At Advanced Brain and Spine Institute, we cater to the specific needs of every patient we treat, starting from the initial evaluation and throughout the treatment process.
Appointments
We accept both direct patients and patient referrals from physicians. Appointments are made by phone, but you can also fill out our online form and we will contact you as soon as possible. The vast majority of insurance plans do not require a referral from another physician. However, at the time of scheduling your appointment, we will contact the insurance company for you and let you know if a specific referral is required.
Cancellations or Rescheduling Appointments
Please notify us immediately if you must cancel your appointment. We value the time of our patients and we keep accurate appointments the majority of the time. Occasionally, however, we are on-call for emergencies at the hospital and delays may occur, although we make every effort to inform our patients before their visits or during their appointment. On rare occasions, it will be necessary for us to reschedule appointments with short notice. We apologize in advance for the inconvenience this may cause.
What to Bring with You
We make effort in trying to obtain medical records and radiology reports for you, but it is very important to bring your actual imaging studies, such as MRI, CTs, x-rays on a CD-ROM or actual hard films, and double check that the correct radiology is on the CD, in addition to the radiology report if it is available with you. Furthermore, we request that you bring the following items with you:
-All insurance information and ID cards
-Written list of food or drug allergies and all current medications and dosages
-Names and phone numbers of all physicians involved in your care.
Medical Records
Release of medical record copies to another clinic requires the written consent of the patient and will take 7 to 10 working days. Occasionally, obtaining records from other facilities will also require a separate release form by them, but we can also fill out that request at our facility with your signature.
Telephone Calls
We encourage you to contact us if you have questions about medical problems. Our staff
is prepared to answer your questions and can obtain information directly from your physician.
Our answering service will forward your voicemail message to our staff if the call is after hours and is of urgent nature. Calls with non-urgent medical questions and non-medical questions will be answered the next business day. Extended questions regarding major decision, such as surgery, may require a new appointment. We only accept questions of non-medical nature through our website.
Prescriptions
All new prescriptions and refills for controlled substances should be requested during your office visit. Refills of uncontrolled medications can be made over the phone if an urgent supply is needed, but you have to allow 4 business days. If controlled medication refill is required before your normal follow up appointment, a new appointment scheduled earlier has to be made so it is imperative that you keep track of medications and prepare for the refill at least 1 week before running out of medications. Requests for prescription refills cannot be addressed on weekends or holidays unless they are of urgent nature and for post-operative patients.
