Patients Find Convenience, Loyalty at Lakefront Medical Associates

2/12/2010 12:00:00 AM

Same-day Appointments Now Available

Sometimes, the most inconvenient thing about getting sick can be trying to schedule a doctor’s appointment; but not at Lakefront Medical Associates — the outpatient physician group connected to Weiss Memorial Hospital. Same-day appointments are routine — and so are office hours that fit patients’ schedules.

Lakefront physicians offer appointments Monday through Saturday, with hours as early as 7 a.m. and on some days, as late as 8 p.m. But what keeps patients coming back are the commitment from the doctors and the proximity to clinical care, laboratories and testing services at Weiss.

Although many of the physicians at Lakefront specialize in internal medicine, the group also includes doctors who practice in endocrinology, general surgery, neurology, obstetrics/gynecology, oncology and wound healing. Ear, nose and throat specialist Janaki Emani, M.D., is the newest addition to the physician team at Lakefront.

Carnetta Witt, a 55-year-old Uptown flight attendant, is a longtime patient of Lakefront physician Clement Rose, M.D. Since 1993, when she moved from Japan to Chicago, Witt has been coming to Weiss not just because she lives nearby, but because she likes her doctors. Rose asks Witt personal questions at each visit, Witt said, “to see how I’m doing mentally before he goes into anything physical.”

In October 2007, Witt was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and started her chemotherapy and radiation treatment with Lakefront Oncology Associates, the affiliated cancer specialists. Her doctors referred her to a specialist in surgical oncology who removed cancerous parts of Witt’s pancreas, as well as her gall bladder and part of her bowels. Two years after her diagnosis, and with treatment from oncologist Keith Shulman, M.D., and radiologist Marina Kuznetsova, M.D., Witt is in remission.

Lakefront Medical Associates is located in the Medical Office Building attached to the north end of the hospital at 4700 N. Marine Drive. For more information or to make an appointment, call (773) 564-5355. Appointments are available Monday 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., Tuesday through Thursday from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m., Friday from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m., and Saturday from 9 to 11:30 a.m.

Lakefront includes several doctors who speak Polish, Spanish or Yiddish. Two Polish-speaking Lakefront physicians also practice at Skil Plaza, 5528 N. Milwaukee Ave.