Starting March 1st, I will no longer be relying on local physicians to cover my practice.  When you call my office line at 888-480-1115, you will be asked to leave a voice mail for me, and I will get back to you shortly, just as before my maternity leave.  Same with emails–I will be checking these with more regularity and will respond shortly.  I will also be available for your urgent health issues that require calling my personal cell phone.  I have made temporary childcare arrangements that will allow me to go into the office for a few hours a day in order to take care of your urgent needs.  I’m hoping this will cut down on your need to visit an urgent care or emergency room.  I will be limiting the number of routine visits I schedule (such as annual exams and non-urgent follow ups), as I feel I should give first priority to those who have urgent needs.  However, I still encourage you to call/email if you’d like to set up a non-urgent appointment, as I assume I will have space to see many of you.   

Another way I can serve you while juggling the demands of work and childcare is via telephone consults.  Think of these as a type of “virtual office visit” over the phone, which may help us address routine concerns that don’t warrant an urgent visit in the office. Telephone consults are appointments done over the telephone at a scheduled time. They are appropriate for issues when a physical exam is unnecessary, such as discussing lab results, nutrition/diet concerns, supplements, prescription of some medications, and issues like depression, anxiety, or insomnia. Telephone consults can be quite convenient, but unfortunately they’re not covered by insurance. A typical charge is $75 for a 20-30 minute long consult.  These are simply another option for you.  In fact, telephone consults are always available, not just during my maternity leave.  Patients who have a hard time getting into the office appreciate their ease and convenience!

I will be limiting the number of new patients I accept for the next few months.  My top priority is to make sure there is excellent access for those who are already patients of mine.  If I find that I have extra time, I will make those slots available to new patients on a first come, first serve basis.  If you’re a new patient considering my practice, please call and I’ll be happy to give you details about the wait time (if any).

My goal during these next few months is to meet the vast majority of my patients health-care needs and to make it feel like I’m back to “business as usual”.  I appreciate your understanding for those times when there may be a slight delay in addressing your important health issues.  Most of all, I look forward to seeing you in the office in the near future and catching up!

Wishing you the best until then,

Jennifer Wallace

Office Hours

The office will be open Monday and Friday 10-5, Wednesday 12-7. Office or home visits on non-business days (Tuesday, Thursday, holidays and the weekend) may be available by prior arrangement.

Appointment Scheduling

If you are a new patient, please call the office at 888-480-1115 and leave a message. I will get back to you shortly to discuss appointment times and the new patient information packet.

If you are an established patient and would like to schedule a routine appointment, call the office at 888-480-1115 and leave me a message stating what the appointment is for and how soon you would like to be seen. On the message, leave a few dates and times (on MWF) that would work for you.  I will get back to you by the next business day, and often quite a bit sooner.

If you are an established patient and would like to schedule an urgent office visit on a business day (MWF), simply call the office line and leave me a message.  Urgent visits are scheduled on a first-come first-serve basis, so calling as soon as you know you need an appointment will help secure your spot.  In fact, since you are leaving a voice mail, feel free to call in the middle of the night so I get your request first thing in the morning.  If you call before 9:30 am I will have time to call you back before the clinic opens and offer you an appointment before the end of the day. If you call after 9:30 am, I may not get to my voice mails for several hours, depending on how busy the office is, making it less likely I can offer you a same day appointment.  So call early!  If you call for an urgent visit on a non-business day (Tu/Th/weekend), I will offer you an appointment on the next business day. In certain situations, I may be able to open the office to address urgent health needs on a non-business day or arrange a home visit, in efforts to save you a trip to the emergency room/urgent care. In both cases, additional fees may apply, which are sometimes covered by insurance.

Parking/Transport

The clinic is located at 1235 SE Division at the corner of 12th avenue. It is a dark green building behind the Artemis Café. The entrance to the building is located to the right of the café. Non-metered street parking is available for your use. There is parking in Ladd’s addition on Eliot, and both curb lanes of Division are available for parking as long as it is not rush hour (see posted signs). The building is on Trimet bus line #4 along Division and #70 along 12th. Bike parking is available at the entry.

