Office Policies
Alden Medical Group, PLLC provides medical services by appointment. Patients cannot walk into the office and expect to be seen by their provider. When we see patients without appointments we create situations that are unfair to other patients. True emergency treatment should always go to the hospital emergency room.
Our phone lines are open 9AM to 5PM Monday through Wednesday, 9 AM to 4 PM Thursday, 9AM to 4:30 PM on Friday, and 9 AM to 1PM on Saturday. We experience a high volume of calls Monday through Friday. We understand that your time is valuable and we appreciate your cooperation while waiting for the next available representative. If you happen to call during lunch hours you may be redirected to our answering service to which you will have to leave a message. In addition, established patients may use the online patient portal to communicate with the office for administrative (appointments, billings, non-urgent questions) matters.
New patients must be seen for an initial appointment to establish a doctor-patient relationship before we can begin to provide medical care or prescribe medication. New patient appointments require extra time and it is important that new patients keep their initial appointments.
New Patients who fail to keep their new patient appointment without proper cancellation notice will be sent a letter informing them that the practice will no longer be able to accept them as a patient.
Established patients calling for appointments for urgent or sick visits are offered our sick visit appointments for that day. If there are no more available appointments for that day, the nature and severity of your illness will be assessed to determine when you can be seen or refer you to an immediate care center or emergency room for urgent care.
Appointments must be cancelled in a timely manner or there may be a missed appointment charge of $15. In most cases, timely cancellation means informing the office at least 24 hours prior to the appointment time. Established patients who do not show for more than three appointments without timely cancellation will be sent a letter discharging them from the practice.
As a courtesy, we remind our patients of their upcoming appointments by phone. Lack of an answering machine, busy signals, and unlisted/changed/non-working phone numbers mean that we cannot always accomplish the reminder. Please keep your appointment on your calendar.
Patients who walk in and demand to see a provider are disruptive and this jeopardizes the doctor-patient relationship. It is our policy to see patients by appointment and we will not be able to accommodate any walk-in requests.
Vaccine Policy
As primary care family medicine physicians we believe in the prevention of diseases, and stress the importance of promoting healthy lifestyle and medical practices. This includes disease prevention and vaccination against serious medical diseases that can be life threatening, especially to children. Refusal to vaccinate continues to be an ongoing problem in the community. Based on evidence and scientific research, we believe in the effectiveness and safety of vaccines to prevent serious and life threatening illnesses. We also believe that there is no current medical literature, evidence, or study supporting the idea that routine preventive vaccines cause behavioral or other developmental disabilities.
By choosing not to vaccinate yourself, you are putting your family at risk for serious illnesses or even death. Furthermore, it is irresponsible to rely on others in the community who have been vaccinated to help protect your own children and family.
We do not intend to coerce or scare you into vaccinating your children and family, but believe vaccination is an important part of health maintenance and prevention. We feel strongly that vaccinating children on schedule, and remaining current with available vaccines is the medically correct thing to do for our patients.