Scheduling Appointments

At this time, all appointments are made by calling our office at 631-385-0022 and scheduling appointments directly with our staff. We do not accept online appointments.

Patients need to sign in at our front desk when they arrive. If for any reason a patient is kept waiting for more than 30 minutes, he/she should advise a front desk staff member. Patients should not be expected to wait longer than that unless an emergency has occurred.

Our nuclear imaging  scan test schedules require that patients be in our office for approximately 3 hours. PET scans require approximately 1.5-2 hours. Most other visits take approximately 30-45 minutes.

When patients are in our office for a visit or test, our doctors will indicate on a form what else they may need for their ongoing, future care. Those appointments for visits or tests will be scheduled before the patient leaves the office. It is advisable that patients not say that they will go home and check their schedules. Very often patients never schedule needed appointments and doctors do not know that what they ordered was not scheduled. It is better to schedule appointments and then call in and change times and dates if necessary.

Please understand that there are times, especially in a cardiology practice, when doctors are called out on emergencies which will then affect their office schedules. Patients’ appointments may need to be rescheduled in these circumstances. If this happens a patient should make sure that he/she is rescheduled within a week. If a patient is offered an appointment further out than a week, please ask to speak to the office manager.

Confirmation of Appointments

We confirm all appointments by telephone. It is important that patients provide at least two phone numbers so that if our systems can not reach a patient on one phone, a second attempt on a second phone number can be made. Confirmations occur usually one to two days prior to scheduled visits. If a patient does not get a confirmation call, he/she should call our office because this may indicate that there is a problem with that scheduled appointment.

Cancellation Policy

For regular visits and tests we require 24 hour notice if an appointment needs to be canceled. Without such notice we charge a $25 fee.

For nuclear tests and PET scans, we require at least 24 hour notice of cancellation and if none is given, there is a $200 charge for a nuclear scan and a $500 charge for  PET scan because doses of radiopharmaceuticals are purchased in advance and cannot be used by other patients.

We do understand that in some cases patients have true emergencies. In such cases we will waive the $25 fee for office visits and tests other than nuclear tests, but for nuclear patients we require proof of emergency.

Patient Emergencies

If you have a true emergency, please call 911 for immediate care. If you have symptoms that are troublesome to you, and they occur during our regular office hours, you may call our office at any time. A nurse or doctor will handle your call promptly.

If you have an emergency or troublesome symptoms after our office hours, we provide an answering service that will respond to your call on a 24/7 basis. They will reach either your physician or an on call physician who should call you back promptly.