The frequency of follow up appointments depends on two things: a) the type of hair loss that the patient was diagnosed with and b) how whether the patient's hair density is improving, staying the same or getting worse. If a patient's hair loss is stable, follow up might be every 9 months or every 18 months or Dr. Donovan might not recommend any further follow up at all. For those patients with rapidly progressive hair loss, follow up appointment might be recommended every 3-4 months. Your safety is important to us and we have patients with dozens dozens of different types of hair loss in our practice at the Donovan Clinic. Some are short term patients, coming to see us just for a second opinion on their diagnosis or treatment. Others are long term patients seeing us a various intervals during the year.
A follow up appointment by a physician skilled in the diagnosis and treatment of hair loss is recommended by a specific date recommended by Dr. Donovan. This date can be found in the consultation note. This is to ensure safety and to ensure that the outlined treatment plan is helping in the expected manner. This follow up appointment need not necessarily be conducted with Dr. Donovan but should be conducted with a physician who can properly evaluate the current treatment plan previously outlined by Dr. Donovan and properly evaluate the progress of treating the particular type(s) of hair loss that were previously diagnosed. If this future follow up appointment is not provided by Dr. Donovan, we ask all patients to kindly have the consultation note from the other provider sent to us by the other physician or clinic after the appointment so that we might include this in the patient chart. If patients have questions about any aspect of their consultation with Dr. Donovan, we invite them to contact us with their questions. Follow up questions and follow up issues are handled according to our formal clinic policies. Dr. Donovan would be only too pleased and honored to answer any and all questions within the first three months following any appointment provided they meet the general criteria. This can be done by emailing questions to our office. There are no associated fees for questions that are emailed to our office and all questions are promptly answered within 3 business days. Some patients elect to set up one more brief telephone appointments (BTA) with Dr. Donovan within the first three months to discuss issues and questions with Dr Donovan directly and this can also be arranged. Generally speaking, a follow up appointment is required by anypatient if one of more of the following three scenarios are true: 1) there is a further worsening in the patient’s hair loss condition or changes in the patient’s health at any time that requires them to review again with Dr Donovan 2) there is a need for the patient to stop any current medication previously recommended by Dr. Donovan or there is a new to discuss with Dr. Donovan to possibility of adding new medications to the treatment plan or 3) it has been more than 3 months since the patient’s last regular appointment (i.e. the three month interval has expired). Provided it is appropriate and safe to do so, Dr. Donovan will renew any prescription or prescriptions that were previously prescribed by him without the need for an appointment up until the date of the recommended follow up appointment. This date can be found in the section above. After that time, a prescription renewal will not be provided by Dr. Donovan without the patient having an in person or remote follow up appointment. Remote appointments can be conducted via phone, skype, FaceTime. A proper and thorough consultation is needed to ensure the effectiveness and safety of continuing to use prescribed medications and to determine whether a modification of the treatment plan is needed.