Waiting Room

Technically, there is no “waiting room” since there should be no waiting. I schedule patients far enough apart so that one patient visit is finished well before the next one begins, and you can walk into my office right on time. If you arrive early or while I’m still with a patient, my office door will closed. In these cases, feel free to take a seat in the atrium of the building or grab a beverage at Artemis Café out front.  When you see my door is open, please come in.

Late Policy

I hope once you realize you will be seen on time, you won’t have any reason to show up late! Still, I understand that on occasion it is impossible to be on time. If you do show up late, we will discuss your options. If my next patient is not due for some time, we may decide to proceed with your visit. Depending on the timing, this may need to be a shorter appointment than you would have had otherwise, and we may need to limit ourselves to discussing only your most pressing issue. Alternatively, we may decide we need to reschedule for a different day. If this happens, you will be charged the $75 late-cancellation fee.

Cancellation/No Show Fee

Your appointment slot is long (typically 60-90 minutes).  Although we often don’t use the entire time slot for you appointment, this time is reserved for you and no one else. Please call me at least 24 hours prior to your appointment if you need to cancel. This will allow me to offer your slot to another patient. Simply call my regular office number at 888-480-1115 and leave me a voice mail message. Email also works.  If you do not notify me at least 24 hours beforehand, you will be charged a $75 cancellation/no show fee.

Phone

I am the only one answering the phones for my office. Therefore, whenever you call, you can expect a response directly from me. For the vast majority of your concerns, including appointment scheduling, billing issues, or health questions, please leave a message on my main office line at 888-480-1115. I will be checking these messages regularly and will get back to you no later than the next business day. 

There may be times when you have an urgent health issue and require immediate assistance or advice from me, even though it means interrupting me from work or family time. In these situations I encourage you to call my main office line at 888-480-1115. The recording will give you my personal cell phone number where you can reach me 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. If I don’t answer right away, please leave a message on my cell phone, and I will get back to you as soon as I can.  Please use this privilege appropriately.

For a life-threatening emergency, always call 911 immediately.

There may be rare times when I will not be able to return your urgent call to my cell phone promptly (such as my cell phone battery dying unexpectedly) and what was an urgent situation becomes an emergent situation. In these cases, please don’t delay in seeking emergent care or calling 911.

Email

Email can be a convenient way for us to communicate non-urgent messages, such as appointment requests, normal lab results, or billing issues. It is NEVER appropriate for urgent health needs. Additionally, you need to be aware that email is not entirely secure. For example, if your email address is through your employer, your employer may be able to read the messages. Likewise, there is a small possibility of interception of messages from outside parties (“hackers”). For these reasons, it is best NOT to transmit messages of a sensitive nature, such as mental health, substance abuse, or HIV status through standard email. With these guidelines in mind, please let me know if you’d like to communicate with me via email.

Vacations

There will be times when I will be out of town or otherwise unreachable. Dates of upcoming vacation plans will be posted on the home page of my website. If you have an urgent health question or need to be seen while I’m away, call my main office line. It will put you in touch with a physician colleague of mine who can assist you.

Hospitalizations

I hope you will never need to be hospitalized. However, I’ve made arrangements with Legacy Hospitals (Good Samaritan, Emanuel, and Meridian Park) to take care of you should you be hospitalized. Their team of hospitalist physicians (specialists in the care of hospitalized patients) will communicate closely with me about your health issues and the outcomes of your hospitalization. If your insurance requires you to be hospitalized elsewhere, I will strive to obtain all of the information and results of your hospital stay. Please tell the hospital that I am your primary care physician so they can update me with all important information. Also, within a day or two of your discharge, please call me so we can discuss your situation and how soon you need to be seen.

