Primary Care Clinic
The Clifton-Fine Hospital Primary Care Clinic is a convenient way to keep your entire family healthy. We provide a full range of services for patients of all ages, including routine physicals, preventative care, immunizations and seasonal vaccines, women’s health, medication management, school and sports physicals, pre-operative testing, free blood pressure screening, management of chronic conditions and integrated behavioral health services. (outpatient)
Please note we are a Family Medicine Office, and you must be an established patient to be evaluated in the office. We are not a local urgent care center.
For any emergent conditions our hospital ER is available 24/7.
Your Patient-Centered Medical Home
We want your healthcare experience to be the best it can be. That’s why we recently adopted Patient-Centered Medical Home (PCMH) as our principal care model. This team-based model of care, led by a primary care provider, emphasizes the importance of an ongoing patient-provider relationship for long-term health and utilizes a team-based approach to improve your patient experience. Your PCMH team works together to coordinate all of your health needs, including management of chronic conditions, behavioral health, visits to specialists, hospital admissions and discharges, information about preventative screenings, and routine check-ups and tests.
For more information about the Patient-Centered Medical Home model, please click on the following link: PCMH
Meet Our Primary Care Providers
Canh Tran, MD
Brittani Bickel, PA
Meet Our Behavioral Health Providers
Kathleen Elmer, LSCW-R
CONTACT INFORMATION
Phone: 315-848-5404
Fax: 315-848-2835
Address: 1014 Oswegatchie Trail Road
Star Lake, New York 13690
**We are accepting new patients!
OFFICE POLICIES AND PROCEDURES
OFFICE HOURS
Patient Appointments vary by provider between the hours of 7:00AM to 4:00PM Monday-Friday and pre-scheduled Telemedicine Appointments on Saturday. For the availability of your primary care provider, please contact the office.
Phone lines are open from 8:00AM to 4:00PM Monday-Friday, with 24/7 Prescription line access, and after hour calls directed to our hospital’s nursing department. If you need an appointment, test results, or have general questions, please call during regular business hours.
WE ARE NOT AN URGENT CARE
It is a common misconception that our office is an urgent care or accepts walk in appointments. To be seen within the Clifton Fine Primary Care Clinic, you must be an established patient with our office, meaning you doctor with us for your family medicine needs. If you are not an established patient, we will do our best to provide you with the appropriate resources to be further evaluated.
To ensure quality care, Clifton Fine Primary Care, does not treat patients we have never seen (i.e., we will not call-in prescriptions, order tests, provide treatment prior to their initial visit or if not established).
If you are an active and established patient with our office, we do offer same day appointments.
APPOINTMENTS
Clifton Fine Primary Care is committed to providing quality care to our patients. To ensure timely continued care, we encourage our patients to schedule appointments in advance. When calling for an appointment, please provide your name, telephone number, reason for visit, as well any updated contact or insurance information. While we strive to schedule appointments appropriately and accommodate all patient needs, emergencies can and do occur in Primary Care. We strive to give all of our patients the time they require. For this reason, we kindly request your patience and understanding should a delay or rescheduling become necessary on your appointment date.
Follow up appointments may be required to review results and develop an effective and appropriate plan for your health care needs. Failure to complete ordered tests may result in rescheduling of your appointment. . We encourage you to schedule appointments for preventative health visits, physicals, chronic health conditions, in addition to your sick visits.
SAME-DAY APPOINTMENTS
We understand illness occurs. We reserve a select amount of same day appointments. If you are an active and established patient with our office, same day appointments are available by calling 315-848-5404, option 5.
ARRIVING LATE TO A SCHEDULED APPOINTMENT
Patients who are more than 15 minutes late to their schedule appointment may be asked to reschedule.
CANCELLATION OF AN APPOINTMENT
In order to be respectful of the medical needs of our patients please be courteous and call Clifton Fine Primary Care promptly if you are unable to attend an appointment. We ask that you try to call one (1) working day in advance. This time will be reallocated to someone who is in need of treatment. This is how we can best serve the needs of our patients. Appointments are in high demand, and your early cancellation will give another person the ability to have access to timely medical care.
