Update: Fayette Family Medicine Successfully Moved
Fayette Family Medicine has now successfully moved to 2620 Wilhite Drive, Suite 102, Lexington, KY, 40503; to see a Google map (which includes the much-celebrated “Street view”), click here.Note to all patients: Due to ongoing work to improve the new office, Dr. Skaggs can only offer same-day acute care and routine follow-up to established patients, and requests that established patients put off elective procedures and preventive care visits until at least the last week of August. She will not be able to accept any new patients during this time period either. If you would like to be placed on a waiting list or to request further information, please contact Dr. Skaggs here.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Where is your office?
2620 Wilhite Drive, Suite 102; to see a Google map (which includes the much-celebrated “Street view”), click here.
What are your office hours?
By appointment only. I try to make sure that everyone who has an acute need can get in within 24 hours, but I must know you are coming in order to be there to meet you. (Of note: another doctor uses the office on Tuesday afternoons, so patients calling then will be offered a Wednesday appointment.)
Why doesn’t anyone answer the phone at your office?
I answer the phone myself as much as possible. When the schedule is very full, and I can’t get to the phone because I am with patients, your call might be answered by one of my office helpers. If I am on the phone or not at the office, please leave a message, and I will call you back as soon as possible.
What if I need to talk to you right away?
If you are facing an emergency, I can be contacted by my cell phone: 797-4733. Of course, you should exercise good judgment: if you are in a life-threatening situation, don’t waste precious time calling me. Call 911 or go directly to the nearest hospital emergency room.
What hospitals do you go to?
My focus is outpatient medicine. Nowadays, specialists care for most people who have to go into a hospital. If your specialists need access to your medical history, I am almost always available to provide records. At Central Baptist Hospital, Dr. Mary Beth Staben and Dr. Lisa Linville work closely with me to make sure that all your hospital needs are met. At other Lexington hospitals, there are hospital medicine specialists to provide care, and again, I am almost always available to provide records. See also the Hospitalists fact sheet for more information.
What if I need an appointment when you are out of town?
This doesn’t come up often. I rarely leave Lexington for more than a day or two, but when I do, I can still check the office messages, and my cell phone works nationwide. I will try to return calls, even if I am out of town. If you know that you can’t wait until I return, care is available at several “urgent care” facilities in Lexington. Also, Dr. Lena Edwards has graciously offered to see my patients at her office. You should check with your insurance plan to see what option will be most cost effective for you.
Are you taking new patients?
In order to protect your access to timely appointments, I must limit the number of people who count on me. We have all had the experience of calling for a doctor’s appointment and being told that the “first available” appointment is in six or eight weeks. By keeping my practice small, I can keep your wait time to less than a day in most cases. As people move out of the area, I can absorb new patients to replace those who have left. Please call the office at 859.276.5566 to find out.
I am going to have a baby. Can you be the baby’s doctor?
Although I love children, and my training included pediatrics, the prohibitive cost of pediatric vaccines has forced me to limit the scope of my practice to age two and up. Fortunately, Lexington has an abundance of pediatricians, including two practices in the same building as my office.
I lost my health insurance. What do you do for people with no insurance?
People who pay by cash or check at the time of service are given a 25% discount on my fee. I can also help by selecting lower cost generic medications if you have to pay for them out of pocket. If you anticipate that you will have to pay out of pocket for medical tests like blood work, or mammograms, I can help you plan to space them out over time to make the cost more manageable.
Will you just phone in my prescriptions?
When you are in the office, I give you enough refills to last until the next time you are due for follow up. If you are out of refills, that means it is time for an office visit. Please plan ahead to keep from running out of medicine. If you happen to be in for an unrelated problem shortly before you are due for refills, be sure to ask for them then to avoid a trip back. I don’t phone in refills.
What about my test results?
Every day dozens of lab and radiology test results come to me by fax, e-mail, and snail-mail. I look at all results as soon as they arrive and call anyone with worrisome results. If results are normal, or abnormal but not urgent, they will be mailed to you, usually on the Monday after they arrive. If you have not gotten your results by 3 weeks after the test was done you should probably call to make sure I got the result. Things do sometimes go astray, and no news is NO NEWS.
