Mission & Policies

Hours of Operations

We are open to serve you, answer questions, or schedule an appointment from:

Monday – Friday: 9:00 a.m. to noon, 2:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.
We are CLOSED between 12 noon to 2:00 p.m. to tend to administrative duties.

Our Mission

The mission of Desert Family Medical Center is to provide personalized, effective, and prompt medical attention to our patients. We know your time is precious, and your health is your most important asset. Our goal is to provide you with efficient and caring medical service in a timely fashion. Our medical providers and staff have been fully trained and educated to assist you with your health concerns, and we constantly keep abreast of new medical issues that affect you and your family. We have created an environment of compassion and professionalism to make your visit as comfortable and pleasant as possible. We look forward to your good health and a long and healthy relationship with you. If you have any questions about our medical office, please feel free to contact us.

Appointments

Your scheduled appointment time has been reserved specifically for you. We request 48-hours notice if you need to cancel your appointment. We are aware that unforeseen events sometimes require missing an appointment. After missing an appointment without notifying us 24 hours in advance, you are subject to being charged a $25 fee, which will be reflected on your account.

For new patients, if you miss your first appointment without notifying us, you will not be able to establish as a patient at this office. For established patients, if you miss 2 appointments in a row without notifying this office, you will be discharged as a patient from this office.

Office Policies for Our Valued Patients

The following polices are standard procedure at Desert Family Medical Center in order to assure the most positive outcome for your experience at our facilities:

• All patients are required to understand and know their own medical health insurance plans. Desert Family Medical Center is NOT responsible for any treatments or medications that are not covered by your plan. It is the patient’s responsibility to contact their own insurance companies to make sure about the coverage they are receiving under their policies.
• Patients may NOT discuss their medical insurance policy or any political issues related to medical health coverage with the providers. Please refer your insurance questions with your agent or organization that sponsors your plan that you are covered by. Our Medical offices, team members and providers are not responsible for knowing the policy you have elected.
• All co-payments are due at the time of the patient’s appointment. We reserve the right to refuse service if co-payment is not rendered. This office only accepts cash, MasterCard and Visa, Discover, American Express and money orders for payment. We do not accept personal checks for co-payments at this office. Co-payments must be rendered before seeing medical provider.
• All patient bill balances are due within 30-days of receipt of bill. Patient balances that are over 90-days due will be sent to collections, and this office reserves the right to discharge patients with overdue balances.
• If a patient is not able to make their appointment, it is required they contact our office 24-hours in advance. A $25.00 charge will be billed to patients for any missed appointment, if it is not cancelled within 24-hours. Our automated system will contact you with your appointment reminder.
• Patients who have missed two appointments in a row without informing our office will be discharged from this medical practice.
• All patients will be charged a MINIMUM of $25.00 for any medical records, medical forms or other forms (i.e. DMV forms, school forms, etc.) that require the doctor/medical provider’s review and/or signature. This fee is due at the time of submitting forms to our office. Longer and more complex forms will be charged at a higher rate to be determined at the time of review. Each form is charged separately, hence one signature per form. Example, if you have 5 forms with 5 required provider signatures it will be totaled as $100.00.  There are no exceptions to this situation regardless of patient’s fiscal situation
• Please allow 72 hours for pharmacy refills.  It is federal law for certain medications to be approved by the pharmacies to be refilled within the allotted time period.
• No smoking, drinking of beverages of any kind, or eating in the office.
• Please turn off your cell phone during examinations. The doctor/medical provider reserves the right to terminate the examination if patient talks on their cell phone during the examination.
• All triplicate prescriptions will be refilled only at the date that is allowed. Early refills are not permitted. We require 48 hours advance notice for triplicate refills.  This is a federal law that our office must uphold for the safety of the patients.
• This office does not have the equipment or storage space to hold patients’ x-rays. We receive patient x-ray reports electronically and can interpret results based on the reports we receive. The reports are stored in your patient chart. We suggest that patients retain their own x-rays.
• Desert Family Medical Center has a zero tolerance policy against aggressive behavior, unreasonable and/or unrealistic expectations, bullying, profanity, sexual innuendos, written and verbal abuse towards our staff from patients and their family members. Any display of this behavior will be subject to being terminated as a patient from this office.
• All patients are required to sign a Physician-Patient Arbitration Agreement. Patients whom refuse to sign this agreement will not have the privilege to be a patient with our offices.
• If a patient transfers to another primary care physician’s office for reasons other than reassignment of their insurance plan which this office does not accept or moving to another geographic location away from the Palm Springs vicinity, we will not allow the patient the privilege of returning as a patient at this office.
• If patient is over 15 minutes late, your appointment will be rescheduled.
• Patients will be contacted about their normal lab results by the staff. Only in situations that warrant our physician or mid-level provider to contact you will the doctor or mid-level provider call the patient. This policy is standard and not amendable.  
• If you feel that our operational procedures is not to your expectation; it is expected you go through due process by discussing it first with our Chief Operating Officer and then Executive Director before contacting the insurance plan. Aggressive and unwarranted complaints will result in your being discharged from this office.
• This office is not responsible for making appointments for your referrals for other medical providers or support services.It is the responsibility of the patient or his/her medical guardian.
• Our offices are not responsible for lost or stolen items that are brought to this office.
• If the patient believes there is an error with the coding for their medical diagnoses and treatment plan; it is the patient’s responsibility to contact their health plan and discuss what the correct coding should reflect. This office is not obligated to make a correction unless it has been proven we have made an oversight on the matter.
• Copayments are due at the time of your appointment, failure to render the payment will require you to reschedule your appointment.
• No companion animals. Only legitimate service animals for seeing eye dogs and handicapped people.
• This is a not a dental or post-surgical clinic. We neither perform dental work nor remove elective surgical sutures such as plastic surgery or anything cosmetic. Only sutures placed by our own providers and the Emergency Room.