At times you may have the need to contact your physician or member of your healthcare
team. Here are some guidelines to follow on how to contact them and information
you may need to share.
Trouble managing side effects of your chemotherapy (i.e. vomiting,
diarrhea, fever, or any other worrisome symptoms): Our phone operator answers incoming
calls during office hours (8:30am to 5:00pm).
Please briefly tell our operator why you are calling so that she/he can quickly determine where to route your call,
as well as assess the urgency of the situation. A message will be taken so that calls
can be returned in order of medical priority. The earlier you can call during our
office hours the better chance that we may be able to intervene with things such
as IV fluids or a visit with a physician or the nurse practitioner/physician assistant.
Call 911 for life threatening situations. Examples of life threatening situations
include unusual or excessive bleeding, acute chest pain, unconsciousness, convulsions,
or difficulty breathing.
If after hours or on holidays or weekends please call 757-466-8683
and you will speak to the answering service. Let the answering service briefly know
your needs. The physician on call will then return your call. If you do not hear
back from the physician in 1 hour please call again and let the answering service
know this is a repeat call. If you speak to a physician who suggests you come into
our office the next day, please contact the office the following workday morning
to ensure that you have scheduled time to see the physician or nurse practitioner/physician
assistant. You will only be seen if you have a scheduled appointment
It is important to have the following information available so that the physician
on call will know how to direct you. Remember they will not have your chart, so
the following information may be very helpful to them.
- Your full name (not nickname)
- If you are the patient or significant other
- Who your physician is in this practice
- What your disease is (i.e. lung cancer, breast cancer, anemia, etc.)
- If you are undergoing chemotherapy, the name of it, and when you last received treatment
- What your symptoms are, such as fever, vomiting, diarrhea, pain, etc. and how long
you have had them
- What methods if any you have used at home to help resolve the symptoms?
- Any allergies
- Your pharmacy’s name and number
If in need of medication refills that have been prescribed by the doctor, please give your pharmacy 48 to 72 hours notice and they will then contact us. We request these be handled during regular office hours so that your chart is available. Please plan on checking with your pharmacy before going to pick them up to be certain they have been filled. Some narcotic pain medications require a hand written prescription so please be prepared to have someone pick up the prescriptions at our office. The doctor cannot call these in on the weekend and need to be requested only during normal office hours. If you are requesting a written prescription for mail order, please confirm with us if you want to pick it up, or have it mailed to a certain address.