Welcome to UAB ENT
At the UAB Ear, Nose, and Throat (ENT) clinics, we are committed to the diagnosis and treatment of ENT disease. We treat a wide range of ENT disorders, including benign and malignant tumors of the head and neck region and skin and skull base, thyroid and parathyroid disease, sinus disease, allergy disorders, hearing and balance disorders, salivary gland disorders, sleep apnea, and voice and aero-digestive disorders. We also offer reconstructive and cosmetic plastic surgery.
Who We Are
Our department has proudly served the needs of our patients for more than 30 years. Our group is comprised of board-certified otolaryngologists, many of whom are fellowship-trained in various sub-specialties. Our physicians are consistently ranked among the Best Doctors in America, and the department continues to be ranked by U.S. News & World Report as one of the top programs in the country. Our practice includes several certified registered nurse practitioners (CRNP) and physician assistants (PA-C) who are experienced in the assessment and management of common ENT disorders, including new patient workups, cancer surveillance, and post-surgical care.
Our practice locations include ENT 5th floor and ENT 1st floor clinics at The Kirklin Clinic of UAB Hospital. Please review the list of providers in each clinic to ensure you arrive at the correct location. This list may be found in the back of this packet. Our physicians perform surgery at UAB’s main hospital, UAB Hospital-Highlands, UAB Callahan Eye Foundation, and Children’s of Alabama hospital.
When not seeing patients in the clinic, many of our faculty work on advanced research aimed at expanding our understanding of many ENT disorders, improving treatment and outcomes, and educating and training the next generation of otolaryngologists.
Our multidisciplinary team is comprised of physicians, CRNPs, PAs, audiologists, speech pathologists, nurses, certified medical assistants, surgery schedulers, call support and front/back desk personnel; all of whom work together to provide exceptional , personalized care for our patients. We consider it a privilege to be a part of your health care team.
Comprehensive, Convenient Care
We are proud to provide the personalized, compassionate, and quality care you deserve and expect. As part of our commitment to patient convenience, we strive to coordinate multiple appointments and ancillary services such as audiology, speech pathology, radiology services, and laboratory testing on the same day. To accomplish this, it may require a later appointment than if we scheduled separately. We ask that you be an active partner in the scheduling process by informing us of days and times that are convenient for you. While we strive to accommodate these requests, please keep in mind that some of our faculty have limited clinic availability and longer-than-average wait times due to their patient volume and field of expertise. If appropriate, we may offer you earlier appointments with another physician or one of our highly trained CRNPs or PAs to help expedite your care.
We encourage our patients to enroll in the myUABMedicine patient portal. It offers the convenience of sending and receiving messages with your care team, checking lab results, and the ability to review portions of your medical record. Please review the patient portal section in this brochure or inquire at your next appointment for instructions on how to register for and access the patient portal.
We strive to respond to questions and calls in a timely manner through our call center. Please provide as much detailed information as possible when calling our office to ensure your call is routed appropriately. This helps prevent delays in getting the response you need. Additionally, multiple calls only delay our response time. While we strive to answer calls the same day, non-urgent calls received after 4 pm will be returned the following business day.
New Patients
We welcome new patients to our clinics. A referral from your primary care physician, ENT, or other medical specialist is recommended. Some insurance providers require a referral to be seen by a specialist, and some of our sub-specialists require a referral based on diagnosis. It is important that you bring your medication history, insurance card, and co-pay to your first visit. Any relevant medical records (including radiology, laboratory, and pathology reports) should be sent prior to your visit if possible. Otherwise, please bring these reports to your first appointment. If you have had a CT scan, PET, swallow study, nuclear medicine study and/or MRI, you will need to request a copy of the scan on a CD and bring it with you to your visit. These images cannot be faxed.
Some of our specialists may require additional information depending on your diagnosis, and if so, this will be communicated when you schedule your appointment.
To help you navigate UAB, a map with parking options and fees is included. Again, we thank you for trusting us with your care, and we hope your experience with us will be a positive one.
Return Patients
Please inform our staff at check-in of any changes in insurance, address, or phone numbers since your last visit.
Please be sure to bring a copy of your current medication list or your medication bottles, as our staff will review and update your medication list at every visit. If you have had a CT scan, PET, swallow study, nuclear medicine study and/or MRI at an outside facility between visits, please request a copy of the scan on a CD and bring it with you to your visit.
