Frequently Asked Questions

What is a Family Physician?

What do I need to know prior to my first appointment?

What do I need to know prior to appointment for an adult complete physical examination?

What do I need to know prior to appointment for a child complete physical examination?

What if I am unable to keep my appointment?

What if I need a prescription medicine refilled?

What if I need a referral to see a specialist?

What if I have a medical question for one of the providers?

What if I need to speak to a provider after office hours?



What is a Family Physician?
A Family Physician is a doctor who takes care of your whole family. Family Physician specializes in Family Medicine, the medical specialty which provides continuing, comprehensive health care for the individual and family. It is a specialty in breadth that integrates the biological, clinical and behavioral sciences. The scope of family medicine encompasses all ages, both sexes, each organ system and every disease entity.

Family physicians are trained in all areas of medicine. After graduating from medical school, they complete three more years of specialized medical residency training in Family Medicine, and then take examination to become board certified. They continue to educate themselves through continuing medical education. This allows them to apply the latest medical breakthroughs to the everyday care of their patients. Family physicians create caring relationships with patients and their families. They help them make the right health care decisions. They know when to treat a patient, and when to bring in another specialist patient can trust.


What do I need to know prior to my first appointment?
Please make sure that you arrive at least 15 minutes prior to your appointment time. This is important so you have enough time to fill out some paper work that is required prior to seeing the provider. Do not forget to bring your insurance card. You are required to pay your insurance co-pay at the time of office visit. We accept Cash, Check, Visa, MasterCard and American express card.


What do I need to know prior to appointment for an adult complete physical examination?
Please arrive 10 minutes prior to your appointment time, so as to allow enough time to fill out any paper work required before you see the provider. Your provider will order some blood tests based on your specific health needs. If you are planning to go to the laboratory for the blood tests after your visit to our office, please do not eat or drink anything except water 10-12 hours prior to the test.


What do I need to know prior to appointment for a child complete physical examination?
Please arrive 10 minutes prior to your appointment time, so as to allow enough time to fill out any paper work required before you see the provider. Please bring any forms (such as school/college physical form, sports/camp physical form, medication form for school etc) that need to be filled and signed by the provider. Do not forget to bring a copy of your child’s immunization record.


What if I am unable to keep my appointment?
Please be considerate and inform us as soon as you come to know that you will be unable to keep your appointment. This will help us assign the appointment slot to another patient who needs to be seen.

  • Please understand that failure to cancel appointment at least 24 hours prior to appointment time will result in a charge of $25 if it was a routine (non-physical) appointment or $50 if the appointment was for a complete physical examination.


What if I need a prescription medicine refilled?
If you need to refill a medicine that was originally prescribed by our providers AND your last office visit was within last 6 months, you can either call us during normal business hours or have your pharmacist fax us a prescription refill request to our office. Please allow 48-72 hours for a routine prescription refill.

  • Please request a prescription refill as soon as you come to know that you are running out of a medicine (again at least 48-72 hours prior to last pill scheduled time).
  • Please do not call for a routine prescription refill after normal business hours.
  • Please advise your pharmacy to fax us the prescription refill request only once and then allow us a minimum of 24-48 hours to honor the request.
  • Please understand that we do not prescribe antibiotics over the phone, except for a rare occasion when we feel it is absolutely necessary. The reason being in most cases we need to see the patient prior to deciding if antibiotics are required for a particular problem. This helps in preventing use of antibiotics when these are not required, thus avoiding harmful side-effects of antibiotics and also preventing the bacteria becoming quickly resistant to antibiotics, ultimately resulting in better care for our patients.


What if I need a referral to see a specialist?
Most of the time you need to be seen by a provider in our office before getting a referral to see another specialist. This is important so as to get authorization from your insurance company to see a specialist. It takes at least 3 business days to process a routine referral. Urgent referrals will be processed same day if permitted by your insurance company. You will need to fill out a form regarding specialist information and also information about your disease/diagnosis for which a referral is required. Please understand that there will be a charge of $25 for same-day processing of a non-urgent referral request.


What if I have a medical question for one of the providers?
If you have a question for a provider, please call us and leave a detail message with the front office secretary. Providers are not available to take your call right away because they are busy with the patients all day. However, providers do check the messages intermittently throughout the day and will return your call as soon as the time allows, usually the same day but sometimes the next day (depending on the urgency of the problem).


What if I need to speak to a provider after office hours?
If you have an urgent question and would like to speak to a provider, please dial 703-723-3110 and follow the prompts to leave a detailed message and your phone number for the provider. You will get a call back within 20-30 minutes. If you have not received a call after 30 minutes, please page the provider again because sometimes a page may not go through.

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Office Phone
(703) 723-3110