To get an appointment to see the specialist is lot more complex than say "getting a hair appointment," once the appointment is scheduled, a chart or folder is created by the staff. If you belong to the HMO, then it is your responsibility to bring or arrange an authorization from your primary care physicians. Non-HMO patients do not have to do that.

After that, a letter or email is mailed to you with standard health care questionnaire form. You can either fill this form at home or come early to the office to fill the forms. Please be as accurate as possible since this initial intake form is very important for your future care. We also require you to fill and sign the authorization or consent form for you to let us treat you or be your physician. A HIPPA form is also completed before you see the Cardiologist. These and other paper work is standard in all physician offices for us to comply with government regulations and to provide quality care.

At this time, Dr. Malik is seeing all new and established patients. Dr. Malik is board certified in general Cardiology, Nuclear cardiology and Intervention Cardiology. He has more than 15 years of experience as a cardiologist and has been on teaching faculty at multiple locations in the last 15 years. He has been in Tampa Bay area for the last 14 Years and is currently on staff in most Heart centers in the eastern part of the county.

After you arrive at the office, one of the staff members will take your blood pressure, pulse and other important information. If this is your first appointment, please bring in all of your current medication bottles, all of your prior medical records or the name of the facility or physician we can get the records from and all your insurance cards. You will then have an EKG taken if that is necessary and then cardiologist will see you. After the doctor finished taking the history and doing his assessment, he may order some further tests or labs which one of the staff member will schedule for you either at the time of check out or later if the test is to be done at a hospital or other facility.

If you have a CO-pay, that will be collected before you see the physician. Please note that some tests have different CO-pay than the physician visit. We accept Cash and Checks. At this time, we do not accept credit cards. You will be given a receipt for the CO-Pay. Cash pay patients are expected to pay at the time of services. We do bill the insurance's on patient, s behalf and collect the agreed upon payment which may be different with different plans based on our agreements with them. If there is a balance due from you, you will receive a bill from our office. We do charge maximum allowable interest on unpaid balance.

If your cardiologist determines that a test is needed to diagnose, monitor or treat your condition, we will schedule it for you at the most convenient time for you. Our staff will also give you instructions for that test (do's and don'ts). We do provide a variety of tests in the office with state of the art equipment. Please see the services offered on this web site.

Depending which office is your appointment scheduled; a map is posted on this web site. If you still need instructions, please call our office and our staff will be glad to help you.

It is very simple. you can either call us at (813) 681-4443 or send us an email at contact@northsidecardiology.com. Please try the web site first since phone calls may be more time consuming. Just mention when/what time you will be able to come, and we will try to accommodate you. Unfortunately, due to nature of the specialty, we do not accept walk-ins.

If you are late within 30 minutes of your appointment time, please call us. we may still be able to see you or offer you another time same day. If you are more than 30 minutes late, then we cannot guarantee that you can be seen that day. Please try to be on time as a courtesy to other patients.

If due to unexpected emergency in the hospital, our physician is late, we will notify you at the time of sign in. You can either wait or reschedule if waiting is not possible. Unfortunately, due to nature of cardiology, some times, physicians have to attend very sick patients in the hospital spending more than usual time. These situations are not under any one's control.

We try to have same physician see you in the hospital who is your regular cardiologist in the office. However, some times, you may need to be seen by another physician in the group. Once you are discharged, you will most likely return to your regular physician. Please be rest assured that all of our physicians are fully qualified and has access to all of your medical information.

If you need to go to ER for any heart related issues or for any other issues, please inform the ER doctor that your cardiologist is Northside Cardiology physician. They will contact us and based on nature of your illness, you will be seen or followed up by our caring physician. You also need to let the ER doctor know the name of your regular doctor.

If your cardiologist has determined that you need cardiac cath or other hospital based test or procedure, our office will schedule it at one of the area hospitals. We will try to get authorization from your insurance plan but we may also need your help in that matter. We will try to schedule it at the very best facility for that procedure or test. It may or may not be the closest hospital or facility but it will be the best.

We encourage you to ask for refills at the time of appointment. That saves time and prevents mistakes since your chart is available. If you need refills and your office appointment is not before the medication expiration time, we will be happy to call in enough medication till your next appointment. We do not refill more than certain number of times since medications and their required strength changes with change in age or other reasons. After an hour refill requests are entertained by the on-call physicians, but please try to limit it for real emergency refills.

If you do have billing questions or you do not understand a part of the bill, please feel free to email us, we will try to get back with you with the answer ASAP. You can also call us if you do not have access to email.

We believe on open communication with your primary care physician. If your condition is urgent, our Cardiologist will speak to your doctor while you are still in the office. Otherwise, a detailed summary of your assessment and plan is mailed or faxed to your physician with in 24-48 hr time. This not only is good medical practice but also keeps all health care providers informed so best possible care can be provided to our patients.

If the results are critical, our office will call you ASAP. Otherwise, you will get the results at you previously scheduled appointment face to face with the cardiologist so all questions can be answered.

The HIPPA protects all of your personal and health care information and dictates with whom can we share this information. For further information, please visit the  CMS web site at www.cms.gov.

If you are a first time patient, please plan on arriving early in order to complete a Patient Registration Form, if you have not already done so. Also, please bring the following items to the appointment:

• Insurance card/cards
• Referral forms (if required)
• List of all prescriptions and over-the-counter medications that you are currently taking.
• Any required co-payment.
• Pertinent medical and surgical history information and other pertinent medical records if available.
• Office Fees