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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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