Dr. Richard Wray, M.D.
HeartPlace North Arlington

Thank you for choosing HeartPlace for your cardiovascular care. We know that your time is important to you, and that you would welcome opportunities to limit repeat visits where possible. With these ideas in mind, this section of our web site is directed to you our established patients so that all return visits and office interactions may be as efficient, productive and reassuring as possible. What follows is a series of suggestions that may help make your HeartPlace experience the most meaningful.

Appointment Requests:
Appointment requests made be made in one of two ways. All of the HeartPlace offices offer appointment requests over the phone. When you call, have ready a series of possible times that would be convenient, as well as the reason for your visit. Some of the offices offer Appointment Requests on-line as a service to those patients who have created a HeartPlace internet account and have self-assigned a username and password(for security purposes). Call the appropriate office or try the Appointment Request bottom at the top corner of this page to see if your office offers this very convenient service. Generally you will be called back within a day to set a date and time for your visit.

Before your appointment:  

• Download and fill out the Established Patient Medical Questionnaire
• Fill out and return the HeartPlace Patient Registration form if any significant changes have occurred.
• Please notify the office as soon as possible if you need to cancel or reschedule an appointment.
• Ensure that any pending lab orders are completed at least 5 days before your appointment.

What to bring:

• Insurance Card & Photo ID
• Physician Referral, if needed
• Established Patient Medical Questionnaire
• Old Medical Records, in your possession
• Recent Lab Results, in your possession
• All Medications and Supplements, in their original containers
• Any home blood pressure and weight charts

Always bring your insurance card to each visit to the clinic. Even if you had downloaded and returned the Patient Registration form before with the same information, it is a good practice to develop and bring this very important piece of information with you at each encounter. By filling out before your visit the Established Patient Medical Questionnaire you may limit the amount of time you spend waiting in the office. If you happen to have a copy of new medical records with you in your possession, bring them with you as well, or better yet, fax a copy to the office before your appointment. If you bring them, alert the front office staff at the beginning of your visit, so that a copy may be made before seeing the doctor. Likewise, if you have a copy of recent lab results (with the last 12 months), forward a copy before your visit, or bring them with you. Ideally, you should physically bring with you all medications and supplements that you take for our review. One of the biggest sources of medical errors today is miscommunication concerning medication profiles, with often-serious consequences. For this reason, the actual medication and supplement containers are preferred. If this is impossible, a medication and supplement list is the next best thing. The medication list should reflect  the exact name, dosage, and prescriptive instruction written on the medication or supplement container.. The reason why the medication containers themselves are preferred to lists is because these lists are frequently inaccurate or incomplete, failing to reflect medication changes made by other physicians, or generic substitutions by well meaning pharmacists.

Patients occasionally lose a medication bottle and fail to recognize that the medicine is missing. Since a health care provider has not made a change to their "medication list" they think the list is an accurate reflection of what they are taking, when in fact, it is not.

For these reasons medication reconciliation is best performed with the actual medication and supplement containers themselves. Though, again, if this is impossible, a list is the next most preferred way of reconciling the individual medication profile.

What to wear:
If the reason for your return visit is for a specific test, in general, you should wear two piece loose fitting clothing. Please see the link Pre-Test Instructions for specific clothing instructions for particular tests. If the reason for your return appointment is a consultation only, any outfit is appropriate. Though if you come dressed for testing, you will be giving the physician the option to perform a test right then if a slot is available.

Prescription Refills:
For prescription refill requests, please click on Prescription Refill link located on the Patient Form section of the web site. Here you will find a form that you can download, fill out, and return to the appropriate office. Please try to make refill requests at least two weeks before the specific medication supply runs out. Thank you.

Patient Education:
To enhance your understanding of cardiac anatomy, physiology, disease and treatment, we have created a Patient Education section where you will find various cardiac specific educational sites that we hope you will enjoy. You can also download cardiac anatomical graphs form the Cardiac Diagram section for home use.