About the Practice

Office Hours

We open the office at approximately 8:30 a.m., Monday - Friday. The last scheduled visit for the day is at 1:00pm. The office staff usually leaves by 4:30 p.m.  Visits can be scheduled by calling, visiting or writing.

Office Staff

Estella Hernandez – Office Manager
Diane Leatherwood, LVN – Nurse
Laurie Robbins – Billing
Kay Rogers – Reception
Terry Walker – Medical Records

On-Call Doctors

Dr. Kelly rotates calls with another physician on weekends, and feels that this physician is equally capable of handling your questions and problems.  Always call the office (817-336-3431) when you feel that there is an urgent or a serious problem. In an emergency, call 911, or go directly to the emergency room, preferably to Baylor All Saints Hospital Emergency Room in downtown Fort Worth. PMH Subscribers have a special hotline to connect with Dr. Kelly at all times. (back to top)

Hospital Affiliations

Dr. Kelly has staff privileges at Baylor All Saints Hospital, Plaza Medical Center, Kindred Hospital, Harris Hospital (Texas Health Resources), Harris Continued Care Hospital, and HealthSouth Rehabilitation Hospital.  Dr. Kelly cares for his emergency and hospitalized patients at Baylor All Saints Hospital. He prefers Stonegate Nursing Center for long term care.  Dr. Kelly general admits to Harris Hospital or All Saints Hospital, but at any point in time maintains his practice at one hospital or the other, depending upon the needs of patients and other responsibilities.  (back to top)

Recommended Evaluations

Adult should have an annual prevention and cancer screening visit with their physician.  Usually in conjunction with this prevention visit, patients should have a comprehensive visit to review, tabulate, and aggregate their medical information.   If not already done this year, call and schedule your visit today.  Patients with chronic disease, on daily medication, or over the age of 50 should visit regularly.  Obviously, any patient with an unexplained problem or uncertainty about their health should see the doctor to have the problem addressed, and then see the doctor at least monthly until a diagnosis is made and effective treatment started. (back to top)

Health Plans

We know health plans are an important part of health care.  Insurance is the patient’s benefit and each patient should remember that the office will need your cooperation in filing insurance forms.  If you hear from your insurance company that there is a problem, please let the office know right away, and mail us a copy of the notice. Dr. Kelly participates with health plans which he feels are high quality. Despite such arrangements, Dr. Kelly works as the patient’s physician and advocate, not as an employee or agent for any health or insurance plan. PMH Subscribers have the benefit of additional reports and filings without individual costs, so consider becoming a subscriber today. (back to top)

Your Appointment

When you come in for your appointment, you will be asked to complete a Visit Questionnaire.  Please include the issues you want to discuss with Dr. Kelly or the nurse.  Be as specific as you can, and feel free to bring notes with you to help you remember.  It is also important that you know the names and dosages of all medications, vitamins, and other supplements you may be taking.  Sometimes it is best just to bring the bottles with you!

At the end of your visit Dr. Kelly or the staff will review recommendations, medications, and expected course of treatment.  If you are uncertain or confused about any of your instructions, please ask for clarification.

If you find it necessary to POSTPONE A VISIT, please give us at least 24 hours notice and remember to reschedule the appointment. Visits missed or cancelled with less than 24 hours notice will incur charges.

It is your responsibility to follow directions, schedule both routine and follow-up visits, and see consulting physicians, if recommended.  Also, please keep us informed of any changes of address, phone number, or insurance coverage. 

Please notify us of any SYMPTOMS WHICH PERSIST or do not follow the course described by your doctor. Failure to bring such symptoms to our attention or to come to the office for follow-up appointments could have unforeseen adverse effects. Always let the doctor know of any new or unexpected symptoms or problems. (back to top)

Fees (Time and the Use of the Office) 

There are individual charges for returned checks, missed appointments, copies of records, completing administrative forms, record review, telephone care, emails, text messages, our news subscription, most telephone prescription refills, weekend and after-hours care, coordination of care, and emergency visits. Any service considered not covered by an insurance carrier will need to be paid by the patient. If you are a PMH Subscriber, your annual single subscription fee will cover the convenience of most medication refills, emails, text messages, enhanced cell phone communication and our quarterly PMH NEWS. We give preference to PMH Subscribers in our practice, as well.

