Frequently Asked Questions

Family medicine, by definition, is comprehensive, continuing medical care provided to a family unit by a physician. To be certified as a specialist in a family medicine, a doctor must be trained in the following areas of medicine: pediatrics, internal medicine, surgery, obstetrics and gynecology, psychiatry, and community and preventive medicine. In order to be certified by the American Board of Family Medicine (ABFM), a physician must complete a three-year family practice residency training program after completion of medical school.

We generally accept appointments Monday from 8:00 am to 5:30 pm, Tuesday to Thursday from 8:00 am to 4:30 pm, and Friday from 8:00 to 2:30 pm. When you need to reach us after hours for an emergency, please call (407) 352-9717 and the answering service will contact us immediately.

If you are having a true medical emergency call 911.

Usually, if you are out of refills the pharmacy will fax us over a refill request. Please give us 48 hours to process all refill requests. We do not refill medicines after office hours or while on call because all refill requests need to have your chart pulled and reviewed before the refill can be authorized. Pain medications and other controlled substances are a special class of medication. They will be prescribed so that you should not need refills in between appointments. If you are out of these medications it is likely that it is time for you to be seen and you will need to make an appointment.

Each of our physicians maintain staff status at Dr. P. Phillips Hospital, which is affiliated with Orlando Health.

Physician assistants are health care professionals licensed, or in the case of those employed by the federal government they are credentialed, to practice medicine with physician supervision. As part of their comprehensive responsibilities, PAs conduct physical exams, diagnose and treat illnesses, order and interpret tests, counsel on preventive health care, assist in surgery, and write prescriptions. Within the physician-PA relationship, physician assistants exercise autonomy in medical decision making and provide a broad range of diagnostic and therapeutic services. A PA's practice may also include education, research, and administrative services. PAs are trained in intensive education programs accredited by the Accreditation Review Commission on Education for the Physician Assistant (ARC-PA) . Because of the close working relationship the PAs have with physicians, PAs are educated in the medical model designed to complement physician training. Upon graduation, physician assistants take a national certification examination developed by the National Commission on Certification of PAs in conjunction with the National Board of Medical Examiners. To maintain their national certification, PAs must log 100 hours of continuing medical education every two years and sit for a recertification every six years. Graduation from an accredited physician assistant program and passage of the national certifying exam are required for state licensure.

Physician assistant-certified. It means that the person who holds the title has met the defined course of study and has undergone testing by the National Commission on Certification of Physician Assistants (NCCPA). The NCCPA is an independent organization, and the commissioners represent a number of different medical professions as well as PAs. The NCCPA is not a part of the PA professional organization, the American Academy of Physician Assistants (AAPA). To maintain that "C" after "PA", a physician assistant must log 100 hours of continuing medical education every two years and take the recertification exam every six years.