To Schedule or Change an Appointment
Should you need to schedule, cancel, or reschedule an appointment, please contact the scheduling office at (205) 801-7801 and choose option #1 as soon as possible. For the consideration of our patients and staff, if you arrive more than 30 minutes late to an appointment (or 15 minutes late for a hearing aid appointment), you may be asked to reschedule. If seen, you will be worked in to ensure other patients’ appointments are not delayed. Please notify us if you are running late so we can plan accordingly.
During Your Visit
You likely will see many members of our care team during your visit with us. Each member has a role in your care, and each encounter is part of your visit with us.
In many of our clinics, a scope exam is required to fully examine, assess, and diagnose your problem or complaint. A numbing agent may be sprayed in your nose or mouth, and a small scope might be inserted in the nose. This is a common procedure at ENT clinics. Many other procedures are performed in our clinics depending on the nature of the illness or complaint. If you have any questions during your visit, please let us know.
Surgery
If you are scheduled for surgery with one of our physicians, you will need an appointment with the pre-anesthesia clinic (PAC). We will help coordinate this for you. Arrival times for surgery will be communicated by our surgery schedulers, and we strive to provide you with a time by 2 pm the day before surgery. Please ensure that we have current phone numbers on file so that we may reach you with this important information. The myUABMedicine patient portal is an effective and convenient means of communicating these details to you. Additionally, you may not eat or drink anything after midnight the night before your surgery. Some medications may need to be stopped temporarily prior to surgery, so please ensure that our staff is aware of any changes to your medications, including herbal supplements, and whether you are on blood thinners such as aspirin, Plavix, Coumadin, Eliquis, etc.
Medication Refills
To obtain a refill of a medication prescribed by one of our providers, please submit your request through the myUABMedicine patient portal or call us at (205) 801-7801 and choose option #2. Please allow 24 hours for refill requests to be approved and processed. If a prior authorization is required, it may take longer than 24 hours. Please note that narcotic pain medications and certain other drugs cannot be called into the pharmacy. Arrangements must be made to pick up prescriptions, or you may request prescriptions be mailed to the address we have on file. Refills will be authorized on routine, scheduled medications if you have seen one of our providers within the last 6 months. Refills will not be authorized if scheduled appointments have been missed.
Test Results
Please allow at least 5-7 business days from the day the test or biopsy was performed for results to be reviewed. Some test results, such as pathology and specialized lab tests, may take longer.
If you have had tests such as imaging or labs performed outside of UAB, please make sure we receive a copy of the results to add to your record. Reports can be faxed to (205) 934-3993 or mailed to:
Department of Otolaryngology
BDB 563
1720 2nd Ave. South
Birmingham, AL 35294-0012
For Problems or Questions
You may reach us during regular business hours, Monday through Thursday from 8 am to 5 pm and on Fridays from 8 am to 4 pm at (205) 801-7801. For problems after hours or during weekends/holidays, please call the UAB paging operator a (205) 934-3411 and ask to speak with the ENT resident on call. Please note that medication refills and non-urgent issues should be handled during regular office hours, as the resident on call will not be able to address these matters after hours.
myUABMedicine Patient Portal
myUABMedicine is a patient portal website that provides you secure access to portions of your medical record and offers a convenient way to communicate with your UAB health care providers. A myUABMedicine online account allows you to:
- Communicate with your health care providers
- Request refills for currently prescribed medications (if you have been seen within the last 6 months)
- View results of select lab work or other tests
- View and/or download portions of your medical record
- View a summary of your clinical visits
- View your active medication list, allergies, immunizations, and more
If you are interested in creating a myUABMedicine patient portal account, please call (205) 801-7801 and choose option #2. You will need a working email address to enroll. Our staff will be more than happy to assist and answer any questions about the portal.
ENT First-Floor:
- Sinus & Allergies
- Facial Plastics
- Laryngology-Voice/Breathing Disorders
- Speech Pathology-Voice Therapy
ENT Fifth-Floor
- Head & Neck Surgery
- Thyroid/Parathyroid
- General ENT
- Ear & Hearing Disorders
- Audiology
- Allergy Testing and Treatment
- Speech Pathology