Appointments and Patient Information
Here you will find information about:
-Making appointments
-What to bring when you come in for an appointment
-Prescriptions and refills
-Hospitalization
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MAKING APPOINTMENTS
We will try to accommodate your schedule if at all possible. To make an appointment, call us at 541-526-5801. If the lines are busy, leave us a message about the type of appointment you need, a phone number where you can be reached, and we will call you back as soon as possible.
We routinely schedule longer appointments than most clinics do because we believe that you deserve all the time necessary to get the care you need and to have your questions answered and your concerns dealt with. Sometimes, however, we won’t be able to cover it all in one visit and a follow up appointment will be necessary.
If for some reason you are going to be unable to make it to your scheduled appointment, please call the office to let us know as soon as you can. Someone else probably needs that time slot. We will be happy to reschedule your appointment. (Also refer to PAYMENT FOR SERVICES section.)
Same Day and Urgent Care Appointments: We reserve a few short appointments every day for urgent health concerns that come up. These “same day” appointments are given out on a first come, first serve basis, so if you need to be seen immediately for something, be sure to call as early in the day as possible.
Urgent Pages: Outside of clinic hours, if you need to talk about an urgent medical issue, the Nurse Practitioner can be paged on our beeper system. Call 541-604-6192 and enter a phone number where you can be reached. She will return your page as soon as possible. Please do not page for a true emergency; CALL 9-1-1. We don’t want you waiting for us to call you back if you are in real trouble.
We are here for you, and we want you to page us when you need us. But please don’t wear us out on less than urgent issues. (We need lives too!)
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WHAT TO BRING WHEN YOU COME
If you have medical insurance, always bring your insurance card and co-pay with you to every visit, or we may have to reschedule your appointment. We need current information in order to bill your insurance company. Also let us know if your contact information or address changes.
You are always welcome to bring a family member or friend with you to your appointments. They can be your advocate and help you by taking notes or giving you support. Please understand that we have no waiting room here, and only limited seating outside of our exam rooms for anyone who you don’t feel comfortable having in the room with you during your appointment.
It is very helpful if you have a list of all your current prescription drugs as well as any over the counter medicines or supplements that you have been taking, including your dosages. If it’s too much hassle to write it all down, you can bring them all in a bag with you when you come. Remember that it is extremely important to your health that we know everything you take and how much you are taking every time we see you.
If you have been seeing any specialist or other providers, it also helps if you bring copies of your latest test results for us to go over. We need to have a complete record of your health care, which allows us to be sure that any treatment we provide will work with, and not against, what any other health care provider is recommending for you.
If you have High Blood Pressure: get a series of readings during the week before your visit and bring the numbers with you, so we can see how your blood pressure is doing.
If you have Diabetes: record your blood sugar measurements and bring the log with you to every visit.
You can find a printable log here on our website under the "Patient Forms" section.
Remember, your office visit is your time to be heard. Start with your most pressing concerns first. We want to be sure that all of your important issues are dealt with. Waiting till the end of your appointment to ask about something might not give us enough time to explore all of your options. If for some reason we are unable to deal with all of your concerns at one visit, we will schedule a follow up visit, which will allow us the extra time to address your remaining issues and answer your questions.
It is always okay to bring in a written list of concerns or questions with you. You will find our version of “the list” on our web site. Please feel free to print off a copy to use for each appointment. Writing things down will help you to avoid forgetting anything. You are also welcome to take notes during the visit, or to ask us to write it down for you.
Children: It’s okay to bring your children to an appointment, if you need to, but remember that we only have a small play area for your kids to enjoy. The rules in the play are: they may play with all the toys, they must play quietly, and they must put all the toys away, then they will get a sticker as a reward. Most of us are mommies too, and we love having the kids visit us!
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PRESCRIPTION REFILLS
Call your pharmacy, not the clinic, when you need a refill of your medicines, even if it says “no refills” on the bottle, or is a prescription that is old or has expired. You may already have a refill order on file. If you do not, the pharmacist will contact us regarding the refill, providing the clinic with current and correct information about your medication. This process is also “Green” and earth friendly.
Always call your pharmacy before you go to pick the medication to be sure the refill has been taken care of. Sometimes issues come up that can delay this process and we do not want you making unnecessary trips. If for any reason we will not refill a medication, your pharmacy will let you know.
If your medication requires a written prescription (medication such as Ritalin or Concerta), contact us at least 48 hours in advance. Plan to pick it up during regular business hours.
Please Note:
· We generally do not complete routine medication refill requests after hours or on weekends. We will not refill narcotic medications after hours.
· Turning Path Clinic requires a patient to pick up their own prescriptions, samples, and or forms, etc. If for any reason this can’t be done, the patient must provide a note with patients’ signature, item to be picked up, the current date and the designated persons’ name.
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HOSPITALIZATION
At Turning Path Clinic, our goal is to keep all of our patients out of the hospital. But sometimes a patient is in need of care that only a hospital can deliver. Turning Path Clinic patients are admitted to our Central Oregon hospitals by hospitalist physicians.
These doctors are internal medicine specialists who manage the care of very sick or injured hospitalized patients. We are confident in the quality of the care they provide.
Please know that even if we do not manage your care there, our staff and Nurse Practitioners are your advocates. Do not hesitate to call or have your family or a friend call if you are ever hospitalized and need us for any reason. We will be there for you!
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