Welcome to Crozer-Keystone Health Network Primary Care

Welcome to Crozer-Keystone
Health Network Primary Care
A Guide to Your
CKHN Patient-Centered Medical Home:
What you can expect from us...
What we will need from you...
...so you can gain the full benefits of continuous,
coordinated health care.
Inside:
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We’re 5 hospitals, 2,600 doctors and nurses, and 6,800 caring people with 1 vision.
Crozer-Keystone. Something to feel good about.
Our Commitment to You: Access and communication . . . . . . . . . . page 1
Scheduling Appointments: We’re here when you need us . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
In an Emergency: What to do after office hours . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Test Results: We’ll notify you promptly . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
MyCKHealth: Your secure online connection to our office . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
CKHN Care Center: Coordinating your care . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Referrals: Making sure they’re ready when you need them . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Prescription Drug Refills: Don’t run out . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Refills of Controlled Substance Prescription
Medications: Special procedures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Medication Safety: Important safety tips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Payment: Making it easier; understanding special needs . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Cooperation: Let’s work together for everyone’s benefit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Contact Us: Important phone numbers and Web sites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Our Commitment to You:
ccess and Communication
As your Patient-Centered Medical Home (PCMH), your Crozer-Keystone
Health Network primary care office offers you timely access to care,
same-day response to phone inquiries, expanded office visit hours,
prompt communication of your test results, and coordination of
care among your primary care physician and other clinicians.
About Your CKHN Patient-Centered Medical Home:
Thank you for choosing a Crozer-Keystone Health (CKHN) Network doctor. You are
now part of a Patient-Centered Medical Home (PCMH), where we are dedicated to
building strong relationships and providing you with the best possible care.
What is a PCMH?
A Patient-Centered Medical Home (PCMH) is a team-based model of care. A doctor who
provides continuous and coordinated care during a patient’s lifetime leads the team. Just
as important, the patient is an active member of the team. This means that you’ll take part
in making decisions that are important for your health—decisions about your medical care
and choices about diet, exercise and other ways to preserve or improve your health.
What does a PCMH mean for you?
In a PCMH practice, you can expect the following:
• You will have a relationship with a doctor who works with a team to take joint
responsibility for your care.
• You will be an active part of the team—making sure you have the tests you and your
doctor agreed on before your next office visit, coming to the office with a list of your
questions, and taking part in making decisions that affect your health.
• Your care will be coordinated and integrated across the health care system. Your medical
team will follow the latest guidelines for quality and patient safety, including evidencebased medicine.
• You will have improved access to your doctor and more ways to communicate with your
doctor, including secure e-mail. Your medical team will use current information
technologies to prescribe, communicate and track your results.
To provide the highest level of care, we encourage patients to
select a personal clinician from our team of physicians. It is
important to establish a relationship with a PCP who will get to
know you and your personal preferences and be able to help you
make important decisions regarding your health care needs.
The goal of a PCMH is to give more personal, effective and efficient care. We meet this
goal by improving access to coordinated medical care, partnering with patients and other
members of the medical team, using the latest guidelines for quality and patient safety,
and using current information technologies.
To qualify as a PCMH, a primary care medical practice must meet the high standards set
by the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA). All Crozer Keystone Health
Network primary care offices have achieved the highest NCQA Level 3 ranking.
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Scheduling Appointments: We’re here when you need us
• When you call our office about an acute problem, your doctor or another staff
member will call you back with advice within six hours—or within one hour if the
problem is urgent.
Test Results: We’ll notify you promptly
When you need a routine test:
• In an emergency, we’ll instruct you to hang up and dial 911.
• We will ask you to have your test one week before your next office appointment so that
your doctor can talk with you about the results during your visit.
• If you have an urgent problem, we will make every attempt to schedule you for an
office visit on the same day with your doctor; or, if that’s not possible, with another
doctor in our office or nearby.
• When the results are normal or minimally abnormal, we will contact you by letter, phone
call or through our patient portal (or ask you to schedule an office visit to talk about the
results) within three weeks.
• For general, non-urgent requests, we will work to schedule you with an appointment
with your physician at a time frame that works for you. If needed, we can schedule
you for an appointment within two days of your request. However, your appointment
may be with a different Crozer-Keystone physician.
• If the results are significantly abnormal, we will contact you within two business days.
If we can not reach you by phone after two tries, we will mail you a letter.
• For patients who do not speak English, translation services are available in all offices.
