Southwest Medical Associates, Inc.
Northside Medical Offices Westside Offices
6100 Pan American Frwy. NE 4420 Irving Blvd NW
Albuquerque, NM 87114 Albuquerque, NM 87114
505-823-1010 505-823-1010
If you are new to Southwest Medical Associates (SMA) Family Medicine Department, we welcome you and express our appreciation that you have chosen our group to provide your primary care needs. If you are an established patient, we thank you for your continued selection of our family medicine group as your personal physicians. Southwest Medical Associates, Inc., is a multi-specialty group; family medicine is provided by eleven board certified family medicine physicians, the authors of this letter. This letter contains important information about obtaining primary medical care through the SMA Family Medicine Department.
It is our goal to provide you with high quality, convenient medical care by a caring staff in a modern facility. There are times, however, that it may be difficult to get an appointment with your personal family physician on the same day as your call to the clinic to schedule an appointment (referred to as “same day” appointments). If you have a medical problem you believe requires “same day” attention, we encourage you to call as early as possible during our clinic hours to schedule an appointment with your primary physician. If your primary doctor does not have an available appointment time for you, we encourage you to schedule your appointment with any family medicine physician in the clinic having an available appointment time. Although every physician reserves a significant number of appointment times for “same day” appointments, these appointments may be taken quickly. Therefore, each day one of the family medicine physicians sets aside a large number of urgent care appointment times, sometimes the entire day, to meet your same day appointment needs. Generally speaking, routine visits and physician examinations are not scheduled at times reserved for urgent “same day” appointments. Unscheduled walk-in visits are highly discouraged as you may have a very long waiting period before you can be seen, or you may be asked to schedule your appointment on another day.
We ask that you provide at least 24 hours advance notice to cancel an appointment. If, however, due to circumstances not under your control, you are unable to keep your appointment and are also unable to provide at least 24 hours advance notice, please let us know as soon as possible so that we may schedule another person requiring care.
If your insurance company requires that you obtain a referral from a primary care physician prior to seeing a specialist, they also require your primary care physician to conduct a medical evaluation of your medical problem and your need for specialty care. Therefore, if you believe you need to see a specialist, we ask that you make an appointment with your primary care physician in order that he or she may evaluate the problem and make a determination of the need for, and nature of, the specialty referral. If you are already being seen by a specialist and need your referral renewed, we ask that you notify us of your need for a new referral at least one week in advance of your appointment with the specialist to allow us the time to prepare the referral.
Please call your pharmacy regarding refills on medication at least 72 hours in advance to allow sufficient time for the pharmacy, and for your physician, to receive and respond to your request before you run out of your medication. For maintenance medication, your physician will normally provide refills to last until it is time for your next office visit. If you are out of refills, this may indicate that it is time for you to schedule an appointment with the physician.
Should you have a brief question or feel the need to speak to your physician by phone, we are available to answer phone messages during those clinic hours when we are not actively providing direct patient care. This is usually during the noon hour or at the end of the day. The nurse or medical assistant may be asked to return your call after discussing the matter with the physician. Considerable effort is made to respond to phone messages within 24 hours of their receipt, however, with a busy clinic schedule, our telephone time is limited. It is preferable that the evaluation and treatment of medical problems be conducted during a scheduled office visit with your physician where you can receive adequate care and attention. We appreciate your understanding and consideration in this regard.
We thank you for allowing us to participate in your health care and hope the above information will assist you in obtaining prompt and convenient medical care.
Sincerely,
Charles Chavez, M.D., Diane Combs, M.D., Thomas Gross, M.D., Antoinette Hayek, M.D., Michael Hennelly, M.D., Jay Jacobi, M.D., Katharine Pickett, M.D., Melvin Romero, M.D., Angela Sanchez, M.D., Amy Schmidt, M.D., Celia Valdez, M.D.