POLICY
Maintaining Our Place of Healing:
Hospital/ED Follow-Up (Medical Records Requirements)
Effective Date: 08/01/2026
Why We Ask for Your Hospital or ER Records Before Your Follow-Up Visit
At Temecula Medical Group, your safety is our top priority — and that starts with your provider having the full picture of your health.
If you've recently been admitted to a hospital or seen in an emergency department, we ask that your discharge records be available to your provider *before* your follow-up appointment with us. Here's why that matters, and how you can help.
Why This Matters to Your Care
A hospital or ER visit often means new diagnoses, new medications, important test results, and specific discharge instructions from the team who treated you. Your Temecula Medical Group provider needs this information to:
- Understand exactly what happened during your hospital or ER visit
- Avoid duplicating tests or, just as importantly, avoid missing something important
- Make sure any new medications are safe alongside what you're already taking
- Pick up your care plan exactly where the hospital left off, without gaps
Without these records, your provider is working with an incomplete picture — and that's not the standard of care we want for you.
What We Try to Do
When you let us know which hospital or ED you visited, we attempt to retrieve your records electronically through our secure medical records exchange network. This works some of the time — but often it doesn't, and that's usually not something we can fix on our end. The most common reasons:
- The hospital hasn't been given approval by you to release your records to us
- We don't yet have your permission to request them
- The records simply aren't available yet on the hospital's side
In other words: our system can only reach as far as you've opened the door for it. That's why your help isn't optional — it's usually the deciding factor in whether we get your records in time.
How You Can Help — This Is the Part That Actually Works
The single fastest, most reliable way to get your records to us is for you to call the hospital or ED directly. Hospitals are set up to respond to the patient, not to another provider's office calling on your behalf. Here's what to do:
- Call the hospital or ED (Emergency Department) where you were treated and give them permission to release your records to Temecula Medical Group.
- Ask them to fax your records directly to us at 951-910-7205.
- If you have access to that hospital's online patient portal, you're also welcome to download your records yourself and upload them through our patient portal.
Please don't assume we'll be able to track these down on our own — in most cases, we can't, and taking a few minutes to make that call is the best thing you can do to keep your appointment on schedule.
What Happens If Records Aren't Available in Time
We'll always do everything we reasonably can to get your records before your visit, and we'll keep you posted along the way. If they're still missing as your appointment approaches:
- For non-urgent visits, we may need to reschedule your appointment so your provider has what they need to treat you safely.
- For urgent or acute needs, we will always see you. Your provider will use their best clinical judgment and document that the records weren't yet available.
We will never turn away a patient who has an urgent medical need.
The Bottom Line
This isn't a bureaucratic hurdle — it's a safety step built around one simple idea: the more complete your provider's understanding of your recent hospital care, the safer and more effective your visit will be.
Posting Information
This policy is posted on our website to ensure transparency.
Contact Us
If you have any questions about our forms or medical records fee policies, or to submit a request, please call us at 951-302-2526 or visit us at: Temecula Medical Group 27555 Ynez Rd Ste 102 Temecula, CA 92591
Thank you for choosing Temecula Medical Group as your healthcare partner!