APPOINTMENTS

We ask that you arrive 15-20 minutes before your scheduled appointment to update or complete necessary paperwork.  As a courtesy, we do give appointment reminder calls. All efforts are made to keep our providers schedules on time; therefore, if you are more than 10 minutes late, every effort will be made to fit you into the schedule; however, there is no guarantee that you will be seen.  If your provider’s schedule is full you will be asked to reschedule your appointment.

TELEPHONE CALLS

In order for us to prioritize calls, we ask patients to let the receptionist know the nature of your problem or questions.  Genuine emergencies are our first priority.  Urgent calls are handled as soon as possible, and non-emergent calls are returned as time permits throughout the day and after office hours. Our goal is to handle the non-emergent calls within 24 hours.  We ask that patients please cooperate with this procedure which allows the providers to provide professional medical service to patients in our office without continually being interrupted by outside calls.

PRESCRIPTION REFILLS

We ask that you please contact your pharmacy to request a refill prior to calling our office and allow 24 to 48 hours to complete this request.  You will need to plan ahead and call a few days before you are completely out of your medication.  Prescription refills may be denied if you have not kept scheduled appointments or we were not the prescribing providers.  If you have an appointment scheduled we will be glad to call in enough medication to cover you until that time.

Refills will not be issued over the weekend or after the office is closed unless it is urgent.

NARCOTIC PAIN MEDICATION REFILLS WILL ONLY BE FILLED during office hours when the physician and nurse have access to your medical records.  Please have the name and phone number of the pharmacy your choice available at the time of your call.

EMERGENCIES

After 5:00 pm on weekdays, and on the weekends, an answering service is available for emergencies.  Please limit after hour calls to emergencies only.  In the event you determine the problem is a life-threatening emergency, proceed directly to the hospital emergency room.  If our assistance is needed, the physician on duty will contact us.  If you are concerned the problem may be other than routine but not life-threatening, you may follow the answering service instructions regarding paging the physician on call.  The physician on call will return you call as soon as they are able.

MEDICAL RECORDS

Medical records are the property of Bend OB/GYN; however you are entitled to photocopies, with sufficient advanced notice, upon receipt of a signed Medical Records Release.  Please note that we can only release those records that originated in our office – we cannot release records from other doctor’s offices that may be in your chart.  If medical records are requested directly from another physician’s office, they are sent directly to that office at no charge.  If medical records are requested by an insurance company or an attorney’s office, then the requesting company will pay the medical record copying fee.  If you request a copy of your medical records, then the following fees will apply:  $15.00 for the first 1-10 pages; $25.00 for 10 pages or more.  Please allow 10 to 14 days for copying records.