Thank you for choosing our office to provide you with your specialized medical needs. Your concerns are very important to us and we want to assure you that it is our intent to give you the best care possible for your medical condition. In an effort to assist you with questions that you may have once you return home, we are providing you with the following information. Please refer to this prior to calling our office, except in the case of an emergency.

Office hours: The office is open from 7:00 am to 5:00 pm. Nurses are available from 8:30 am until 5:00 pm. Physician appointments are from 9:00 am until 4:00 pm.

Front office staff: Our ancillary staff is here to assist you to schedule appointments, schedule tests, and answer general questions.

Clinical staff: Our office employs oncology certified nurses and medical assistants to help you with your medical needs. Our nurses are specially trained in caring for patients with your condition. In addition to office care, the nurses triage incoming phone calls and work closely with your physician to facilitate your care. The office now has two Nurse Practitioners that are available to see you for same day or next day appointments. Their names are Renee Wilson, who works in the Snellville office, and Theresa Catlin, who works in the Lawrenceville office.

To call our office to make an appointment or to inquire about an existing appointment, please call (770) 963-8030 for Lawrenceville; (770) 979-2828 for Snellville; and (770) 623-6433 for Duluth office during office hours.

You will receive a reminder call for all physician appointments. The calls are made using an automated system. The call will remind you of your appointment time as well as remind you to arrive 30 minutes prior to your scheduled appointment in order to accommodate your lab appointment.

For your convenience, we have included our New Patient Forms on our website. Please feel welcome to bring the completed forms with you to your appointment. Please remember to bring your insurance card and a picture ID. If you are uncertain of our plan participation, call your insurance company to make certain we are on your plan.

• The physicians and staff will do all that we can to stay on schedule. Unfortunately, with our specialties, we have patients that come in for a regularly scheduled appointment, who have relapsed or have developed complications that require more of the physician's time than we allowed for. We ask your patience if this should happen, as we know you would want the physician to spend the necessary time with you if this unfortunate occurence should happen to you.

After Hours: If you are in need of medical advice after our office is closed, dial (770) 963-8030 for Lawrenceville; (770) 979-2828 for Snellville; and (770) 623-6433 for Duluth. Our answering service will pick up your call. They in turn will take your message and contact the physician on call for that day. You must disable your caller id block in order for the doctor to return your call. Please be aware that after hour calls may not be returned by the physician that you normally see in our office.

• FOR ALL LIFE THREATENING EMERGENCIES, DIAL 911.

Prescription Refills: Prescription refills need to be done through your pharmacy, Monday through Thursday. It is best not to wait until Friday, as we do not refill prescriptions over the weekend. The pharmacy will call us with the proper information that we need in order to authorize your refill. If your refill requires a written script each time, you will need to call our nurses' voice mail at (678) 533-1563 and leave a message during office hours. This voice mail is checked frequently throughout the day.

• ALL REFILLS REQUIRE A MINIMUM OF 24 HOURS NOTICE. (It takes time for your pharmacy to contact our office, for our staff to discuss your request with the physician, and for us to call your pharmacy back, or to have the signed written script ready for you to pick up.) WE DO NOT WANT ANYONE TO GO WITHOUT THEIR NECESSARY MEDICATION, SO PLEASE ALLOW 24 HOURS FOR OUR OFFICE TO TAKE CARE OF YOUR REFILL NEEDS. In addition, please be aware that our office is closed for the following holidays: New Year's Day, Memorial Day, 4^th of July, Labor Day, Thanksgiving Day and the following Friday, and Christmas Day. So, as with weekends, please make sure you have enough of your medications to get through the holidays.

• VERY IMPORTANT: WE DO NOT REFILL MEDICATIONS OVER THE WEEKEND. THIS IS ESPECIALLY TRUE FOR NARCOTIC MEDICATIONS.