Unfortunately, we cannot provide these services over the telephone; we may encourage
you to schedule an office visit so that we can talk with the help of a translator.
• In some cases, your doctor will ask you to schedule an appointment to clinically evaluate
you and talk with you about your results.
• If the results are severely abnormal or critical, we will do our best to contact you
immediately or, contact the person you named as your emergency contact.
When you need a diagnostic test:
In an Emergency: What to do after office hours
• If you have a true emergency—such as severe chest pain or shortness of breath—call 911
immediately.
– (Remember, the hospital Emergency Room is only for true emergencies. Otherwise, you
will probably have to wait a long time before a doctor can see you.)
• If your doctor orders a diagnostic test for a specific clinical concern, we will contact you
with the results within 48 hours.
• In some cases, your doctor will ask you to schedule an appointment for a clinical
evaluation and talk about your results.
– For all other urgent problems, call your doctor’s office and ask for the doctor on call.
A doctor is on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week for urgent problems.
– Please be sure to have all information ready when you call, including the name, age
and date of birth of the patient, and the pharmacy number.
• If you have a block on your phone for unlisted numbers, you must turn off that service
in order for the doctor to return your emergency call. To turn off that service temporarily,
press *82 on your phone. This should allow your next blocked call to be received.
• We respectfully ask that all other calls be made during your doctor’s regular office hours.
We will make every attempt to schedule you for an office visit as soon as possible—often
on the same day for acute problems.
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MyCKHealth:
our secure online
connection to our office
MyCKHealth is Crozer-Keystone Health System’s online Patient Portal—
on the Web 24 hours a day, seven days a week—for your convenience.
CKHN Care Center:
Coordinating your care
Your time is valuable. That’s why we would like to make sure that you
get all of your ordered blood tests, imaging studies and specialist visits
(when possible) before your visit with your primary care team.
The CKHN Care Center works with our office staff and with you
to make sure that these important items are completed.
The Care Center team will help:
• Schedule your tests and visits
• Remind you about upcoming appointments
• Make sure that your doctor has all of the information he/she needs when you arrive for
your visit
Through MyCKHealth, you can:
• Access portions of your medical record
• Communicate with our office via secure e-mail—and your doctor or another
staff member will respond within two business days (please note, if the doctor
recommends an office visit, additional recommendations will be given in the
office)
• Request an appointment
• Request a referral
• Request medication refills
• Pay your bill
Getting started is easy. Just contact our office to get an enrollment request form.
We will ask you to complete and sign a consent form and you’ll receive information
about how to log onto the system. For technical assistance in the future, call 610619-8444 or email [email protected].
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Thank you in advance for taking phone calls from Care Center representatives, and for
calling them back if they miss you!
Referrals: Making sure they’re ready when you need them
• Please allow three business days for referral requests
to be processed.
• If you see a specialist or have a procedure without
a referral, your insurance company will hold you
responsible for payment.
• Unfortunately, we cannot “backdate” referrals.
• Please have the specialist’s telephone number,
fax number, and reason for the referral
ready when calling our office.
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CKHN Care Center: Coordinating your care
(continued)
Prescription Drug Refills: Don’t run out
• Some drugs are prescribed to be taken for a short time; others are for a longer term.
Make sure that you know whether or not your prescription should be refilled. If you
have any questions, we will be happy to explain!
• Request all prescription refills by calling your pharmacy, or online through MyCKHealth.
Your pharmacy will send your refill request to the doctor for approval.
• If your medicine has refills, please ask for the refill one week before your medicine will
run out. It normally takes 72 hours for your pharmacy to complete the request for the
doctor’s approval. If your pharmacy is closed and you call the office for your refill, our
staff must follow the same approval procedure.
• If you are on a daily medication, you need to see your doctor every six months. If you
have not seen your doctor for more than six months, and you need a refill, please make
an appointment for an office visit. When you make the appointment, we may be able to
give you a small refill to last until then.
Refills of Controlled Substance Prescription Medications:
Special procedures
Medication Safety: Important safety tips
• Take your medication exactly as prescribed by your doctor.
• Contact your pharmacy or our office immediately if you think you are having a reaction
or side effect from a medicine.
• Remember, medicine is never meant to be shared. It is not safe to give your medicine to
someone else or take someone else’s medicine.
Payment: Making it easier; understanding special needs
• Payment is due at the time of service; many offices accept Visa and MasterCard.
• You can pay your bill online. Visit www.crozerkeystone.org and click on the “Bill Pay”
button. Here you’ll also find answers to frequently asked questions (FAQs) about
medical coverage and billing.
