Contact a Clinician – Information for Healthcare Professionals

It can be a challenge figuring out how to get two busy professionals in touch with each other. This page is designed to facilitate that process.

We divide clinical situations into three categories –

• emergencies (where an immediate response is necessary)
• urgent issues (where a response is needed in one to two hours)
• routine issues (we do our best to respond to these issues before the end of the next business day)

We are not reliably available on an emergency basis. Cell phones don’t always work, and occasionally we are just not able to get to the phone. Our recommendation to patients is to contact the emergency medical system in an emergency or go to the ER.

For urgent situations – we suggest using more than one communication method. Generally if you call Dr. Forster’s cell phone and also send him an email message you will get the most reliable response. Dr. Forster’s cell phone is 415-385-0963 and his email address is peter@gatewaypsychiatric.com.

• Call the main Gateway Psychiatric number (415-551-0520) and leave a confidential voice mail. If you don’t know who you want to talk to leave the message for Dr. Peter Forster.
• Send an email to a clinician by using the first initial and last name of the clinician and then adding “@gatewaypsychiatric.com” at the end.
• Send us a fax (415-551-0524) or mail us a letter (211 Gough Street, Suite 211, San Francisco, CA 94102).

We often return messages during the evening (5-6 pm on weekdays) or during the morning (8-9 am on weekdays) so if there is a way of reaching you during one or the other of those two time periods it is really helpful to include that information in your message.