>> Hello, my name is Jon Weingart, and I'm Director
of the Johns Hopkins Comprehensive Brain Tumor Center.
I'm a neurosurgeon here at Johns Hopkins
and primarily take care of people
who have brain tumor problems.
We have a very large Brain Tumor Center here
at Johns Hopkins that involves neuro-oncologists,
radiation oncologists, neurosurgeons, medical oncologists.
We take care of many people
with these kind of problems every year.
In fact, we probably do over 1,000 surgeries a year
for this problem and take care of many more
new patients who don't need surgery.
This is a challenging time for a patient and their family
if this happens, and we know that it's difficult sometimes
to get access to resources and services that you might want.
And it's hard to navigate the process sometimes,
in terms of getting an appointment,
so this video here is to help facilitate you getting access
to Johns Hopkins, getting access to our Brain Tumor Center
which supports people in all of the aspects of this problem
from an operation to care after surgery,
and to getting back to their normal life.
So I hope you find this video helpful
and we will go over each of the different scenarios
as to how you might need to get an appointment here with us.
I'm going to cover several different scenarios.
The first is that you've been admitted to a hospital,
or you're in an emergency room,
and you would like to be cared for at Johns Hopkins.
That can be a hospital or an emergency room
here in Maryland or outside of Maryland.
The second scenario is that you live in Maryland,
or in a neighboring state or Washington DC,
and you want an appointment here at Hopkins.
You're at home and you've been told that you have a tumor
and that you need to see a neurosurgeon.
The next scenario is that you live far away from Maryland
in a state beyond the bordering states of Maryland,
and would like an appointment.
The next scenario is that you live outside the United States
and then the final scenario
is that you have a more emergent situation.
Your doctor has told you that you need
to see a neurosurgeon right away.
They may even have said, "Go right to the hospital."
This is a separate scenario
that we have an expedited evaluation process.
Going back to the first scenario, where you're admitted
to a hospital or you're in an emergency room,
you can ask your doctor to call Johns Hopkins
to what we call the Hopkins Assess Line
and the number is 410-955-9444.
Your doctor will be connected
through an operator to one of us.
We will talk to your doctor about what your situation is,
we may even have access to look at your imaging studies,
and we can arrange transfer directly to the hospital.
The next scenario is that you live in Maryland
or one of the neighboring states,
or in Washington DC, and again,
you've been told that you have a brain tumor,
that you need to see a neurosurgeon,
and you want to have access to Johns Hopkins
and to be seen in Neurosurgery.
This applies for adults or children,
and the numbers to get access or to get an appointment here
are the following: for an adult, it's 410-955-6406,
and for Pediatrics, it's 410-955-7337.
Now when you call, you will talk to an operator,
and they will ask you to send certain pieces of information.
That information will include your MRI report,
diagnosis that you've been given,
and some contact information
including your insurance information.
You'll be given a fax number to fax the information to,
and that is 410-630-7865.
Now what happens at that point is that,
that information is reviewed,
and you will get a callback as to an appointment.
Depending on the urgency of that evaluation,
that appointment could be within a few days,
it could be within a week, it could be at your convenience,
depending on you know, where you live.
If you live outside of Maryland or the bordering states,
and have to travel a long distance to get to Hopkins,
we have a service that can facilitate
and help you with that, it's a medical concierge service.
We call it Hopkins USA, and the number for that is
1-855-695-4872.
Again, the medical concierge will ask you
for certain pieces of information.
This will include whatever records you have
from your doctors, from your MRI scan,
and get some insurance information also.
That information will be then passed on to us
in the neurosurgery department where we will review
the information and then you will get a callback
to coordinate a time for you to visit.
That time will be coordinated
to meet your schedule as well as ours.
If you live outside of the United States,
then there is a service that facilitates a visit
here at Johns Hopkins and that's called
the Johns Hopkins International office.
Their number is 1-410-502-7683.
The operator or the concierge that answers the phone
will obtain the information about your problem.
We'll ask you to fax certain pieces of information
and then based on the review
of that information, you will be contacted
about arranging for a visit here at Hopkins.
The next scenario is an urgent one.
This is where you've had symptoms
that have led to the MRI scan or to the CT scan.
Your quality of life or your daily function
is being affected in some way.
Your doctor tells you that you have an urgent problem,
that you need to be seen right away.
Your doctor may even have told you
that you need to go right to the hospital.
In this situation we have an expedited process.
When you call the Hopkins Neurosurgery referral line,
you tell the person that answers the phone
that you have an urgent problem.
They will ask you for your diagnosis,
or what your doctor has told you is your diagnosis.
They will ask you to fax the MRI scan report
or have you read the conclusion
on the MRI scan report to them.
They will take that information
and pass it directly to one of us on the brain tumor team,
and one of us or our assistant
will get back in touch with you
within 48 hours to arrange an immediate visit.
In conclusion, we have a tremendous team
here at Johns Hopkins.
We have a large group of people
that are interested in taking care of people
that have brain tumors and brain problems.
We don't want any barriers for you to have access to us,
so this video is to help facilitate
and expedite the process for you,
and I hope that you found it to be helpful.