What to Bring

Traveling for medical care can be stressful. Planning a health care trip can be hectic and nerve-wracking. When you or someone you love needs medical attention, a suitcase is probably the last thing on your mind.

Use this list to gather up the essentials. Being prepared can help you focus on getting the answers to your medical concerns.

Personal Items

  • Comfortable clothing and sweater in case you get cold in clinic rooms.
  • Many patients with spine pain prefer certain pillows, feel free to bring your own, sometimes waiting can be long if our doctors have to stop at the ER
  • Comfortable shoes. Consider elastic laces or slip-ons so you can easily take shoes on and off.
  • Winter coat, hat and gloves if you’re traveling in the winter. Sunscreen if you’re traveling in the summer. DC is beautiful all year long and you’ll want to be prepared to go outside.
  • Personal care products and toiletries, such as shampoo, conditioner, comb, toothbrush, shaving equipment and lotion.
  • Canes, walkers, crutches and other assistive devices. When you come to our practice, we can bring a wheel chair to the main floor if needed.
  • Pen and paper, for writing notes and questions.
  • Earplugs, earphones and playlists of your favorite tunes.
  • Phone charger.
Medical and Registration Items

All our forms are available online, they can be filled out and sent directly to our front desk. Always call to verify the forms have been received. If you prefer to print the forms. Please bring them with you and also bring any medical records, reports, and radiology images that were requested if not already sent.

….. Also:

  • Your insurance information or Medicare card, if you have one.
  • Your picture ID or passport.
  • A list of your medications (prescription, over-the-counter and supplements) — including doses, why you take them, and the name of the ordering physician.
  • Your prescription drug insurance card and preferred pharmacy name, address, city, state and ZIP code.

If you forget something or can’t fit everything in your suitcase, you’ll find convenient shops near our practice, we are located in the heart of Silver Spring and pharmacies such as CVS are located at walking distance.

How to make the most out of your appointment day!

Do you have your images?

Our facility required specific imaging for patients with CCI, Cranio-Cervical Syndrome, Spinal Instability, Chiari Malformation, Tarlov Cysts and Tethered Cord. If the local facilities in your state do not have the equipment for these, you will need to schedule in Maryland.

If you are doing your testing here,  it is recommended to book their imaging scanning in the morning and come to our office in the afternoon at or after 2pm.

Most MRIs take about 1hr – 1.5 hr long, they are scheduled at the Washington Open MRI. You will need to schedule this with them between 7am and 9am.

If your appointment requires also a CT, this will need to be scheduled after the MRI with Diagnostic Imaging or Bethesda MRI between 11pm and 1pm.

After your testing, you will request the disc with your imaging from either or both facilities. The reports will be faxed to us when ready.

Don’t wait until the last minute to schedule with any of these facilities, most of our patient schedule with them and chances are they will be booked, we see about 20 patients on clinic days. Information about these facilities is here.