Contact Information
Telephone 330 477-0255
FAX 330 477-7266
Postal address 4634 Hills & Dales, NW Canton, OH 44708
Electronic mail neoe@neo.rr.com
Office hours and after hours coverage
Our office is open from 8 a.m. till 4.30 p.m. Monday-Friday.
We are closed for lunch between 12 and 1 p.m.
A physician is always on call for after hour’s emergencies.
Visit's Information
The first visit with us is usually the longest. The average time in the office is approximately two hours. We ask that our new patients arrive thirty minutes before the first visit to fill out necessary forms. We also suggest that patients bring prior medical records and medications. Patients often are told by their referring physicians that their doctor will FAX or send their records. It is more reliable if patients obtain their records from the doctor and bring them along to the first visit. Patients will be examined at the first visit, interviewed, tested, and an initial game plan to approach the condition will be discussed. We do not often provide a firm opinion about the condition on the first visit. In our area of medicine, laboratory or other tests are usually necessary before a complete opinion may be provided. This may take a few visits.
We will not discuss laboratory test results or other results by phone with patients after the first visit. These test batteries are usually complicated. The next visit is specifically to review these tests and make further plans.
We are happy to have family or friends involved in the discussions with our patients. However, we will not discuss anything about one of our patients with a family member or friend unless we have specific written authorization to do so by the patient, and unless the patient is present during the discussion. Of course, parents of children patients have the right to have any discussions they wish to have.
We generally start working with our patients within 30 minutes of their appointment time. The longest wait is less than an hour. We are very concerned about sticking to our patient schedule. Emergency patients or phone calls make that unreliable at times; however, we do value the time of our patients as much as we know they value ours.
Follow-up appointments usually take less than thirty minutes, unless special services or procedures are involved. These special services may include special laboratory testing, detailed educational services, or services involving advanced technology.
Follow-up appointments usually involve a review of the initial or subsequent laboratory data, review of the clinical status of the patient, and derivation of plans for future care. A detailed progress report is prepared after most appointments for the primary physician or referring physician of the patient.
Patients who come in without appointments or emergency appointments are called "fitins", which means that we are "fitting them into our schedule". When this happens, there will be a wait. We try to identify to our patients that they are in that situation, when we have to see them as urgent or emergency visits.
Patients occasionally call the office to ask our staff if their lab work or prior medical records are in their chart in preparation for the first visit. Our staff can tell patients that labs or prior records are there. They are not prepared to determine whether everything the doctor needs to see is there. The best way to be sure that everything the doctor needs to see will be present at the visit is for patients to bring all such records themselves.
Patients or family also call at times and ask to be told the results of laboratory or other testing over the phone. In general, we do not provide such services. We usually do a large and complex battery of laboratory tests. The proper time and place for review of these results is at the office visit. We will of course send copies of laboratory work to patients at any time.
Forms and Records Duplication
We are pleased to assist our patients with the completion of administrative forms whenever possible. However, some forms, such as disability forms, require either extraordinary time and effort, or ask for assessments, which go outside of our usual medical expertise. Therefore, we reserve the right to review each request for the completion of forms on a case-by-case basis. Our review of such forms does not imply a commitment to complete them. Appropriate charges may be assessed for the time and effort required by such forms. Patients should be aware that such charges are not covered by health insurance.
We will provide brief excerpts of medical records to our patient or to the identified recipient of these records as a courtesy. Because of the expenses incurred in copying medical records, we will charge patients for complete copies, in accordance with the laws of the State of Ohio. We recommend that patients retain any copies for their own future use. They may then make copies for other health providers and agencies may be made by the patient from this "master" copy.
The cost of copies of records to be sent to businesses or organizations not directly involved in the rendering of care to patients will not be provided unless the requesting company provides prepayment for these records. Instructions by such companies for us to bill our patients and send these copies to them before we are paid for the copying services will not be honored.
After Hours Communication
There is always a physician on call after office hours. After hours medical support is limited to true emergency situations, which cannot hold until the next business day. Routine clinical questions, prescription refills, or questions related to administrative matters should be held until the next business day. We suggest that patients who have placed a call for after hours help keep their phone clear once the call has been placed. Occasionally, patients have kept their phone busy after calling us, and they become frustrated if they do not hear a quick response.
The scope of services available over the phone after hours is limited. Some questions or clinical issues may be handled by phone, but many require immediate examination in a local emergency room. Occasionally patients get frustrated by the advice to visit an emergency room; they do not realize how difficult it is to render an informed opinion on many questions over the phone.
Our answering service will not accept calls regarding changing or canceling appointments. We do not discuss questions regarding adult patients over the phone with family members, unless specifically instructed to do so by our patient, or a family member has the medical power of attorney.
Disclaimer
Electronic communication is not an officially accepted means of communication between physicians and patients. Clinical judgment without seeing the patient is impossible. Therefore, all the contents of this page, as well as all our e-mail responses based on transmitted information do not represent medical opinion and are not part of the practice of medicine.
