Emergencies

If you are experiencing a true life-threatening emergency, call 911.

Call our office only after you have made arrangements to get to the Emergency Room.

Our clinical staff returns calls during business hours as time permits. If the matter is urgent, please tell our phone operator so that the nurse can confer with you in the timeliest manner possible. Please understand that calls for test results and prescription refills will be returned after urgent patient needs are met.

We ask that you remember that physicians' schedules are long and demanding. It may be late in the afternoon after all patients are seen, or sometimes the following day, before non-emergency phone calls are returned.

If you have to contact our office after regular business hours, or on weekends or holidays, please call our office number. The answering service will immediately contact the physician on call. Visit our Locations & Physicians section for a complete list of our office phone numbers.

Please use this guide as to when you should make your phone call.

Call anytime – day or night:

Fever of 100.5 degrees or higher
Uncontrollable nausea or diarrhea
Pain medication is not working
Chest pains or shortness of breath
Severe shaking or chills
Bleeding from the nose or gums
Blood in the urine
Black, tarry bowel movement
Constipation with intense abdominal cramping
Changes in your vision or hearing
Increased bruising or pinpoint red or purple spots anywhere on the body

Call during regular office hours (Monday through Friday):

If you have questions about your medication, treatment or side effects
If you’re having nutrition problems
If you need a prescription refilled. Please call by 3 p.m. and have your pharmacy’s phone number.
For narcotics such as Percocet, MS Contin or Oxycontin, plan to either come into the office for a written prescription or allow five days for the written prescription to be mailed. By law, your pharmacy must have a written prescription. No narcotic prescriptions can be written on weekends.
For lab tests or scans, be aware that results usually take:
Scans: 48-72 hours
Tumor markers: 72 hours
Bone marrow reports: 7-10 days
Pathology reports: 3-5 days
If you’ve heard about a new treatment.

Express Symptom Management Hotline

Miami Cancer Institute’s Express Symptom Management hotline will provide patients with direct and rapid access to providers whenever they need immediate symptom management. A group of advanced practice providers (APPs) will screen symptoms over the phone for urgency and guide patients to an appropriate level of care. In some cases, “triage” APPs will see patients needing immediate care themselves, right in the clinic area.

The program runs from 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday.

Call anytime – day or night:

Call during regular office hours (Monday through Friday):

Express Symptom Management Hotline

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