Portage Medical Group

The physicians of Portage Medical Group diagnose and treat patients of all ages and provide a wide range of services, including: Family Medicine, Podiatry and Urgent Care. For your convenience, X-ray, EKG and laboratory services are also offered on-site.

Also, remember the Med-Point immediate care center locations for minor medical emergencies that can't wait for an appointment. If it is a true emergency, call 911 or proceed to an emergency room where the physician on duty will begin treatment and notify us.

The Physicians at this family practice location utilize the services of Hospitalists should you become hospitalized at Memorial Hospital of South Bend. For more information, click here. For more information on Pediatric Hospitalists, click here. Please ask your Physician if you have any questions about the Hospitalist service.

Portage Medical Group Practice Frequently Asked Questions

The following is information on the "nuts and bolts" of certain aspects of how we run our practice. If you have any questions, just ask!

To Prepare For Your Visit

1. Try to arrive at least 5 to 10 minutes before your appointment time to allow for check-in processing.
2. Be sure to bring your driver's license/photo identification card and insurance card with you.
3. Be prepared to pay your co-pay at the time of service-cash, check or credit card. If you do not have health insurance, we ask that you pay for your visit at the time of service.
4. Know what medications you are taking-ideally bring them with you so there's no confusion. This would include over-the-counter meds as well (even herbals or vitamins).
5. If you have records or documents that you would like your doctor to review, or if there are forms that need to be filled out, be sure to give them to the nurse before the doctor comes in the room.

Refill Requests

The best time to have your medications refilled is at your regularly scheduled follow up visits. That way, you and your doctor can be sure that your refills are done appropriately and in a timely fashion. However, many times, your medication supply may not last until your next appointment. If this is the case, there are a couple of options.

1. Contact your pharmacy. Almost all local pharmacies are able to fax a refill request directly to our office.
2. Call our office at 574-647-4530. When you call, the voice prompts should direct you to press "1" for the refill line. It is important to provide all information asked, including patient's name, date of birth, phone number, name (and spelling) of medication, the dosage, and the number of times per day you take the medication. If you are requesting a 90 day supply of your medication, it is important to include that in your request.

Our clinic policy is to have all refill requests honored within 24 hours. Please be sure to make your request in a timely fashion so that you do not run out of your medications. Also, keep in mind, regular office visits and monitoring are important aspects of prescribing medications. If you have not been in to see the doctor in the time frame indicated at your last office visit, it may not be safe to continue prescribing your medicine. As a result, your refills may be limited or denied.

Late/no show policy

We understand that your time is very valuable. As a result, we do our best to stay on schedule during our clinic day. As such, we ask that you make every effort to arrive on time for your appointment. Most appointment slots are scheduled for 15 minutes, so if you arrive after your appointment slot is over, you may be asked to reschedule.

Also, if you know that you will not be able to make it to your appointment, please call ahead to let us know as soon as possible. Failure to do so means that your appointment slot will go unfilled. This means that other patients who are also waiting for an appointment are not able to use your appointment slot. Having three "no shows" within a calendar year may result in termination from our clinic.

If the Doctor is running late

Please keep in mind that we schedule our office visits for 15 minutes each, unless otherwise indicated (i.e. full physicals or preventive exams). While we will make our best efforts to address all questions during your office visit, we ask that you respect our other patients' time by being mindful of this time constraint.

We understand that sometimes you may have multiple concerns to discuss with the doctor. We certainly want to be able to address all of your concerns, so, if you know that you have a lot of things to discuss, please let us know ahead of time so that we can schedule extra time in the day for you. In the event that extra time is not possible, we may ask you to choose the most important problems and schedule a second appointment to cover your remaining concerns. We don't want you to feel like we are rushing through the appointment. It is important to evaluate each problem thoroughly-but this takes time. So please avoid the temptation of "coming in once a year and saving everything up for one visit" by keeping in mind that there is a time constraint to the visit.

Asking us to evaluate a second family member at the time of your appointment is also a frequent temptation, but often puts us behind. Again, it is important to fully evaluate each medical concern, so we don't want to rush through anything. If you have a second family member who you would like to be seen on the same day of another existing appointment, please call and let us know so that we can figure out how to best accommodate this request.

Sometimes, the doctor is called to see patients unexpectedly or may need to consult with specialists, surgeons, or the emergency room during your office visit time. These events are unpredictable, but very important in managing the health of all of our patients. We apologize for any inconvenience that this may cause in your schedule and appreciate your understanding when this occurs. We will still address your concerns thoroughly when this occurs-your time with the doctor will not be shortened as a result of these unexpected events.