Chicago dizziness and hearing (CDH) opens at 7:30 in the morning. The last patient visit is generally scheduled at 5. The office closes at 6:30 in the evening. CDH is not open on the weekends.

Patients have a thorough initial evaluation, followed by return visits as needed to assess the effects of treatment until the patient is well or we have exhausted all reasonable treatments. Most new patient visits will include some testing related to dizziness.

Appointment timing
New appointments are available in about 1 week. Return appointments can generally be obtained within two days. We can be reached most easily by email at cdb@dizziness-and-balance.com. At the time that the appointment is made, we will ask for contact information and billing information. Our scheduler will coordinate testing, labs and treatment visits. Less trips downtown can often be accomplished by scheduling tests and appointments on the same day. For patients from out-of-town, it is often helpful to coordinate your appointment and preschedule testing, as well as appointments with other specialty physicians that might be helpful in evaluation of the situation.

Consults
Telephone consults with Dr. Hain are offered mainly for persons from far away who are unable to visit us in person, or patients who cannot travel.

Holidays
CDH is open on most secular (non-religious) holidays.
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How much time to plan?
New patient visits typically take two to four hours. For return patients, we generally use a "first available" strategy - whoever between Dr. Hain and Dr. Cherchi can see the patient first. If it is more important to you to see one particular doctor, you can opt to schedule either on Monday (to see Dr. Cherchi), or Friday (to see Dr. Hain).
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What to bring to the appointment?
Please bring with you all available relevant medical records, especially MRI scans of the head or neck, results of ear testing (hearing and ENG), blood test results when available. If you bring your kids or spouse, please remember that new appointments typically consume about 3-4 hours. They may want to visit the local sights, or just get a cup of coffee. There is a lot of stuff to do in our area. We provide free internet in the office, so feel free to bring your laptop.
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Communication with patients outside the clinic
Most phone-calls are answered by a staff member within 24 hours. After hours, the telephones are transferred to a paging service. Physicians are not able to always return calls within 24 hours. Depending on the urgency of the situation, it may take a few days or even longer.

Email and fax are more efficient than telephone. Our fax # is 312-274-0198 (also 312-376-8707 for large amounts of material). Out email address is medassist@dizziness-and-balance.com. We use secure computer systems, but please be aware that the internet in general is not a secure environment. We advise against using email to transmit information that you would not want to be public. We sometimes use email to facilitate appointments, prescription refills, and when necessary, to obtain followup information. When emailing us, please take into account that we are just not able to answer daily emails from all our patients.

We will routinely send copies of our new patient notes to the physicians that our patients designate. We will also routinely send all lab reports to our patients. We will, on request, send copies of hand-written notes to you too. We respect your privacy and will not give data about you to others without your permission, other than the specific cases outlined in our privacy policy (pdf format).

For more detail about how to contact us, see the Contact page.
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Prescription refills
Most prescription refills are accomplished by calling or faxing our clinic, indicating what needs to be refilled, and leaving your full name, birth date, a contact number for you, and a pharmacy number. Email is also fine. Our paper fax # (best for rx) is 312-274-0198. Most prescriptions are written with 3 to 6 months of refills.
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Parking and transportation
See this page for maps and directions to CDH as well as hotels, restaurants, and tourist attraction near the clinic.
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