Welcome to the Grace Family Practice - Michelle T. Chu M.D.,P.C.. We are glad you chose us for your medical care,
and will do our utmost to meet all the health care needs of you and your family.
Dr. Michelle T. Chu has completed a full 3-year residency
in Family Practice, and is Board Certified in the Specialty.
Dr. Michelle T. Chu has practiced Medicine in the Northern Virginia for 7 years. Family Practice is the
Medical discipline specializing in you. We treat the patient as a whole person, and
the family as a unit. There is an equally strong emphasis on promoting wellness as well
as treating illness. We are fully trained in all aspects of internal medicine, pediatrics,
geriatrics, minor injuries, office surgery, mental health, gynecology, basic sports medicine,
and critical care. We have a vast range of subspecialty consultants available to us should
you need that, and we use only state of the art facilities and equipment.
Medical Staff
At the Grace Family Practice, Our staff begins with a core of well-trained, professional receptionists who assist you with
questions, billing, completion of chart forms, and the scheduling of appointments. Registered
Nurses and Licensed Practical Nurses with broad experience in family medicine comprise our
nursing staff. They will take your baseline vital signs and history, perform a wide variety
of skilled nursing procedures, and help you schedule any further tests your doctor may order.
Medical Services
Our purpose is to give you and your family good quality health care that is comprehensive, continuing, and at a reasonable cost. We are
family practice specialists and are certified by the American Board of Family Practice. We provide general medical care for all ages, including obstetrics,
pediatrics, newborn care, and most office surgical procedures. We freely consult with other specialists in all other fields when necessary.
We are on the active medical staff at Fairfax Hospital, Fair Oaks Hospital and Columbia Reston Hospital.
Our staff provide a wide range of medical services, including:
- Electrocardiograms
- X-Ray
- Flexible sigmoidoscopy
- Casting
- Audiometry and vision testing
- Minor surgery
- Laboratory: Basic Labs are done at the time of your office visit. More extensive lab tests are
sent to certified laboratories with returned results usually within 24-48 hours. Emergency, "Stat",
laboratory service is available during office hours.
- Newborn and nursery care in hospital
- Geriatric are (Nursing home visits and home visits available on a limited, individual basis)
- Health Maintenance: periodic check-ups, routine physical exams for work, school, sports, etc;
comprehensive complete physical exams, gynecological care, assistance with smoking cessation, weight
reduction, stress management, and substance abuse.
- Patient Education: well stocked patient library with many pamphlets and a variety of videotapes on
medical topics.
- Inhalation treatment
- Pulmonary function testing
- Pediatrics and Adolescents: we see children of all ages - newborn through adulthood.
- Many other services not listed.
Appointments
Please call (703)241-8008 during regular office hours to schedule an appointment. We can
usually see you within 24-48 hours for routine exams, and within 24 hours for acute illness.
If there is a major illness or emergency, please inform the receptionist, and we will arrange an
appointment that day. The receptionist will ask you the reason for your appointment in order that we can allocate the proper
amount of time. Appointments are scheduled at 15 minute intervals. However, extended appointments are available for multiple
or complicated problems.
We make every effort to stay on schedule. We may run behind if a patient requires more time for an illness more serious than
originally indicated, or an emergency arises requiring the doctor's immediate attention. We sincerely regret any inconvenience
this might cause and ask your understanding in these situations. Should you not be called back to the examining room after 20
minutes of the time of your scheduled appointment, kindly let the receptionist know. We also run behind when patients are late for
appointments. We ask you to make every effort to be on time, and we will do the same. If you cannot keep a scheduled appointment,
please call us as soon as possible (preferably 24 hours in advance).
The Grace Family Practice - Michelle T. Chu M.D., P.C. is located in the Seven Corners Professional Park,
on the Seven Corners area, just off Route 50 and Route 7. Close to the Arlington and fairfax Hospitals. Click
here for directions, or call (703)241-8008 if you need more information.
Emergencies
We can handle most emergencies in our office during routine office hours. After the office closes, Doctor Michelle T. Chu
is always on call. Simply call the office telephone number (703)241-8008, and the answering service will page the doctor immediately. Doctor Michelle T. Chu will call you back within 20 minutes. Often the Doctor will be able to
help you over the phone. There are times, however, when that is not possible. We can then arrange to meet you at the emergency room or at the office on an emergency basis. We ask that you call after hours
for emergencies only. For routine problems, please call during normal office hours.
Advice
Many routine questions can be handled by our professional nursing staff. Questions outside this range will be referred to Doctor Michelle Chu. The doctor will
then relay instructions to the nurse or call you back personally. Doctor Chu or the nurses of The Grace Family Practice will also call you with all your test results after they have been reviewed
by the doctor. We will call you even if your test results are normal. If you have not received a call from our office after two weeks of having a test or procedure done (either at our office or an ouside facility),
kindly call us. Our nurses make most of their phone calls between 12:00 noon and 2:00PM. The doctor will call you back for major problems between appointments, schedules permitting. Again, in an emergengy, please
inform the receptionist, and someone will call you back immediately. Be sure and notify us of any changes in your telephone number or address. That is the only way we can reach you.
Prescription Refills
We will be glad to refill your prescriptions during normal office hours. If this is a refill, please have your pharmacist call the office. If it is a new prescription or a new pharmacy,
please give us full details and the pharmacy telephone number. Prescriptions for antibiotics, narcotics, strong tranquilizers, or sleeping pills are usually written as an exact number and are not refilled without a
follow-up appointment. If you have not seen your doctor in over a year, your doctor will usually request that you make an appointment prior to refilling your prescription.
Hospital Care
We have priviledges at the Fairfax Hospital, 3300 Gallows Road, Falls Church, the Fair Oaks Hospital, 3600 Joseph Siewick Drive, Fairfax,
and the Columbia Reston Hospital, 1850 Town Center Parkway, Reston. We will see you at least once a day while you are in the hospital. If you are in the Intensive Care Unit,
we may need to see you more frequently. Infants in the newborn nursery are seen within 24 hours of birth and again prior to discharge. On weekends and major holidays, the doctor on call for our group will see you.
Billing Information
We operate on a fee-for-service basis and expect payment at the time of service by either cash, personal check, or credit card (Visa/MasterCard). We will provide you with a "superbill" receipt containing all the information
needed by your insurance company to process your claim. Simply attach this to your insurance form and mail it to your insurance company. They will reimburse you directly.
We do participate with the following health insurance:
- Aetna HMO and PPO Plans
- Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Virginia
- Blue Cross and Blue Shield of the National Capital Area.
- Health Plus
- Health Plus/Sanus Passport
- NCPPO
- Private HealthCare System, Inc. (PHCS)
- Medicare
- and others (Call 385-6789 for details)
If you have insurance coverage with any of the above plans, please follow the procedure for your individual plan.
Help Us Help You
Sir William Osler, one of the greatest physicians of modern medicine, said "If you listen to the patient long enough
he'll tell you what's wrong with him". Your history is an integral part of your office visit. Please come a few minutes
early to your initial appointment, and take the time to complete accurately the history form. Be able to tell us at the time
of your appointment what symtoms you are experiences, the duration of the problem, what makes the problem better or worse and
if this is a recurrent problem, how was it evaluated and treated previously.
If you have any suggestions how the doctor or staff of The Grace Family Practice can better serve you, please let us know.
If you have any complaints or concerns, we would appreciate your feedback. We will make every effort to correct the situation.
We would be delighted to hear any positive comments (actually, they just make our day).
You are very important to us, and we look forward to meeting your medical needs in health and illness.