NO SHOW POLICY
A “No Show” is someone who misses an appointment without canceling with advance notice. No-shows inconvenience those individuals who needs access to medical care. A failure to present at the time of a scheduled appointment will be recorded in your medical record as a “no show.” You will be sent a letter alerting you to the fact that you failed to show for a scheduled appointment and did not cancel the appointment with advanced notice. A copy of the letter will be placed in your medical record. Three (3) no show’s within one (1) calendar year will result in a temporary suspension of services. In order to reinstate services, you will be required to meet with your Primary Care Physician within 30 days of the third no show letter to evaluate your situation. If the event you do not respond and/or schedule an appointment within 30 days, we will consider your patient status as terminated.
REMAINING ACTIVE WITH OUR OFFICE
All patients are required to be seen at least annually to remain active with the office, with a leeway period of one year. If you have not been seen within 2 years, you will no longer be considered an active patient of the office. You would need to re-establish as a new patient. This is to ensure safety and quality in your health care.
INSURANCE
Clifton Fine Primary Care accepts most insurance plans. If you have specific questions regarding your insurance, please contact our billing department at 315-848-5404, option 7. It is the patient responsibility to inform our office of any changes in insurance coverage. Failure to do so could case delay or denial of insurance payment.
Patients are responsible for co-pays at time of service. If applicable, you will be billed for services not covered by your insurance (as stated in your insurance contract) by our billing department.
FORMS AND LETTERS
We understand that at times, various forms or letters may be required to assist you with your healthcare needs. The staff at Clifton Fine Primary Care will be happy to complete forms and write medical letters as necessary upon your request. However, because this can be time consuming, please allow 5-7 business days for completion of requested forms/letters.
MEDICAL RECORDS
Per HIPAA guidelines, copies of medical records must be requested in writing. To ensure your privacy, a form for release of medical information must be completed prior to receipt of these materials. The law allows Medical Offices 30 days to complete requests for records. However, our medical records department puts forth every effort to respond to these requests in a timely manner. For questions about your medical records please contact 315-848-5404, option 8.
PRESCRIPTION REFILLS
Please allow up to 3 business days for refill requests. We encourage our patients to review their medications prior to their office appointments and to request refills at that time, if needed. Our Practice does not routinely order Narcotic Pain Medicine, therefore you may be required to obtain these medications through a specialty provider, such as pain management.
OUR TEAM APPROACH
It is important to understand our office’s unique team approach. While you will have a medical provider assigned to your care, all of our medical providers are qualified to see you. We will make all attempts to schedule you with your assigned medical provider, with the understanding there may be times you are scheduled with one of our other medical providers (sick visits, provider out of the office, surgery clearance, etc).
SPECIALTY SERVICES OFFERED
DOT (Department of Transportation) Physicals, Workers Compensation, Well-Woman Exams, Pre-Operative Clearance, COVID-19 Testing, Behavioral Health, Out-Patient Procedures.
RESOURCES
ADULT NEW PATIENT PACKET To prevent rescheduling of your appointment, ALL new patients must complete and return the new patient packet prior to their appointment.
PEDIATRIC NEW PATIENT PACKET To prevent rescheduling of your appointment, ALL new patients must complete and return the new patient packet prior to their appointment.
NEW PATIENT REGISTRATION FORM This document includes demographic and insurance information for proper identification and billing.
MEDICAL RELEASE OF INFORMATION Do you have medical records you need transferred to our office? Previous Primary Care Office, Specialty Providers, or any testing results? Complete this form in its entirety and return to our office.
HEALTHeCONNECTIONS CONSENT HealtheConnections is a statewide computer network that allows our office access to your medical records online, with participating providers, if you provide consent. Fill out this form to provide consent, deny consent, or provide consent ONLY in emergent situations.
BEHAVIORAL HEALTH DOCUMENTS Behavioral health documents consist of a Welcome Letter, Consent for Treatment, Frequently Asked Questions, and a New Patient Intake Form. If you need to sign a release of medical records, please see “Medical Release of Information” under Resources on the Webpage.
AUTHORIZATION TO DISCUSS Have you identified someone you want to share medical information with? Complete this form to allow our team permission to share medical information.
CONSENT FOR MINORS Do you have a minor? If yes, have you designated someone to act on your behalf? Fill out this form to designate an individual to provide consent for treatment of a minor in your absence. Unexpected situations arise and it’s best to be proactive!
DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION (DOT) FORMS Please complete the highlighted portions of this form and bring completed copy to your scheduled DOT Appointment.