- Initial Consult Instructions
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If you have an appointment for an initial consultation,
please be sure to fill out our intake questionnaire and
other paper work in advance of you appointment. You should
receive these forms in the mail several days prior to your
appointment. If you do not receive these forms, please call
our office so that we may get them out to you. If we are
unable to get these forms to you before your appointment,
please arrive one (1) hour earlier than the appointment
time, as it takes quite a while to complete all of the
forms. Also, please be sure and bring the latest copy of
your insurance card and your driver’s license or some other
governmental identification with you.
Please be sure and bring your most recent radiographic films
(X-Rays, MRI, CT) with you. We have no way to get these
films. We ask that you stop by the facility where the
studies were performed and sign them out yourself. Many
facilities no longer routinely print the films; instead they
will give you the pictures on a CD. However, if specifically
requested, often time they will print the actual films. We
ask that you make this request.
Please bring all of your current medications with you. An
accurate, up to date, list of medications is acceptable,
however, experience has shown us that simply placing all of
your medicine bottles into a bag and bringing them in is the
easiest, most complete, and accurate thing to do.
Please do not anticipate a procedure on the day of your
initial consultation. The initial visit is for evaluation
only. If you and we decide that you may benefit from an
interventional procedure then this will be scheduled for a
future visit.
- If you are scheduled for a procedure
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You must have an adult accompany you to drive you home after
the procedure and to stay with you as needed. Other
arrangements may be made, but in all cases, you will need a
driver.
For your safety and to help avoid nausea, please have no
solid foods for four (4) hours before and no liquids for one
hour before your procedure. However, you may take your usual
medicines, including pain medicine, with a sip of water, as
you would routinely take them.
If you are taking blood thinners please be sure to let your
clinical provider and our staff know this. It is necessary
for you to stop your blood thinners in advance of having a
procedure. For your safety, we ask that you contact the
physician who is prescribing this medication for you and
check with him or her to be sure it is safe for you to
discontinue this several days prior to your procedure.
Patients who are on Coumadin are of particular concern. It
is almost always safe to discontinue this medicine for a
short while to allow your bleeding time to go back to
normal, however, this should be cleared with the prescribing
physician. We will need to have you get your bleeding time
checked prior to any procedure if you are taking coumadin.
Blood thinners such as Plavix, Ticlid, aspirin, and
medicines related to ibuprofen (e.g. Advil) may be safely
stopped seven (7) days prior to your procedure without
getting a blood test. But, again, check with your
prescribing doctor to be sure it is safe. If the only blood
thinner you take is one regular aspirin a day, then we ask
that you change this to one baby aspirin a day for at least
seven (7) days before your procedure. Typically you should
resume your usual blood thinners the evening after your
procedure, but check with your doctor here at PMA to be sure
this is what he or she wishes you to do.
Click here
for a list of blood thinners. This is not a complete list.
If you are a diabetic and you are scheduled for a procedure
in the morning, take only half of your usual insulin dose.
If you use oral diabetic medicines, do not take any of
these. We ask you to do this so that your sugar level does
not go too low, since you will not be eating.
Please wear loose fitting clothing; sweat pants and shirts
are perfectly acceptable.
- Follow-up Visits
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If we are prescribing controlled medications for you, e.g.
narcotic pain pills, or a medication in the same class as
valium, then you must bring these medications with you at
every and any visit with any of the providers here at PMA.
If you do not do this, we may not be able to renew any of
these prescriptions.
- If you are a PMA patient and you are having a problem
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If you believe you are experiencing a medical emergency,
then please call 911 or have someone transport you to the
nearest emergency room. If the emergency room doctor feels
he or she needs to contact us then they will have the means
to do so.
If your problem is not an emergency, during business hours
or after hours, please call our office. Unfortunately we do
not have enough personnel to allow a human to answer the
high volume of calls we receive. Therefore, we ask that you
leave a message on the nurse’s message line. The messages
are reviewed throughout the day. These are passed on to your
provider (doctor, nurse practitioner, or physician’s
assistant). They will act on the message and either they or
one of our staff will get back to you. We try our best to
accomplish this in a timely fashion.
- Patient Demographic Intake
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If you or your physician feel that you may benefit from a
referral to our clinic, please have his/her office make the
appointment for you, or you may call us at