About Our Services and Office

Our Services

My goal is to provide our patients with the best possible visit and experience

My office focuses on providing:

• High quality care for sports injuries, back pain, sciatica, neck pain, etc.
• Effective treatment of tendinitis, bursitis, foot pain, elbow pain, carpal tunnel syndrome, knee and shoulder injuries.
• General physicals, general medicine, integrated, preventive-oriented care.
• Treatment of high cholesterol, high blood pressure, and other conditions with the best of conventional and alternative medicine.
• Removal of moles in the office including gentle shave biopsies and nearly painless cryo (freezing) therapy.
• Joint injections with a gentle touch and a freezing spray beforehand.
• Blood draws typically done by the physician with an experienced hand and distracting conversation.
• Trigger point injections to relieve muscle knots, spasm, headache pain.
• Management of stress and stress-related conditions.
• Close coordination with high quality physical therapy, chiropractic, dieticians, and massage services.
• EKG (electrocardiogram) and spirometry (lung function testing) in-office.
• On-site Ultrasound testing and echocardiograms, by appointment.
• Personalized referral to Top Sub-Specialists on staff at Cedars Sinai and other hospitals.
• PRP injections while available.

Staff Privileges at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. Patients who need admission to Cedars-Marina Del Rey Hospital, Brotman Medical Center or Olympia Medical Center are cared for by a colleague or staff physician while in the hospital.  Close affiliation with Platinum Hospitalist Group for in-patient care at Cedars-Sinai and Cedars-Marina Del Rey Hospital.

Our Policies

Practice Philosophy

You, the patient, have a right to expect:
1) Our receptionist will treat you cordially on the telephone and in person.
2) The doctor will make every effort to see you as close to your appointment time as is possible.
3) The doctor or receptionist will return your phone messages within twenty-four hours, sooner if marked urgent or described as urgent to the secretary.
4) The doctor, to the best of his ability, will answer your questions.
5) You will have an opportunity to question and, if necessary, challenge
the doctor at each visit.
6) Treatment choices will focus on the treatment option that has the
highest benefit to risk ratio for your problem.
7) Where possible, non-invasive and alternative approaches will be presented.
8) Your treatment will take into account your individual preferences,
social situation, and financial situation, where appropriate.
9) You will be referred to the highest quality practitioners, when needed.
10) Your medical information will be kept confidential and shared with others only upon your request.

11 Pandemic: We will do our best to keep you safe from Covid-19 and other infectious diseases while in our office.

We, as a medical office also have expectations of our patients:
1) You will come to the office on time for your appointments.
2) If you need to cancel or reschedule an appointment, you will give us at least one business day’s notice. We do charge a fee for no-shows or late cancellations unless there are extenuating personal emergencies.
3) You will come to the office prepared to pay any co-pays or deductibles with cash, credit card, or personal check.
4) You will truthfully complete any forms requested and honestly share your medical history with us.
5) You will inform us of any changes in your personal information, address, telephone, or insurance coverage as soon as it happens.
6) You will make follow-up appointments, where requested, to discuss test results and assess treatment outcomes.
7) You will be a partner in ensuring that test results and other matters are resolved and not left “dangling” due to lack of follow-up. Let’s work together to ensure your care is of the highest quality.
8) You will make a faithful effort to follow mutually agreed upon treatment approaches unless side effects or unexpected complications arise.

9 Pandemic) You will help protect us from Covid and other infectious diseases by informing us in advance if you feel ill, wearing a mask that fits, and washing your hands regularly while in the office.

Email Policy

1) Email (secure portal messages) is a great way to communicate with your doctor for NON-URGENT issues such as normal test results, simple questions, and clarifications of treatment.  Most messaging now goes through the secure portal (Updox).
2) For help with the portal call the office and speak with Vanessa or email: frontofficedrs At gmail.com to reach Vanessa. Be sure the subject heading includes a recognizable phrase such as “patient question”, “TMS”, “knee pain persists”, “the medication is not working”, etc. so that it is not accidentally deleted or filtered as “spam”.
3) Expect a return response within twenty-four hours or so during the week (Monday through Friday early afternoon).  Do NOT expect an immediate response, although it may happen.  Not infrequently, late Friday emails are not reviewed until Monday morning.
4) If the matter is urgent, call the office. The voice mail explains how a doctor can be paged for after-hours emergencies.
5) For refills, include the medication, dose, frequency of use, number of pills requested, pharmacy phone number and prescription number, if known. Refills should generally occur at office visits.
6)  In any case when you do not hear back in the expected interval, PLEASE do not hesitate to call or re-email. Be sure to include a subject heading if you email (see 2 above).
7) There is currently no charge for email contact with the doctor. Please try to keep the communication brief and to the point.  More than two rounds usually necessitates a visit or a phone call.

After Hours Calls

1) If you have an after hours emergency and need to reach the doctor, call (310) 836-2225. The message will tell you how to reach the on-call doctor after hours and the doctor will be paged. Briefly state the reason for your call, your name, telephone number, and the doctor you wish to speak with.
2) If you do not receive a call back within thirty minutes, call again.
3) If the emergency is dire, call 911.
4) If you go to an emergency room, be aware that Dr. David Schechter is currently on staff at Cedars-Sinai.
5) There are several Dr. Schechters in town (spelling slightly different); where possible indicate your doctor is “Dr. David Schechter” as both we and the emergency rooms can be confused by calls for the wrong doctor(s).