Appointment Policy

All clinic visits are by appointment only.

An appointment reserves a time slot in our schedule to address the specific need(s) you gave as the reason(s) for the visit. We ask that you respect other patients’ time by arriving 10 minutes ahead of your appointment time to ensure you are checked in and ready to begin your appointment at the reserved time. If you are late to your appointment, you forfeit the appointment time missed; if your tardiness is more than 50% of the allotted appointment time, you must reschedule the appointment, and we reserve our right to assess a “no-show” fee.

The two biggest reasons for our clinic running behind schedule are (1) late patients and (2) patients requesting services that were not scheduled—the “since we’re already here can you…” requests. We will accommodate such requests only if the schedule allows, otherwise you will be asked to schedule a new appointment to address this additional need(s).

The habitual scheduling of appointments for a “lesser” need so as to corner the provider into providing additional or more complex services during the appointment is grounds for discharge from our clinic.

Sick or Office Visits

We will make every attempt to accommodate acute sick visit requests on the same day; non-urgent patients will be triaged by a nurse—our goal is to only bring in those patients that really need to be seen. If you are unable to keep your sick visit appointment, we ask that you call to reschedule or cancel the appointment no later than 2 hours prior to the appointment time, otherwise we reserve our right to assess a “no-show” fee.

We have a very busy clinic, so our daily allotment of slots for acute sick visits can fill up quickly. Don’t delay in calling our office if you believe you have an acute issue.

Preventive or Well Visits

Our preventive visit schedule for newborns is 2–3 days after hospital discharge, then at 2 weeks, 1 month, 2 months, 4 months, 6 months, 9 months, 12 months, 15 months and 18 months; patients 24 months and older should be seen annually. Please keep in mind when scheduling a preventive visit that all third-party payers have very strict rules governing the frequency of preventive visits and what services are covered as “preventive.” If you are unable to keep your preventive visit appointment, we ask that you call to reschedule or cancel the appointment no later than 2 business days prior to the appointment time, otherwise we reserve our right to assess a “no-show” fee. Due to the non-urgent nature of preventive visits, we cannot accommodate same day appointment requests.

We have a very busy clinic, so preventive visits are often scheduling several weeks out. Don’t delay in scheduling your next preventive visit—especially for a newborn. We do give priority to newborn preventive visits due to their frequency and greater urgency, but we continue to experience a “baby boom” that fills our allotment of slots quickly.

No Shows Without Notification

We reserve the right to charge a “no show” fee for any missed appointment that is not canceled or rescheduled 10 business days prior for an initial consult, 2 business days prior for a follow-up consult, 2 business days prior for a preventive visit or 2 hours prior for an acute sick visit.

The habitual missing of appointments without notice is grounds for discharge from our clinic.