TELE-HEALTH CONSULTATIONS
Please do the following to make a Telehealth Appointment:
Send us an email - click on the button “OFFICE EMAIL” to do this.
Fill out and submit the “NEW PATIENT FORM”.
Email us photos/scans of both sides of your Insurance card and Government issued ID - eg Drivers License. Alternatively you may call us and then bring them to our office for us to make copies.
Fill out and submit the “HEALTH QUESTIONNAIRE”.
Preferably email - giving several possible times - or call the office for a Telehealth Appointment. Telehealth appointments may be during the day or in the evenings or weekends.
(Though Dr. Ravi can do an Audio consultation by phone, he prefers - if at all possible – to do an Audio/Video consultation. For the Video, you will need a cell phone or a computer with a camera. You will be contacted at the time of the appointment, though occasionally Dr. Ravi may be tied up with a patient earlier on and may therefore call you later than your appointment time. If you do not hear from Dr. Ravi within 30 minutes of your appointment time, please email us. Please note that it takes Dr. Ravi varying lengths of time with each patient and we may therefore not be able to call at exactly your appointment time. The call may be from an unknown number, but will often be from 951-735-7786.)
Please note that Facetime delivers the best quality video and is easiest to use of the methods that have been permitted by the Department of Health and Human Services as meeting HIPAA confidentiality standards. Google Meet and Skype are alternatives if you don't have access to an iphone or an ipad. (You may wish to check with family members whether they have an iphone and arrange for them to be with you at the time of the appointment. If you are not tech savvy, it is a great help to have a son, daughter or other family member with you at the time of the appointment regardless of the method used).
a. If you have access to an iPhone (please email us your iPhone number) or an iPad or a Macbook (please email us your Apple ID), we can do a FaceTime video call. Dr. Ravi will call you on FaceTime at the time of the appointment if you have FaceTime open (our Apple ID is office@doctorravit.org - the same as our email address). Even if you dont have an iphone, please check if your family member or friend can let you use theirs, since Facetime is the best way to have a video meeting.
b.If you have an android phone only and you have a Gmail account that you can access on your phone, we can use Google Meet (this works in an iPhone as well). First, we will call you on your phone and then send you a link by email to your gmail account. When you open that email you will see one line - a link - "meet.google.com/...... ". Click on this link to open Google Meet and then click on “Ask to Join” (make sure the microphone and video buttons in the bottom left of the screen are turned on and not red), you and Dr. Ravi should be able to see and hear each other. We are NOT allowed to use Google Duo or Google Hangouts (we were able to do use the latter in the past).
c. If you have an Android phone, we can call you on Skype (you can download it from the App Store/Google Play and install it and log with a user name and password in a few minutes) our Skype name is doctorravit. Enter doctorravit in the search box in Skype where it says “People, groups & messages” and you should find us. You can then click on the blue tab “Say Hi” and if you have Skype open, Dr. Ravi will be able to accept the “Hi” and call you at the time of the appointment. Skype works in iPhones as well.
d. If none of the above are possible, Dr. Ravi will call you and send you a text message. If you click on the text message and allow your camera and microphone to be used, then Dr. Ravi and you should be able to see each other. The connection is sometimes unstable.
However, if you have a second cell phone or a landline, Dr. Ravi can send the text to one cell phone and speak to you on the second cell phone (or landline). You will then have to open the text message on the first cell phone and then "allow" your microphone and camera to be used. You and Dr. Ravi can see each other on this phone and hear each other on the second cell phone (or landline). This works well.
After the Telehealth appointment we might schedule an in-person office visit. As an alternative, Dr. Ravi might do a physical exam immediately before a procedure if one is planned (this will be scheduled after the Telehealth appointment).
If we schedule a procedure (endoscopy or colonoscopy), that will be done at the GI Lab at one of the hospitals or a surgery center. The facilities may require patients to take a Corona Virus test - they will let you know if they do. If the test is positive, we may have to defer the procedure for a month to reduce the risk of patients getting infected in the GI Lab.
If an in-person office visit is required - to minimize risk - patients are asked to wait in their cars in the parking lot of our office at the time of the appointment. When it is time for you to come into the office, we will call you on your cell phone and you will enter the office AFTER we call you. Please make sure your cell phone is charged and not busy while you wait for our call. We ask that any person accompanying you wait in the car. We cannot allow anyone other than the patient to enter the office for any reason - even to use the facilities. We are doing this so that you will be the only person in the office other than the staff.
You will have to wear a surgical mask (not a cloth mask) covering your nose and mouth to enter the office. You must not remove the mask in the office unless directed by Dr. Ravi. On entering the office you will go directly to the examination room. You will not be required to wait in the waiting room. You will only be in the office for the time it takes for Dr. Ravi to do the physical exam after which you will be able to exit the office promptly. If you have any questions, Dr. Ravi will call you on the phone to address them.
If your insurance requires you to make a co-payment, this will be collected by the office over the phone prior to the appointment. We accept Visa/Mastercard and Debit card payments. If you wish to pay in person or to pay cash, please call the office before coming in. If you have already made payment for the Telehealth appointment, no additional payment will be due if you come into the office in connection with the Telehealth appointment.
This protocol is being followed for patient convenience and to reduce the risk of viral transmission. If the above instructions are not clear, please call us and we will walk you through what needs to be done. If you need help you may wish to talk to your family members or friends. If you do not have reliable internet access, please let us know and we will mail you forms to fill out and mail back or deliver to us (please call us to set up a drop off time). We will then advise you on how to proceed.
Thank you and stay safe.