Patients Expectations Document
Dear Zanjabee Patient,
It is a privilege to be of service to you. You have the right to the best service possible from us. Here are
some guidelines that will be helpful to you in getting the best service from Zanjabee.
1. Initial Visit
a. Dr. Ali will spend a full hour with you at your initial visit getting to know you and your
unique health care needs. For this reason, Zanjabee does not book your initial
appointment as a physical. We do not believe that it is possible to get to know your
history, examination and lifestyle in 40 minutes unless you are overall healthy and are
getting a routine physical.
2. Sick Visits
a. If you are sick, rest assured that most of the time your physician will see you the same
day as you call in for a sick visit.
b. Since Antibiotics are the leading cause of bacteria developing resistance to Antibiotics as
well destroying good gut bacteria, Zanjabee Physicians do not call in Antibiotics without
seeing the patients.
3. Prescriptions:
a. Please allow 72 hours for prescriptions refills to be faxed to the pharmacy. Although
most prescriptions are faxed in to the pharmacy the same day as you call us, we can
only guarantee faxing them in within a 72 hour.
b. Refills cannot be faxed in if you have not been seen in the practice within the last 6
months.
c. All controlled substances need paper scripts that need to be picked up.
4. Rescheduling appointments cannot be done via email. Please call the practice to reschedule
appointments.
5. Cancellation policy
1. All cancellations with less than 24 hours’ notice will be charged $50 for services
cancelled.
2. Cancellations for Monday need to be made by 3pm on Friday.
3. Rescheduling for other weekdays needs a 24 hour notice.
4. Rescheduling cannot be done via email. Please call. Rescheduling via email may be done
at the discretion of the medical assistant but the onus is on the patient to call via phone.
5. If you have already been charged at $50 cancellation fee once and you no show again
without good reason, you will be responsible for the full fee of the service.
6. Email Policy:
a. Please read our email policy.
b. Email is used only for sending normal results and for sending patient letters.
c. Please do not write sensitive healthcare related information in emails. Call the office.
d. Physicians cannot offer medical advice via email.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
e. Email is often not checked for 72 hours. Please be cognizant of its limitations when you
are using the email to communicate with Zanjabee.
Patients with High Deductible and Free preventive care insurance plans:
a. If your insurance has a high deductible with free preventive visits, Zanjabee is happy to
bill your initial as a preventive visit if you are overall healthy and your first visit is booked
for a 40 minutes slot.
b. Please let the medical assistant know this. If your health care needs require more time
than 40 minutes, we will let you know. You can either choose to pay the difference
(about $90) or have us bill your insurance for this visit as an initial visit. (treatment
rather than preventive visit which will be billed to your deductible)
Use of Habit forming pain meds
a. If you have a broken toe or acute back pain, Zanjabee will prescribe strong pain
medications with a potential for habit formation for a short period of time until your
pain is better.
b. Zanjabee believes in using pain medication liberally in pain due to terminal illness.
c. Zanjabee does not believe in using habit forming (opiates) pain medications for long
term pain control e.g. chronic back pain. If you believe that opiates are the only solution
for your pain, Zanjabee is not the right practice for you.
Use of Benzodiazepines as sleeping aids
a. Zanjabee believes in using benzodiazepines for insomnia for short periods of time in
acute stressful situations like a family death or other sudden loss.
b. Long term benzodiazepine use destroys quality of sleep, is not effective (patients
develop tolerance) and is associated with increased rates of death. Hence Zanjabee
does not use benzodiazepines for chronic insomnia.
Use of Benzodiazepines as Anxiety Treatment
a. Zanjabee believes in using benzodiazepines for anxiety in acute stressful situations like a
family death or long flights if you have a fear of flying.
b. Long term benzodiazepine use destroys quality of sleep, is not effective (patients
develop tolerance) and is associated with increased rates of death. Hence Zanjabee
does not use benzodiazepines for chronic anxiety.
c. Anxiety should be treated with exercise, meditation, yoga and massage and
acupuncture and Medications like Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRIs)
Physician Phone-calls:
a. If you are having an urgent medical situation, please call 911 before you call the office.
Please let us know that you have gone to the emergency so we can coordinate your care
with the Emergency physicians.
b. For non-urgent issues:
i. Please let the Medical Assistant know why you would like a physician to give you
a call. Calls are triaged and returned on the basis of the reason for the call. It is
not logistically possible for the physician to return your call without knowing the
reason for the call.
c. Zanjabee encourages face to face conversation between the physician and patient and
does not believe that healthcare related matters can be discussed via phone. Physician
may ask you to come in to discuss your question instead of returning your phone call.