What is Needed?

  • Be 15 minutes early
  • A referral, if your insurance requires this. Without a referral you cannot be seen
  • If a referral is needed, make sure it has not expired
  • A list of all your medications or all of your medicine bottles. Make sure to include all over-the-counter medications (including herbal & natural supplements. If you are from a different country and are using uncommon treatments, please let me know.
  • Your past medical and surgical histories
  • Bring paper copies of labs, X-ray, Cat scan, MRI, DEXA scan results. Due to computer security purposes, I am unable to view CD of any imaging studies.

What Will Occur?

  • Dr. Albornoz will perform an assessment of your complaints via a very detailed history and examination. He will review his impressions and plans with you at the end of the evaluation
  • The first thing I ask is for you to identify the major complaint (top of the list problem or problems) and when it or they began.
  • Do not feel like you have to get everything out at once. This leads to confusion and serves only to muddy the waters. Let me be your guide and allow my 30 plus years of patient care experience to provide structure to the interview.
  • Done properly as a team, the end result is an enhanced likelihood of obtaining a correct diagnosis as well as the avoidance of unnecessary and costly testing or medications.
  • The medical history is like a novel, usually with a beginning, middle and end. I always want to know when your symptoms began and then proceed forward to the present day. Let me be the guide and, more often than not, just with a good, accurate history, there is a 80-85% chance I will know what the likely cause is. With the addition of the physical examination, that % usually increases to 90 +.
  • This approach represents the essence of what quality caregiving is all about--the marriage of the art & science of medicine! Done correctly, this approach avoids costly, unnecessary testing & treatment. Sadly, this bedrock of medicine is becoming, for several reasons, an endangered species. This has and never will be the case with me.
  • Purchase a calendar, preferably a large desktop variety which provides greater space to record your findings
  • This will be referred to as a “Health Calendar” or HC
  • Purposes of HC:
    • Transforms the patient into an active member of the treatment team
    • Provides me with accurate information recorded on the day of the event as opposed to depending on patient recollection of something that may have transpired months ago.
    • It cannot be stressed enough that the ability to make a diagnosis early and outline a diagnosis and treatment plan effectively depends, in large measure, on the accuracy of the information provided by the patient.
    • This allows you to take a leadership role in your health. To be proactive and assertive. To learn about your condition or disease. To do otherwise will likely increase the risk of poor outcomes, increased number medicines, office/hospital visits, testing and, of course, COSTS.
    • There is nothing more satisfying to me than partnering with a patient to, as my motto states, “Together we can build a healthier tomorrow"
    • Bring the HC to all your physician visits.

Follow Up Visits

  • Please arrive 10 minutes early
  • Bring names and doses of any new medications
  • Bring paper results of any labs or Imaging studies (X-rays, CT Scan, MRI, Bone Density, etc)
  • Bring your health calendar
  • You will be asked:
    • What have been your major complaints since the previous visit
    • Has anything improved or worsened
    • Any new complaints or concerns
    • Any changes in list of medications
    • Any adverse reactions to medications

Office Address

Riddle Memorial Hospital Office (Main Office)
1088 W. Baltimore Pike. Suite 2105 Health Center II
Media, PA 19063

Phone # (610) 565-2415
Fax # (484) 444-0111

Mercy Fitzgerald Hospital Office
1503 Lansdowne Ave. Suite 3010
Darby, PA 19023

Phone # (610) 237-5801
Fax # (610) 237-5802