What to Expect
Please review our Welcome to Practice and Patient Rights & Responsibilities for an overview of our services and some important policies and procedures.
The basic steps of your appointment won’t always be the same, but generally, they’ll look something like this:
- Check-in with our Patient Services Representatives
- Screening with Clinical Support Staff
- Screening and discussion with Behavioral Health Case Manager (can also happen after the next step)
- Exam and discussion with Healthcare Provider
- Check-out with Clinical Support Staff
As a primary health care practice, we may talk to you during your appointment about many subjects that are important to your overall health in addition to the main reason for your visit. We will do our utmost to ensure that the reason you came in is thoroughly addressed, but we also are obligated to support your entire well-being, from preventive care recommendations to chronic disease management, behavioral health factors, and everyday life stressors like finances, housing, childcare, and more. Below are a few subjects we might bring up during the visit in an effort to provide you with a complete treatment recommendation and collaborative plan to improve your health. We also encourage you to reach out to us regarding any of these issues if they aren’t resolved during your visit.
Preventive Health Care
Your healthcare team will work together to make sure you are up to date on all recommended screenings for your age, gender, and other important health factors. We’ll talk to you about cancer screenings, health screenings such as HIV and Hepatitis, and vaccines to prevent common diseases and conditions such as COVID-19 and influenza.
We’ll also review your vital signs and your Body Mass Index (BMI), and talk to you about healthy vitals and habits to support them. We’ll also screen you for mental health issues such as depression and anxiety, two very common conditions that people often don’t even realize they have.
We may also ask you about your health habits, such as your last dental visit or eye exam, or whether you smoke tobacco or use any other substances. These items are important for diagnostic, treatment, and prevention purposes, and we want to make sure you fully understand all current health recommendations that apply to you, and that we’re aware of anything that might affect your treatment or prescribed medications.
Social Determinants of Health
It’s very hard to focus on health and healthy habits when you’re experiencing stress of any kind, and stress can lead to poor health. We often ask about common stressors relating to finances, housing concerns, childcare, employment, education, food access, transportation, and domestic safety—to name a few! These are known as social, material, or resource needs, and they can have a big impact on your health by adding stress or reducing your access to care and to things you need to survive. That’s why they’re also called social determinants of health. If you need help with any of these things, let us know! We’ll do our best to get you connected to community resources that can help you resolve the barriers in your life that are reducing your overall health.
Integrated Behavioral Health
We operate an integrated health team that works together to provide you with the best possible care. This team includes your check-in staff, screeners, nurses, case managers, behavioral health team, health educators, billing team, certified enrollment specialists, and medical professionals. We believe that all of them have important roles in supporting your health.
Our integrated behavioral health team is only one of the hardworking components of the team. Their job is to help screen you for behavioral health factors such as smoking or substance use, to provide you with health education, to connect you to people who can help with social, material, or resource needs, and to help you set goals for self-management of your chronic diseases. We try to have all new patients meet with a behavioral health case manager, and to meet at least once a year to talk about any ongoing concerns. If you think you could use an extra discussion with a behavioral health case manager, please don’t hesitate to ask.