Refills

Refilling prescriptions consumes a surprisingly large portion of staff time in a standard medical office. As I will be operating this clinic without staff, I will not be able to refill prescriptions outside of office visits. When I write a prescription, I will give you enough refills to last at least until your next scheduled office visit. If your refills are running low, it likely means it is time to schedule your follow up appointment! For medications that aren’t used every day of the year, like allergy or headache medications, this policy will require you to be mindful and anticipate future refill needs during your current appointment. If all else fails and you end up needing an emergency refill outside of an office visit, call my office line with the drug name and dosage as well as the pharmacy phone number. I will attend to it on the next business day. You will be charged a $15 administrative fee for this service for the first prescription, $5 for each additional prescription.

Please do NOT have your pharmacy contact me for refills.  These refill requests are often auto-generated at the pharmacy or are simply incorrect, and I ignore them.  You must contact me personally if you need an emergency refill outside of an office visit.

Narcotic/Scheduled Medications

I rarely believe it is in the best interest of my patients to rely on chronic narcotics or sedatives, and I do not prescribe them. I may prescribe them for a short period of time for acute needs on a case by case basis. By law, these cannot be refilled over the phone.

Termination of the Doctor-Patient Relationship

You may terminate our relationship at any time for any reason. I would appreciate communication from you expressing your desire for termination, but it is not required. Likewise, I may terminate our relationship at any time. Generally, I will reserve this measure for patients who are not abiding by the stated policies, are delinquent in paying bills, or are disrespectful to me, my clinic, or their own health. If I choose to terminate our relationship, I will notify you in writing. You will then have 30 days to find a new physician, during which time I will be available to you for urgent health issues only. You may request a transfer of medical records to your new physician.

Payment Policies

I am currently a participating provider with the following insurances:

1) Blue Cross
2) ODS
3) Lifewise
4) Pacificsource
5) Great West

If you are a member of one of these insurance plans, please bring your member card to all appointments and notify me of any changes to your insurance status. I will submit bills to your insurance for you as a courtesy. You will need to pay any copays at the time of your visit. Payment may only be made by cash or check. If you forget to bring your copay there will be an additional $15 accounting fee. Additionally, you will be responsible for any balances your insurance deems are your responsibility (such as a deductible or co-insurance) and for full payment of non-covered services. Each insurance plan differs in what services it covers. For example, not all insurances cover physical exams or certain vaccinations.  It is the patient’s responsibility to understand his insurance and what is covered.

If you are without insurance, you can receive a 25% discount by paying with cash or check in full on the day of your appointment. Please call me if you have specific questions about my rates.

If you have insurance but your plan is not listed above, I will prepare a bill for you to submit to your insurance for reimbursement. You will need to pay the office charges in full by cash or check on the day of service.

I will notify you if you have any outstanding charges. Payment of outstanding charges is due within 30 days of my notification. If I have not received payment for outstanding balances by 30 days, a $15 fee will be added to your account, and will be added again for every 30 additional days the account remains unpaid in full. If you are suffering financial hardship, please contact me directly well in advance of the 30 day period, and we can negotiate a payment plan with waived late fees.

A fee of $30 will be imposed for a bounced check.

These policies may be updated periodically. Please check back from time to time to see what may have changed.

GENERAL HEALTH INFORMATION

http://familydoctor.org

http://www.uptodate.com/patients

DIET AND WEIGHT LOSS

Integrative medicine food pyramid:  http://www.med.umich.edu/UMIM/clinical/pyramid/index.htm

Calorie and nutrient calculator/food diary:  http://www.fitday.com/

Diet and exercise log:  http://www.sparkpeople.com/

BMI and caloric need calculator:  http://www.bcm.edu/cnrc/caloriesneed.htm

DIABETES CARE

General info about diabetes and pre-diabetes:

http://www.diabetes.org/home.jsp

Risk calculator for those with diabetes:

http://www.diabetes.org/diabetesphd/default.jsp

IMMUNIZATION INFORMATION SHEETS

http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/pubs/vis/default.htm

TRAVEL HEALTH

This site offers information on immunizations and health recommendations based on country.  I have quite a bit of experience in travel medicine and would be glad to help you and your family prepare for your next trip.   It is best to make an appointment with me at least 8 weeks before your trip, although there are still things we can do to keep you safe if your travel plans come about at the last minute.

