Sick Visits

When possible we make every effort to offer same day sick appointments for acute illness and injuries, which can be scheduled by calling early in the day (before 1:30). This is not always possible especially during the winter months. 

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What To Expect At Sick Visits:

As your medical home we are able to offer sick appointments for acute illness and injuries, schedule appointments between well visits for less acute concerns and follow up and help guide you in deciding if a visit is even necessary.

Here’s how it works:

We reserve slots each day for children who need to be seen same day for an acute illness or injury. You may make appointments by calling at 8:00am, when we open, for a same day appointments. We adjust the number of slots as needed, but occasionally, like during a busy flu season, we “run out”. In that case we take advantage of our nurse to triage your call and help prioritize, in consultation with the physician, who needs to be seen and who can benefit from home care advice, perhaps a telemedicine appointment or if to see if it can wait until the next day. Rest assured that all children with serious medical conditions are always able to be seen.

 

Often a call comes from your child’s day care saying that your child has a fever and to come immediately. A parent’s first response is often to think their child needs to be brought straight to the office. Fever, however, is a symptom that is common to almost all childhood illness. The temperature itself, unless the temp is greater than 100.4 in an infant, is much less important to us than the other symptoms and how your child is acting.  We want you to call us first, before rushing off to an urgent care center or minute clinic, except in a true medical emergency.

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Sometimes injuries happen during the day (they seem to happen more often after hours!) and we can help assess whether it is best to come to our office or go to the emergency room. We can do minor suturing, derma bond, and can determine if an Xray is needed. We can often get you in to see a specialist and avoid the emergency room. Be sure to tell our front office staff that your child has had an acute injury so we can properly help you.

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We do not make “sick visits” in advance. Often pediatric illness is viral and self-limiting. Kids are much better a few days later and no longer need to be seen. If you call because your child is, for example wheezing, we want to see you that same day, not 4 days later! We do schedule recheck visits, and visits for more chronic conditions, such as eczema, behavior issues and allergies in advance.

We also offer, as a convenience, same day “nurse visits” for things like vaccine catch up schedules or Flu shots.