care. If you do not have a primary care physician, we urge you to
select one that is covered by your insurance.
Hours of Operation
Should you have a medical emergency, please report directly to the nearest emergency room. If
you have an urgent matter that cannot wait until regular business hours, please call our office
and one of our physicians will be available to address your concerns.
After normal business office hours, our physicians are available through our answering service.
When you call the office, you will be instructed by the voicemail system on steps to reach the
answering service. Our physicians will return your call as the need indicates.
Please do not call the answering service to ask for test results or prescription refills.
These requests should be handled during normal business hours.
In the interest of our staff and other patients, we ask that small children have supervision
other than yourself for appointments whenever possible. Also, please do not use cell phones in
the waiting room or exam rooms.
Scheduling
Our office staff is available to make appointments for you. When calling, please try to be as
specific as possible regarding the nature of your problem. This information allows us to
better determine the amount of time needed for our physicians to discuss your concerns. Every
attempt will be made to find a convenient appointment time for you. Urgent and sick visits
will generally be seen as "add-on" visits for that day. Complex medical concerns may require
more than one visit with our physicians.
Although we strive to see patients for their appointment on time, due to the nature of our
practice, that is not always possible. Our physicians may, on occasion, be held up attending
to the needs of other patients in the hospital or at the office. This extra attention required
by some patients will also be extended to you if your needs require it. We will attempt to
notify you when you arrive if our physician is going to be more than 30 minutes late. Your
patience is appreciated.
If you need to cancel your appointment, please let us know as soon as possible so that the time
can be made available for other patients. If you are going to be a few minutes late for a
scheduled appointment, please call us as soon as possible. If you are going to be 20 minutes
or more late arriving for your appointment, you will need to reschedule.
New Patients
We are always happy to accept new patients to our practice, and we work closely with the
primary care physicians to ensure continuity of care for all patients. However, as a referral
(specialty) practice, it is very important that we receive certain medical information from
your primary care physician regarding the reasons for your referral to our office. If you do
not have a primary care physician, but have seen other specialty physicians related to the
current condition, those records also are needed. New patient visits are generally scheduled
several weeks from the time of your call to give you time to get copies of your previous
records to us before your visit. Failure to get these medical records to us may result in a
delay in your scheduled appointment time.
Obstetric Visit Schedule
Obstetric patients are generally seen on a routine basis during their pregnancy according to
the following schedule:
- Once the pregnancy is confirmed, you will be scheduled for a one (1) hour OB intake appointment with the Registered Nurse.
- The next visit is the first Prenatal Exam, taking approximately 30-45 minutes, which includes a pelvic exam.
- Routine OB visits (ROBs) occur monthly until approximately 28 weeks.
- From 28-36 weeks, visits are every two (2) weeks.
- From 36 weeks until delivery, visits are weekly.
Ultrasounds
As part of your total care in our practice, we offer onsite ultrasound services. This service
allows our patients the convenience of having this test performed in the same location with
familiar staff, often with a minimal scheduling wait time. Our ultrasonographer is a
registered professional with many years of experience performing ultrasounds. Offering
ultrasounds in our office allows the physician to receive results sooner and assist in earlier
diagnoses of patient conditions.
Communication
Our staff is available to take your calls for questions and concerns that
arise between visits. A registered nurse can take your calls regarding medical issues daily from 8 a.m.
- noon and 1 p.m. - 4 p.m. If the nurse is not available to speak to you when you call, you
may leave a voice message and we will attempt to return your call the same business day. When leaving a
message, it is important that you speak slowly, clearly and provide complete information as
requested. This allows the nurse to better understand your concerns and respond with
appropriate information.
The nurse will assist with arranging scheduled surgeries, triaging (prioritizing) incoming
phone calls and arranging for lab work, office visits and prescriptions in consultation with
the physician. If you have forms that require completion for time off from your job, please
allow 7-10 business days for completion. There is a fee for completion of these forms.
Lab work, mammograms, and pap smear results that are normal will be sent to you if requested.
Otherwise, you will be sent a letter one month prior to your next annual visit date. Abnormal
lab results will be communicated to you by phone and as directed by the physicians. All
efforts are made to ensure the confidentiality of your medical information when we are giving
you results of any tests.
Prescription refills can usually be handled over the phone. These calls can be made between
8 a.m. - noon and 1 p.m. - 4 p.m. Monday through Friday. Please allow at least 24 to 48 hours
when refills are needed and include the pharmacy name and phone number with your message.
Routine prescription refills will not be renewed after regular office hours. The after hours
number is reserved for urgent and emergent conditions.
Referrals
Health Maintenance Organizations (HMOs) often require a referral or authorization from your
primary care physician to obtain certain services in our office. If it is necessary for you to
have a referral or authorization prior to being seen, it is important that you take care of
this insurance requirement before you visit our office.
Failure to have this paperwork in place before your visit may result in the insurance company
denying payment for your services, and you would be responsible for the bill(s).
Unfortunately, these are the rules from the managed care organizations that we are required to
follow. In order to avoid problems with payment, please make sure that you check with your
insurance company before your visit.
Billing
Sparrow Midwest OB/GYN works ("participates") with many insurance companies. This means that
Sparrow bills our charges to these insurers and we accept their payment. However, some
employers have plans that require their employees to pay a portion of their health care costs.
These payments are usually handled by charging a "co-pay" for office visits and certain other
services. If you have one of these plans, our reception staff will collect the co-pays at the
time of your visit.
In general, payment is expected on the day that you receive the office service. You may pay for these services with cash, or we accept checks and most major credit cards.
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