General Office Policies

We Are Pleased To Serve You

Welcome to Shohet Ear Associates. We are pleased that you have entrusted us with your care. What makes us unique? Our practice teams a physician highly skilled in the care and surgery of the ear with audiologists who provide a full range of audiologic services, including hearing tests and dispensing of hearing aids. Shohet Ear Associates can diagnose and treat any medical condition of the ear. We specialize in the very latest treatments and offer cutting-edge technology to help diagnose ear problems.

We hope you will find your visit to our office a pleasant one. The information below will help expedite your care. Patient satisfaction is our Number One goal. Please let us know if there is anything we can do to enhance our service to patients.

Your Appointment

We see patients by appointment Monday through Friday, 8:00am - 5:00pm. Early appointments (at 7 am) are also available on Mondays and Thursdays, for your convenience. Call (949) 631-HEAR (4327) to schedule an appointment. Our receptionists are available daily 8:00 am to 5:00pm to help you.

Ear appointments are of two types:

• Complete Hearing Exams or Initial Evaluations may last between 45 minutes to an hour-and-a-half, depending on the amount of testing needed, so please allow ample time.
• Follow-up Examinations or Post-operative Checks can last between 5 and 30 minutes.

On your first visit, it is necessary to arrive 15 minutes early to fill out the paperwork necessary to begin a permanent medical record, if you haven't already done so. We will need the following items on your first visit:

• A list of your current medicines and medication allergies, if applicable
• All applicable physician notes and lab results. This includes actual radiology reports and films (CT scan/ MRI)
• Your insurance card or HMO referral/authorization letter

We try our best to stay on our schedule, but emergencies sometimes do arise. If we are seriously delayed, we will try to notify you beforehand. Please assist us by being on time for your appointment. Occasionally we may call patients in the waiting room out of turn if they are urgent or postoperative exams. We ask you for your patience if you have to wait; we know your time is valuable.

Hearing Exams

We will need to have some objective formal documentation of your hearing status at the time of your visit. For those patients with a perceived hearing loss, ear infections, ringing or roaring in the ear and/or dizziness, a formal hearing test by an audiologist within the past 3 months is required. If you have not had a formal hearing test, we will ask that one be performed by our audiologist at the time of your visit. There are many instances in which a gradual hearing loss may not be perceived. Identification and documentation of a subtle or overt hearing loss with a formal audiogram is necessary for a complete ear examination.

Canceling an Appointment

If you are unable to keep your appointment or are going to be late, please call our office as soon as possible. When surgical emergencies occur, it may be necessary for us to suddenly cancel appointed office hours. We acknowledge how inconvenient this may be for you and will do our best to meet your needs when rescheduling your appointment.

Referrals

If you have been sent to Dr. Shohet by another doctor, please tell us so we may provide him or her with a report. We do not charge for this service. If you have not already told us how you found us, we will ask at the time of your visit. Thank you for providing the most accurate referral information as possible.

Emergency Care

If you have an urgent problem, please call our office for instructions. In a true, life-threatening emergency, it is best to call 911 first.

Telephone Calls

Once treatment has begun, we may ask you to call us to report on your condition. Dr. Shohet’s assistant will take this information and give you instructions. Please call our office if you have any questions regarding your condition, medication, prescription refill, etc. If you need to speak with Dr. Shohet personally, our office personnel will have him return your call when conditions permit.

Patient Satisfaction

At Shohet Ear Associates, we want to provide you with the highest quality care possible. And we believe that commitment includes delivering an unsurpassed level of service to our patients. Our Number One goal is your complete satisfaction with your experience as a patient.

In order to continue offering a high level of service, we regularly survey our patients on their experiences within our office. The responses are used to enhance the care we deliver and the office practices we use. At the end of your visit, you will receive a self-addressed and stamped survey for you to complete and return. We greatly appreciate your responses and assure you we will continue to strive to exceed your expectations as a patient.

We would love to hear your feedback. Please complete our short Patient Satisfaction survey and get a chance to win a free gift certificate.