Your primary care physician, surgeon or specialist must refer you to our practice. The referring physician can complete our consult questionnaire and fax it directly to us. We will evaluate the referral and contact you to schedule an appointment for consultation. If your insurance requires you to have a referral, you must also obtain an appropriate referral from your primary care physician.
Referrals maximize the effectiveness of everyone’s time, especially yours. That is especially important when dealing with pain. We need to evaluate the medical information provided by your referring physician so that we can ensure that SIPC is the most appropriate place for your treatment. If we are not, we want to give you the opportunity to find the appropriate place as quickly as possible.
During your initial evaluation, one of our providers will gather important information about your pain and perform a physical exam. Then one of our physicians will discuss options for treatment and answer all your questions.
Visit our provider page for an introduction to our experienced medical professionals.
Various medical professionals will see you during your visits. This offers the advantage of having many skilled professionals weigh in on your condition, treatment and progress. There may also be nurses and clinical associates who assist in your care during your visits to SIPC.
We typically perform an initial consultation and then decide on the best course of treatment, which may include procedures, medications or physical therapy. Sometimes, no further clinic treatment is recommended. For certain pain medications, we refer patients back to their primary care physicians to prescribe them. We always try to schedule procedures within one to two weeks of the initial consultation.
We will evaluate your list of medications during the initial visit and provide recommendations about continuing opioid therapy. We may recommend another course of treatment that does not include opioids. We do not write prescriptions for opioids on the first clinic visit, so please do not arrive with the expectation that we will refill your prescription.
Your call will usually be returned by a staff member from the clinic who has access to your medical records. We offer a physician answering line that allows you to leave a message for a physician after hours in a non-urgent situation.
For urgent questions, after hours, or over the weekend, please call the Lawrence and Memorial hospital at 860.442.0711, and your call will be forwarded to the anesthesiologist on call.
All blood thinners including aspirin, Plavix, Coumadin, Xarelto, Effient, Pradaxa, etc. as well as anti-inflammatory medications such as Aleve need to be stopped several days prior to a procedure. If you are on any of the above or a different blood thinner, please contact the SIPC staff for further instructions.
This will be discussed with you during your initial consultation. Please make sure to disclose any bleeding disorders, liver disorders or use of blood thinners at your initial consultation.
Some procedures may require sedation, which necessitates refraining from eating or drinking for a period prior to the procedure. Some procedures may inhibit movement for a short time afterward, which could make it difficult or unsafe to drive. Because we cannot be certain how a patient will react to a specific treatment, these precautions must be followed explicitly.
Even though we do not like to reschedule procedures, there are some situations in which it’s in your best interest to reschedule the procedure. These include but are not limited to:
- Ongoing infection
- Antibiotic use
- Fever
- Blood thinner use
- Certain blood disorders
We accept most major health care plans. Please contact us at 860.771.4960 to speak with a representative who can verify that we accept your plan.
We are a hospital-based clinic, so you will receive two bills, the first from the physician for his or her services, and the second from the hospital.