| manoukian.org |
Tips for e-mail communication by Dr Jerry our e-mail address is burdock@pacbell.net our phone # is (650) 940-1006 |
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| E-mail
can help facilitate communication between patients, physicians, family
members and others. It has its limitations. Some of these
limitations and tips for ideal use are listed below. We routinely check e-mail from home. So most of the time, we will not have access to your records. Please try to include as much information as you can, considering that the physician reading your e-mail is tired, overworked, and eager to go to bed. Typically we will handle the e-mails that require a quick response, and save the more involved ones for your next office visit. |
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| For
urgent matters, the phone is best. |
We
don't check or answer e-mail during the day except by sheer
chance. E-mail
may serve as a back-up to a phone message. |
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| Keep messages brief. | Keep
it brief. Anything more than a short paragraph is likely
too complex should be handled in an office visit. Anything we
can't answer gets
"saved for later" (I probably will never get to it!) |
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| We probably don't have your chart while reading e-mail. | We
read most e-mail late at night, at home, without your chart.
Include all pertinent information. Assume that I won't
remember any prior visits or conversations. Including the content of prior e-mails is particularly helpful, so you don't have to rewrite everything. |
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| e-mail
doesn't replace physician appointments. |
Use
e-mail for general questions or comments. If
you have a medical issue that should be managed with a patient visit,
then call us at 650 940-1006 for an
appointment. We will not sacrifice patient
safety for
convenience. Enough said? If you phone the office, we may be able to offer an appointment that same day. An e-mail might not be read until that night, several days later or not at all. |
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| Give
us all the refill info we
need, or better yet, make an appointment. |
I
probably don't have your chart handy. For med refills, please see below
for the info we need to help you. (Please include all info
within a single message, not spread out over several messages.) Please consider making an appointment for drug refills. Wouldn't like me to know your current blood pressure before refilling blood pressure medication? |
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| Make sure your message isn't mistaken for spam. | Include your name and a word about the nature of the message in the subject line. If your message looks like junk mail, it may be deleted. We get hundreds of e-mails per week | |
| I may not get the message | There are many reasons we may not get the message (see below). If it's important, cover yourself with a phone call to the office or an appointment. If you don't hear back within 48 hours, consider sending it again. | |
| You are the record keeper for e-mail correspondence | If
the message (or our response) should be part of your permanent
medical record, it's a good idea to print it out and bring it to your
next
appointment. We tend not
to print out messages, and delete
e-mails as soon as the matter is handled. At some point, we may, for a fee, charge for e-mail communication and keep records of e-mail correspondence. Until that time, you should do it. |
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| Be careful what you send through the Internet | Remember that e-mail is not secure communication. A clever hacker can intercept your message and forward it to the entire planet. So be careful what you send through the wires! | |
| How can we improve this? | Let us know your comments and suggestions. This is work in progress. | |