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Practice Policies
- Pediatric Specialists is a practice devoted to the care of children
from birth (including prenatal teaching) through college. It is our
feeling that we should not encourage patients to leave at age 18 years.
It is frequently more convenient and efficacious for a young adult to
continue in a practice that is familiar with his/her past medical history
and with which rapport has developed over the years. Certainly the patients
make this decision on an individual basis.
- Our practice accepts most major insurance plans. We ask that copayments
be made at the time of the visit. We also request payment for non covered
services at the time of the visit. For those with private insurance
carriers, Pediatric Specialists will provide the information you need
to submit your visit to your insurance carrier. Pediatric Specialists
also accepts MasterCard and Visa. For any balance outstanding on an
account, a 1.5% per month service charge is applied to the account.
Having said all this, since Pediatric Specialists has opened its doors
in1976 no child has ever been refused services based on ability to pay.
- We encourage patients to schedule regular check ups in advance. There
are various times of year where there is an onrush of requests for physicals
and it becomes difficult to schedule your child in the needed time frame.
- Sick calls are scheduled daily and we try not to prebook any acute
sick calls. Pediatric Specialists feels that we would be creating unnecessary
risk for your child by these bookings. For chronic or non urgent conditions
(i.e. acne, behavior issues, constipation etc.) a prebooking may be
reasonable. Our staff will try to accommodate you in the safest and
hopefully most convenient way.
- Weekend hours are generally reserved for sick calls.
- Physical exams should be scheduled with your primary care provider
or one of the nurse practitioners of your choice. Sick calls will also
be scheduled if possible with your primary care provider. Our policy
at Pediatric Specialists is that if your child needs to be seen on the
day that you call, we will not put you off because of lack of appointment
space. For this reason if it is not possible to fit your child in with
his or her primary care provider on a particular day, we will schedule
your child (with your permission) with one of our other excellent providers.
- Exams on infants and children are generally done at 1 month, 2 months,
4months, 6 months, 9 months, 12 months, 15 months, 18 months, 2 years
and then yearly. Some weight checks may also be done within the first
six months.
- Each year with your child's physical a generic health form is generated
which you may take home and use for school requirements, camp, athletic
participation or employment. We ask that you make copies of the original
in the event you need to use it more than once. Replacement of this
form will be provided at a nominal fee.
- For our patients on medication for ADD/ADHD we ask that you call at
least 72 hours before needing to pick up the prescription. These drugs
cannot be called into the pharmacy and must be filled within five days
of the date the prescription was written.
- We ask that you give the office at least 24 hours notice if you wish
to cancel or reschedule an appointment.
- Should you have an appointment with one child and wish to have a sibling
checked, we ask that you call and notify the office so that time will
be made available to accomplish this.
- Pediatric Specialists has the ability to do vision and hearing testing.
- Pelvic exams and Pap smears are done if required by several of our
female providers.
- Our in-office lab is capable of doing throat cultures for strep (including
rapid testing), urinalysis, urine cultures, hematocrits (test for anemia),
mono screening, collection of blood for lead screening and testing for
occult blood in stools.
- At times a parent will call for a provider to call back to discuss
a rather complex and difficult issue regarding a child's health or behavior.
In some of these instances it may be deemed beneficial to actually have
the parent come in for a conference face to face with the provider rather
than trying to accomplish this over the phone. An appropriate appointment
will be schedule for this conference.
- In a group practice where several providers may, at times, see your
child, there is the risk of lack of continuity. For our complex patients
we are developing a team concept where such patients have a primary
provider as well as a secondary provider and a nurse, all of whom have
shared and complete knowledge of your child's problems. If your child
requires numerous outside services and referrals, a member of the clerical
staff will also be involved in this team. This is a new concept being
implemented at Pediatric Specialists and we feel it greatly enhances
the care of your child. For less complex patients who for various reasons
have seen several providers or are felt to have missed seeing their
primary provider, an appointment will be made with the primary provider
to review the ongoing problems or issues.
- Pediatric Specialists is very aware that even in the finest practices
there can be annoyances and situations which might not always work as
well as we would like. All our providers and staff are committed to
making the experience at the office or on the phones as pleasant as
possible. For this reason we encourage and are receptive to any suggestions
on how we can serve you and your children better.
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