• Payment arrangements can be made if you need assistance.
• If you have difficulty making payments, Crozer-Keystone’s financial advisers will work
with you and your family. They can help determine if you qualify for free care or for
assistance under insurance programs.
• If you do not qualify for free care, you may qualify for reduced fees for services provided
by the hospital or a doctor in our health network. The health system frequently reviews
its policies for low-income patients. It also monitors how the policies are implemented.
For more information about these services at Crozer-Keystone hospitals, call (610) 4907900, or, if you are outside the 610 area code, call 1-888-568-3595.
Controlled Substance Prescription Medications are medicines that require a Drug
Enforcement Agency (DEA) license to be dispensed. By law—and for your safety—we
must follow special procedures for refills:
• Refills for controlled substance medicine can only be completed during office hours and
only by the doctor who ordered the medicine.
• We can not call in a refill to your pharmacy when our office is closed—not at night, on
the weekend, or during holidays.
• We can not order a refill if you run out early or lose the prescription.
• We can not order a refill before it is due—even if you feel it is an emergency.
• Like regular prescription medicine, your pharmacy will require 72 hours to process your
request to refill a controlled substance medicine.
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Cooperation:
Let’s work together for everyone’s benefit
• Medical problems are confidential. We must have your consent to discuss your problems
with family or caregivers. This will be written in your chart.
• We can only see patients by appointment. Appointments will be made with the doctor
you requested, if available. If your problem is urgent, your appointment may be with a
different Crozer-Keystone physician.
• When you come in for an appointment, please bring any documents that will help
the doctor treat you more effectively. Examples include: medication lists (including any
changes made by another doctor), your medical history including surgeries with dates,
blood sugar logs, blood pressure logs, and written questions for the doctor.
• We make a sincere effort to stick to the office schedule. Of course, patients do not
become ill “on schedule.” Sometimes, patients’ problems can take longer than
anticipated, and this may cause delays. The receptionist will tell you if the doctor is
significantly behind schedule. We value your patience and cooperation.
• If you cannot keep an appointment, please contact the office as soon as possible. If
you give us at least 24 hours of notice when canceling an appointment, we can give that
appointment to another patient who needs it. You’d appreciate the same courtesy!
• Please allow three to five business days for forms to be completed. We must charge a
fee to complete forms, and some forms will require an office visit. We appreciate your
understanding.
• You may receive a patient satisfaction survey. Please complete the survey honestly and
in a timely manner—it will help us improve care for all patients.
• We will work very hard to provide you with the highest level of quality care. We hope
that you have a pleasant experience at our office. If you have any issues with your
experience at our office, please call our office and ask to speak with the practice manager.
We will do our best to resolve any issues to your satisfaction.
• If any issues are not resolved after speaking with the practice manager, you may call
the “Complaint/Praise Line” number below. Of course, if you wish to praise us for a
good experience, we welcome your positive feedback, too!
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Important Phone Numbers:
• Financial Assistance: (610) 490-7900
• Crozer-Keystone Call Center: (for physician referrals and information)
1-800-CK-HEALTH (1-800-254-3258)
• Senior Support Line: 1-800-CKHS-KEY (1-800-254-7539)
http://srhealthservices.crozerkeystone.org
• Medical Imaging Appointment Scheduling Line:
1-866-5-CK-XRAY (1-866-525-9729) http://ckimaging.crozerkeystone.org
• Crozer-Keystone Human Motion Institute Appointment Scheduling Line:
(for prompt musculoskeletal appointments)
1-877-CK-MOTION (1-877-256-6846) http://ckhshmi.crozerkeystone.org
• Cardiac Testing Appointment Scheduling Line:
1-866-95-PULSE (1-866-957-8573) http://ckheart.crozerkeystone.org
• Cancer Physician Appointment Scheduling Line:
1-866-695-HOPE (1-866-695-4673) http://ckcancer.crozerkeystone.org
• Crozer-Keystone Sleep Centers Appointment Scheduling Line:
1-888-SLEEP03 (1-888-753-3703) http://sleepcenters.crozerkeystone.org
• The Gastroenterology Appointment Scheduling Line:
1-877-CKHS-GI1 (1-877-254-7411) http://gi.crozerkeystone.org
• Maternity Provider Appointment Line:
1-855-CK-BABIES (1-855-252-2243) http://4ubaby.crozerkeystone.org
• CKHN Complaint/Praise Line: 1-610-497-7430
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