http://wwwn.cdc.gov/travel/destinationList.aspx

AVOIDING PESTICIDES AND POLLUTANTS

Pesticides in produce:  http://www.foodnews.org/

Chemicals in cosmetics:  http://www.cosmeticsdatabase.com/browse.php?maincat=skincare

Safe seafood:  http://www.montereybayaquarium.org/cr/cr_seafoodwatch/download.aspx

I offer same day/next day appointments which are always with YOUR doctor (me!)  After hours visits and home visits are available by prior arrangement.

Phone calls are returned the same day and only by me (not an assistant).  Phone access to me is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week for urgent health issues.

If you prefer, you can email me directly for non-urgent issues.

There is no waiting for your appointment to begin.  Patients are scheduled far enough apart that your appointment will begin on time.  In fact, I don’t even have a waiting room!

I accept several insurance plans as well as cash payment.

I will provide you a “medical home”—one location where you can receive care for most of you health issues and one physician who is helping you coordinate the care you may receive from other providers or specialists.

I aim to empower you to take a lead role in your healthcare.  I will help you understand your illnesses or your risks for developing illnesses.  I will encourage you to set goals for your own health.  I expect you to (and I will help you to) maintain a current personal health record.

I prefer to rely less on pharmaceuticals and more on healthy lifestyle.  I have a passion for nutrition and the concept of “food as medicine”.  I welcome your questions about vitamins and supplements.

I refer to a wide array of both traditional medical specialists and alternative providers and feel comfortable collaborating with them to provide you the best healthcare.

Does it sound too good to be true?  It isn’t.  Call today to schedule a free get-acquainted visit where we can meet each other to see if we’re a good fit!

In my spare time I enjoy international travel and cuisine, Argentine tango dancing, and virtually any outdoor activity in the beautiful Northwest.

I am committed to ecologically sound practices both in my home and at the office, from compact fluorescent bulbs to setting up office procedures aimed at minimizing paper.  I strive to buy local.  Please join me in walking or biking to the office!

If you have insurance that I do not currently participate with, your payment will be due on the day of your visit, and I will print an invoice for you to submit to your insurance company for reimbursement as an out-of-network provider.  If you are without insurance, payment is due on the day of your visit.  Please call if you have questions about the average cost of office visits.  Currently, I only accept payment with cash or check, so come prepared.

Next, please print out the forms below, fill them out, and bring them to your first visit.  If you have trouble accessing the forms for any reason, please contact me at 888-480-1115, and I’ll help you find a solution.

* An acknowledgement that you’ve read and agreed to the office policies and HIPAA privacy statement.  If the patient is under 18 years old, please be sure to list all parents/guardians on the line provided. 

* A new patient registration form 

* A health history form

* A release authorization form if you wish to transfer records from a previous physician.  After you fill out this form, you can deliver it to your previous doctor’s office so that they can begin to process the request immediately.  Alternatively, you can bring the form with you to your visit and I can fax it for you.  (If you do this, please come ready with your previous provider’s fax number.)  If you’re unsure about if you need to do this, simply bring the form to the visit and we can decide together.  Generally, I like to see records if there are complicated medical issues that need follow up, abnormal test results, or pathology reports from a breast biopsy, for example.  If you’ve been healthy with only typical colds/coughs and routine care, transferring records is often unneeded.

• Map and directions
• Trimet

Dr. Jennifer Wallace has opened an innovative medical office in southeast Portland. She’s modeling her clinic after the principles of an Ideal Medical Practice, a grassroots movement initiated by physicians across the country who are dissatisfied with the care provided by our current health system. The IMP movement embraces the ideals of high-quality, individualized, and patient-centered care with direct access to your personal doctor.  If you believe this model of health care may suit you, please keep exploring the website to learn more.  And of course, feel free to call Dr. Wallace with unanswered questions or to make an appointment.  You can reach her voice mail at 888-480-1115, and she will get back with you shortly.