NEW PATIENT FORMS & POLICIES

Policies

As you become a patient at Mountain View, we think it is important for you to know a few things about our approach to your medical care and how we operate our clinic. We feel that when our goals are aligned with your goals, excellent care happens.

For acute visits, please call our office and our office staff will help triage your care to make sure you get an appointment or phone advice. Once you are a patient of Mountain View, you can also communicate with us through our electronic health record and we make every effort to respond to these messages in a timely manner. Well care visits may be scheduled out months in advance so please call us to set that type of appointment up.

We do make every effort to be on time with appointments. Sometimes emergencies do occur within the office and this gets us backed up. If this is the case, please know that we do value your time, we will communicate with you and mutually decide if any changes need to be made to your appointment. We do not take walk in appointments.

We understand that sometimes emergencies occur that might make you miss an appointment. If this is the case, please call us. Please see additional information on this below.

One of our providers is always on call 24/7 365 days per week. If there is an emergent or urgent issue that cannot wait until morning, you may call our main number and you will be connected. There may be a charge for phone advice after normal business hours. We do not do medication refills after hours or on the weekends so please plan accordingly. Please remember that this service is for emergencies and not routine questions.

We do recommend all vaccines as outlined by the Centers for Disease Control, the American Academy of Family Practice, and the American Academy of Pediatrics.

We do recommend that all patients have a UC Health portal. This allows you to see your medical record and communicate directly with us. Please contact us for instructions.

We do not routinely prescribe antibiotics over the phone. We work hard to ensure good antibiotic stewardship in accordance with evidence-based guidance. If you are concerned that you or a family member need an antibiotic, please call for an appointment.

Late-To-Appointment Policy

If you are an established patient and you are late to your appointment, you may be asked to reschedule unless the provider’s schedule can still accommodate you. Priority will be given to patients who arrive on time and you may have to be worked in to the schedule between them. This may mean you may have a considerable wait. If this is not convenient or you, you may choose to reschedule. One or two late patients cause the entire daily schedule to fall behind and this is hard for all of our staff and patients as we try to see every patient as close to their appointment time as possible.

“No-Show” or Missed Appointment Policy

We make every effort to make a reminder call at least 24 hours before your appointment. However, it is your responsibility to remember your appointment. We charge a $35 missed appointment fee for patients who do not keep their scheduled appointment time or who cancel less than 3 hours in advance. If this should happen more than twice, a $55 charge will be incurred for the third incident. All fees must be paid before a new appointment can be scheduled. After three missed appointments, Mountain View Family Medicine may, at its discretion, choose to discontinue your care.

After Hours

We do have a provider on-call after hours who you may contact if you have an emergency. We do not do medication refills after hours or on weekends. Phone calls are designed for emergencies, and not routine questions. There may be a charge for phone calls after hours.

Referrals and ED/Urgent Care Visits

We are committed to providing you with the best possible care, as well as establishing and maintaining a very strong provider-patient relationship. The scope of Family Medicine is very broad, and we can see and do most things you need here in our clinic. If you are wondering whether your doctor provides a specific service, please refer to the SERVICES tab or feel free to ask us.

We recommend your family seek care first from your PCP or another provider here, for most common conditions, rather than going to a specialist, the urgent care, or the emergency department. If you are unsure whether or not you need to be seen immediately, we can help advise you.

Depending on the type of health insurance you have, you may or may not be able to go straight to a specialist when you think you need the services they offer.

If you have a health maintenance organization (HMO) or a point of service (POS) plan, you’ll probably need to go to your primary care physician (PCP) first. If they agree that you need to see a specialist, they’ll refer you to one they trust, and make note of it in your medical file.

In order to make sure that everything is in order regarding seeing a specialist, it pays to be proactive. Make sure that your insurer has received a referral before you make an appointment with a specialist. Only then will you know that your visit to the specialist will be covered under your healthcare plan. Let us know if you have questions. We know this can be complicated and we can help.