What are Family Physicians? What are Nurse Practitioners? Making the Most of Your First Appointment Making the Most of Your Other Appointments Call During Office Hours You, the Patient Our mission is to provide you and your family members with compassionate, coordinated, and competent patient-centered health and wellness services. As of July 1, 2007, the MSU Department of Family Medicine Clinic, known as The Family Practice Clinic, changed its name to The MSU Family Health Center. This name change was adopted for several reasons. First, the specialty of Family Practice has been renamed Family Medicine. From our certifying board (now The American Board of Family Medicine), to our professional organizations, the word "Practice" has been replaced for "Medicine" and the words "Family Practitioner" have been replaced with "Family Physician" in an effort to prevent confusion with other disciplines in the family of medicine. Second, our practice has included Family Nurse Practitioners since March 1, 2007. The new name better reflects the fact that our practice is a collaborative partnership between Family Physicians from MSU's College of Human Medicine (CHM) and Family Nurse Practitioners from MSU's College of Nursing (CON). The Family Health Center in the MSU Clinical Center is our primary practice site. This is also a teaching site for CHM, our Geriatrics Fellowship, and CON. You may be asked if we can place you with a medical student, a nurse practitioner student or a geriatric fellow (a board eligible or board certified family physician obtaining additional training in the care of older adults while staying current in the care of all patients. All practitioners in training within our practice are supervised closely by faculty in the clinic. At the Clinical Center office, there are 18 family physicians, three nurse practitioners, one psychiatrist, and one nutritionist, who provide the full spectrum of primary care services for our patients in the East Lansing area. This is our faculty practice site on the MSU campus where we work as a team of healthcare providers and staff to provide caring, competent and appropriate primary care services to our patients and their families. Some of our physicians have advanced training in geriatrics, sports medicine, advanced obstetrical care, adolescent medicine, counseling, hospice care, and a variety of office procedures. Clinicians with these advanced skills in our offices assure that you, the patient, have expertise readily available in our offices for a wide variety of your needs. This allows for continuity of care and convenience to you and your family within our office settings. What are Family Physicians? Family physicians provide comprehensive, patient-centered care. Board eligible family physicians have completed 4 years of medical school training and 3 years of residency training in Family Medicine. All of these physicians also must pass a series of licensing examinations before they can practice in the State of Michigan. Board certified family physicians have passed a certification examination and continually complete a very of evaluations to maintain their certification. After their training is completed, these physicians can provide the full spectrum of care to their patients, including family-centered prenatal and delivery care, gynecologic services, adult and child preventive services, managing acute and chronic illnesses, and likelihood of further illness. In other words, family physicians can provide continuity of care and preventive services to patients of all ages, both sexes, inclusive of medical, surgical, obstetric, pediatric, and geriatric issues addressing the needs of the whole person – biologic, psychological, social and spiritual concerns. In providing continuity of care, the family physician may provide the service directly or coordinate and co-manage the care with another appropriate specialist, with another partner in the group, a counselor, or another community resource. What are Nurse Practitioners? Nurse practitioners are advanced practice registered nurses with a graduate degree in nursing practice. Following the completion of a 4 year bachelor’s degree in nursing, advanced practice nurses complete an additional 3 years of nurse practitioner focused education and expanded clinical training. Nurse practitioners are masters prepared and graduate educated. This advanced practice education focuses on diagnosis and treatment of a wide range of health problems; health promotion; disease prevention, health education and counseling. Nurse Practitioners are licensed as an RN and NP by the state of Michigan and board certified by passing a national certification examination which requires continuing education to maintain certification. Nurse practitioners provide a full range of primary care services across the lifespan. They diagnose, treat and manage both acute and chronic health conditions. They may order, perform or interpret diagnostic studies. They may also prescribe medications and other treatments. While managing the overall care of patients Nurse Practitioners may spend time counseling, doing risk assessments, and helping individuals learn how their actions and behaviors affect their own health and well-being. Making the Most of Your First Appointment Prior to coming in for your first appointment, you will be given two medical history forms to complete before your appointment with your provider. We ask that you complete these forms and bring them with you to your first appointment. Your provider will spend time with you reviewing and discussing the information on these forms; and with your help will be able to focus on issues and concerns which are your highest priorities at this first visit. You may have a complete physical examination at this first visit unless you have already had one in the past 6 to 12 months or have other issues that require attention. You and your physician may then discuss which screening tests or monitoring tests will be helpful to maintain your health. At your health maintenance visit, as well as each visit to our office, we strongly encourage each of our patients to request patient education materials. Making the Most of Your Other Appointments When you have a healthcare need, please contact our office and tell us the concerns or questions you have as accurately as possible, so that our staff may assist you in obtaining the exact type of appointment you will need with one of our clinician team members. Please arrive 15 minutes before your scheduled appointment. This will allow time for the staff to check the accuracy of your address, phone number, and insurance information and escort you to an exam room in a timely manner. Call During Office Hours Our triage nurses are very well trained and have the skills necessary to advise you or a family member about the management of many minor illnesses and injuries. There may be times, however, after discussing your concern with your provider, that the nurse may ask that you or your family member come in to the office to be seen by one of our providers on that same day or the next day. When you are interested in obtaining test results, such as X-rays or lab studies, remember that it takes an average of 72 hours for us to get a final report to share with you. So, please be courteous to our staff by not calling the nurses until three days after your test was done to ask for results. Generally, if the test results are normal, we send a card in the mail to that effect. You, The Patient Remember, you are the most important person in keeping yourself healthy. In addition to practicing good health habits, you can actively participate in the style of your healthcare by: Talking with your provider or one of their other partners on the team about your concerns or questions regarding your health status or illnesses, so that we can work with you to obtain and coordinate the best possible healthcare for you and your family; Bringing in your medications or a medication list of all the medicines that you are currently taking to each appointment (including prescription, non-prescription, herbal medications, and supplements); Calling us when you need to cancel or re-schedule your appointment as soon as you know that you need to re-schedule (this allows for other patient(s) to be seen in the slot that was reserved for you, and for you to obtain a more convenient appointment for yourself); Learning about and understanding your insurance benefits and coverage. Finally, remember that our goal here at MSU Family Health Center, is to provide you and your family with compassionate, coordinated and competent health and wellness services --- let’s work together to assure that happens for you and your family!
804 Service Road Room A142 East Lansing, MI, 48824 MSU Campus Map
Day Phone:(517) 353-3050 After Hours:(517) 353-3050 Fax:(517) 432-3742
Abbott, Cathleen M, M.D.Alexander, Elizabeth A, M.D., M.S.Azhary, Hend , M.D.Barry, Henry C, M.D., M.S.Cook, Mary Jane , N.P.DeMuth, Robin H, M.D.Dontje, Katherine J, N.P.Gudakunst, Jane B, M.D.Korzecke, Amy T, D.O.Lange, Anne L, M.S.W.Noel, Mary M, Ph.D., R.D.Phillips, Julie P, M.D., MPHSchrader, Kara E, N.P.Wadland, William C, M.D., M.S.Walsworth, David T, M.D.Weismantel, David P, M.D.