Lawrenceville office patients: To leave a message for the nurses, for a non-urgent issue, dial (678) 533-1563 to reach their voice mail. They check this at least every hour and return ALL calls by the end of the business day. Calls will be returned in the order of urgency. Please do not make repeated calls. Different nurses may pick up the messages throughout the day and repeated calls could result in several different nurses trying to find the same chart and ask the same physician the same question. This will delay your return call as well as those of other patients.

Snellville office patients: To leave a message for the nurses, for a non-urgent issue, dial (770) 979-2828 and ask for the nurse voice mail line. All calls will be returned by 5:00 pm. Please do not make repeated calls. Different nurses may pick up the messages throughout the day and repeated calls could result in several different nurses trying to find the same chart and ask the same physician the same question. This will delay your return call as well as those of other patients.

Duluth office patients: To leave a message for the nurses, for a non-urgent issue, dial (770) 623-6433 and ask to leave a message for the nurse. Due to the fact that Dr. Hagenstad see's patients in Lawrenceville and Duluth, there are times that your call will be returned by the Lawrenceville Nursing Staff. This may take a little longer, but all calls will be returned by the end of the business day.

For urgent calls, dial (770) 963-8030 for Lawrenceville; (770) 979-2828 for Snellville; (770) 623-6433 for Duluth and be sure to convey the urgency of your call to the receptionist. She will immediatly get a nurse to answer your concerns.

You may see red or yellow plastic containers throughout the office marked as "biomedical" or "hazardous waste". These are not waste baskets or garbage cans and must not be used as such. The only items to be placed in these containers are medical hazardouse waste, discarded by the physicians or staff. Your cooperation is appreciated, as this is a safety issue.

Financial matters: We understand that the stress of a serious illness is sometimes increased by the anxiety created by financial concerns. We will file your insurance for you, but your co-pay and co-insurance are due at the time of service. We will make every attempt to make sure that your insurance requirements are met prior to the services being rendered. Ultimately, it is the patient's responsibility to verify that referrals and authorizations have been taken care of. Consequently, it is in your best interest to apprise us of all insurance changes promptly. If you have insurance forms, such as disability, that require some portion of it to be filled out by your physician and or his signature, please bring them in with you to your next appointment. Please be aware that forms take a minimum of 7 to 10 business days to complete. Please plan accordingly.

You will need to check in with the front desk each visit, so that we may verify that you have not had any changes since your last visit (i.e. address, phone number, insurance, etc.)

For your convenience, we have two full-time Benefits Counselors to assist you with your financial concerns. If you require chemotherapy, they will call you and go over all of your plan benefits with you shortly after your first appointment. This allows you to be clear on what your insurance will and will not cover. If you are unable to pay your co-pays or co-insurance our benefits counselors will work out a plan for you. They can assist you in obtaining additional benefits that may be available to you. If you are not a chemotherapy patient but need assistance in any way, please feel free to call them and they will assist you. If you are going to our Lawrenceville or Duluth offices call Allison Grayson at (770) 963-2095. For our Snellville office call Jill Suchar at (770) 979-2870.

Test Results: When we schedule you to have x-rays or tests done we will also schedule you to have an office visit a few days after the test in order to get the test results. If you are calling for test results please understand that there are times that we cannot give the information to you over the phone. The test results must be reviewed by your physician and he may want to see you in person in order to fully explain them to you. However, if you do call for results, please leave your name, name of the test, date the test was done and the place the test was done. We will return your call after the physician has reviewed the test and given the nurse permission to release the information. Usually, test results can only be released to the patient.

Sharing information with family and friends: Due to federal privacy laws, we can only release information to the patient. We have a form that you can fill out that will give us permission to release information to your family and friends. Please fill out this form if you want us to talk with others regarding your condition. Please do not get upset if we do not have one on file and therefore cannot release information to your loved ones. If you have a large family, please try your best to have one person as the "spokesperson". We do our best to answer everyone's questions but it is sometimes overwhelming to have 3 or 4 members of one family calling to inquire about the same situation. Your cooperation is appreciated.

Smoking: We ask that you not smoke in our office.

Privacy Policy: A copy of our privacy policy is available on this website.