Appointments
Chicago Dizziness and Hearing (CDH) opens at 7:30 in the morning.
The last patient visit is generally scheduled at 5pm.
The office closes at 6:30pm. CDH does testing on saturdays but physician visits are not available.
Patients have a thorough initial evaluation, followed by return visits as
needed to assess the effects of treatment until the patient is well or we have exhausted all
reasonable treatments. Most new patient visits will include some testing
related to dizziness.
Appointment timing
We try our best to schedule new appointments in about one week and urgent appointments to be
within 2 days. We can be reached most easily by email at
reception@dizzy-doc.com.
At the time that the appointment is made, we will ask for contact information and
billing information. Our scheduler will coordinate testing, labs and treatment visits.
Less trips downtown can often be accomplished by scheduling tests and appointments on
the same day. For patients from out-of-town, it is often helpful to coordinate your
appointment and preschedule testing, as well as appointments
with other specialty physicians that might be helpful in evaluation of the situation.
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Special needs (deaf patients)
Chicago Dizziness and Hearing does not use sign interpreters. CDH accomodates the lack of hearing of deaf patients by using video projection systems. The physician types up notes on a large screen that the patient can view, and also transcribes the patient's questions and commentary. If a patient finds that this accomodation does not work for them we will discharge the patient from our practice, giving them one month to change their care to a practice that is a better fit to their needs.
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Telephone consults
Telephone consults with Dr. Hain are offered for patients who have been seen in the clinic and who are unable to visit us in person.
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Holidays
CDH is open on most secular (non-religious) holidays.
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How much time to plan?
New patient visits typically take two to four hours. For return patients, we generally
use a "first available" strategy - whoever between Dr. Hain and Dr. Cherchi can
see the patient first. If it is important to you to see one particular doctor, you
can opt to schedule either on Monday (to see Dr. Cherchi), or Friday (to see Dr. Hain).
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What to bring to the appointment?
Please bring with you all available relevant medical records, especially MRI scans of the head
or neck, results of ear testing (hearing and ENG), blood test results when available. If you
bring your kids or spouse, please remember that new appointments typically consume 3 to 4 hours.
They may want to visit the local sights, or just get a cup of coffee. There is a lot of stuff
to do in our area. We provide free wireless internet in the office, so feel free to bring your laptop.
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Communication with patients
Most phone-calls are answered by a staff member within 24 hours. After hours,
the telephones are transferred to a paging service. Physicians are not able to always
return calls within 24 hours. Depending on the urgency of the situation, and the complexity of the situation, it may take a
few days or longer.
Email and fax are usually more efficient than telephone. Our main fax # is 312-376-8707
(also 312-274-0198 for backup and rapid responses). Our email address is
nurse@dizzy-doc.com.
We use secure computer systems, but please be aware that the internet in general is not a
secure environment. We advise against using email to transmit information that you would not want
to be public. We sometimes use email to facilitate appointments, prescription refills, and when
necessary, to obtain follow-up information. When emailing us, please take into account that we
receive many emails every day and are sometimes just not able to answer daily emails from
all our patients.
We will routinely send copies of our new patient notes to the physicians that our patients designate.
We will also routinely send all lab reports to our patients. We will, on request, send copies of
hand-written notes to you too. We respect your privacy and will not give data about you to others
without your permission, other than the specific cases outlined in our
privacy policy (pdf format).
For more detail about how to contact us, see the Contact page.
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Prescription refills
Most prescription refills are accomplished by emailing, calling or faxing our clinic,
indicating what needs to be refilled, and leaving your full name, birth date, a contact number,
and a pharmacy number. Our paper fax # (best for rx) is 312-274-0198.
Most prescriptions are written with 3 to 6 months of refills.
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Parking and transportation
See this page for maps and directions to CDH as well as
hotels, restaurants, and tourist attractions near the clinic.
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