If you have a co-pay or unpaid balance, this should be paid when you visit or by mail. We do accept many credit cards.  Remember, some services handled as a convenience, such as lab handling in office and telephone calls for care, are not covered by Medicare or insurance.  These non-covered services will be billed directly to patients. Patients who miss appointments or who do not pay their bills in a timely fashion will be discharged from the practice. (back to top)

Stay Informed

Just as it is important for us to be fully informed, it is important that you understand the issues related to your healthcare.  Any questions and uncertainties about your medical problem should be explained to your satisfaction, even if this requires additional telephone consultation or appointment time.

Learn as much as you can about your medical problems and prescriptions.  Local libraries, bookstores and your pharmacists have many resources.  The Internet is also very useful, especially websites such as www.medscape.com, www.texashealth.org, www.ama-assn.org, or www.mayoclinic.com. If you learn something from your own reading or news reports or conversations which concerns your illness or treatment, call or come in to assess how it may apply to you. If your questions are about an issue not related to your recent (prior 1-2 days) visit, then there will be charges for our phone, email or text visit. PMH Subscribers benefit for a single annual fee that covers many of these convenient communications aspects. (back to top)

Patient’s Responsibilities

Dr. Kelly relies on patients to participate in their own care. It is the patient’s responsibility to schedule and come to the office for routine, semi-annual and follow-up visits, and to be sure that all questions and uncertainties have been thoroughly explained.  Do not leave the office if there is uncertainty in your mind about what is planned or about Dr. Kelly’s assessment of your problem.
Test reports will be delivered either by a direct telephone call from Dr. Kelly or the office staff or a written summary of test results. Do not let more than a week go by without having knowledge of test reports or 2 weeks for biopsy results.  If you do not hear from us, then there may have been a problem. In such a case, call the office right away or come by to inquire about test results from the office nurse or from Dr. Kelly, or schedule a visit to review in detail.  No news does not mean good news.

Symptoms which persist or which do not follow the course described should be brought back to Dr. Kelly’s attention.  A missed follow-up or miscommunication can have unforeseen or severe consequences.

Cancer screening is the patient’s responsibility first.  Today, Americans are recommended to have intermittent screening for cancer of the cervix, breast, colon and prostate gland.  Please be sure you do these screnings on a regular basis, as necessitated by age and risk factors.  Call and schedule a yearly visit so that we can arrange cancer screening.  Be aware there is a fee when we arrange annual cancer screening.  Usually at that annual visit we will also completely review your medical record and create a health record tabulation.  If you do not schedule this visit, Dr. Kelly will complete this work without a specific visit and send you a report with his recommendations.  There is a fee for these services, and they need to be completed every year or two.

Whenever you move, change phone numbers, or change insurance, send written notice of this to the office right away.

The Health Record Tabulator is a comprehensive tabulation of medical data performed by Dr. Kelly annually for every patient.  The tabulation is covered by some insurance plans when it is part of a comprehensive visit.  This powerful data tool will be completed annually.  If you do not schedule a comprehensive annual visit, then this tabulation and report will be completed and mailed to you.  There is a charge for this report, but it does save you time and trouble, and it can minimize needless duplications in testing as time goes by. (back to top)

Hippocratic Oath

A philosophy of medicine embraced by Dr. Kelly and generations of American, English, and other physicians worldwide:

To hold him who has taught me this art as equal to my parents and to live my life in partnership with him, and if he is in need of money to give him a share of mine, and to regard his offspring as equal to my brothers in male lineage and to teach them this art—if they desire to learn it—without fee and covenant; to give a share of precepts and oral instruction and all the other learning to my sons and to the sons of him who has instructed me and to pupils who have signed the covenant and have taken an oath according to the medical law, but no one else.

I will apply dietetic measures for the benefit of the sick according to my ability and judgment; I will keep them from harm and injustice.

I will neither give a deadly drug to anybody who asked for it, nor will I make a suggestion to this effect. Similarly I will not give to a woman an abortive remedy. In purity and holiness I will guard my life and my art.

I will not use the knife, not even on sufferers from stone, but will withdraw in favor of such men as are engaged in this work.

Whatever houses I may visit, I will enter for the benefit of the sick, remaining free of all intentional injustice, of all mischief and in particular of sexual relations with both female and male persons.

What I may see or hear in the course of the treatment or even outside of the treatment in regard to the life of men, which on no account one must spread abroad, I will keep to myself, holding such things shameful to be spoken about.

If I fulfill this oath and do not violate it, may it be granted to me to enjoy life and art, being honored with fame among all men for all time to come; if I transgress it and swear falsely, may the opposite of all this be my lot.          

Translation from the Greek by Ludwig Edelstein. From The Hippocratic Oath: Text, Translation, and Interpretation, by Ludwig Edelstein. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 1943. (back to top)