FAQ
1. When can I schedule a routine visit to the office? (Well Child Care and Routine Sick Care)Regular (weekday, non-holiday) office hours:
| Doors Open |
Regular Appointments |
Office Phone |
|
| Monday |
8:00am - 5:00pm |
8:30 - 11:45am; 1:45 - 4:45pm |
8:00am - 12:30pm; 1:30 - 5:00pm |
| Tuesday |
8:00am - 5:00pm |
8:30 - 11:45am; 1:45 - 4:45pm |
8:00am - 12:30pm; 1:30 - 5:00pm |
| Wednesday |
9:00am - 5:00pm |
9:30 - 11:45am; 1:45 - 4:45pm |
8:00am - 12:30pm; 1:30 - 5:00pm |
| Thursday |
8:00am - 5:00pm |
8:30 - 11:45am; 1:45 - 4:45pm |
8:00am - 12:30pm; 1:30 - 5:00pm |
| Friday |
8:00am - 5:00pm |
8:30 - 11:45am; 1:45 - 4:45pm |
8:00am - 12:30pm; 1:30 - 5:00pm |
| Rarely, but on occasion, we will lock our doors during lunch from 12:45 - 1:45pm (for example, during an office meeting). |
We may see patients outside of regular office hours. |
All phone calls outside of regular hours go to our answering machine service and are directed to appropriate medical personnel (typically, the "Doctor On-Call"). |
* Please note that we open an hour later on Wednesday morning (the physicians attend a meeting of local pediatricians that includes lectures and community medical updates).
* Routine well child visits are scheduled for these hours and may be arranged up to 3 months prior to the appointment. Early scheduling for camp, school, and athletic examinations is encouraged.
| 2 weeks old 2 months old 4 months old 6 months old 9 months old 12 months old 15 months old 18 months old |
A typical well visit covers assessments of a childs: 1. Growth 2. Development 3. Nutrition 4. Activity level, function and exam 5. Vaccination status 6. Parent Concerns |
|
2 years old
3 years old 4 years old 5 years old |
From 2 to 6 years old, we recommend that check-ups be done every year. |
|
6 years old 7 years old 8 years old 9 years old 10 years old 11 years old 12 years old 13 years old 14 years old 15 years old 16 years old 17 years old 18 years old 19 years old 20 years old 21 years old |
After 6 years old, we still recommend checkups for otherwise healthy children to be done every year. Children with a chronic condition (for example, any child taking a medicine with some regularity) may need to be checked more frequently. We will see patients until the age of 22 years old. |
The answer to this question is a big part of what we feel defines the practice of pediatric medicine. No one is able to schedule when their child gets sick and often children get sick in large groups (for example, “flu season”).
At Raleigh Childrens, we are well aware of this challenge and put a premium on “seeing patients on the day they need to be seen” which can mean seeing them the day of the concern. Access to care is a big deal in our office. To that end, we do our best to meet this need when we have run out of appointments by having our phone nurse triage your child’s problem to determine if it can wait or if we need to create an appointment that day.
There are two main ways an appointment is “created” after all regular appointments are scheduled:
- Work-in appointments are for more urgent medical concerns (for example, moderate-to-severe injury, acute breathing difficulty, fever in a newborn). We are careful to limit those appointments to truly urgent needs. Too many “work-ins” can hinder another office goal of running on time as much as possible.
- “5 O’Clocks” refers to our practice of simply adding patients to the end of the day. The doctors, nurse and front office staff have made a commitment to see these patients that we have determined should not be put off to the next day, even though it extends their workday. In pediatrics, some things just cannot wait until tomorrow.
One of our pediatricians is “on-call” for after-hours care everyday (including weekends and holidays). The On-Call Doctor covers our patients’ urgent medical needs that occur outside of regular office hours and cares for our inpatients at Rex and WakeMed Hospitals.
On weekdays, urgent calls after 4:00pm that need assessment that day are the responsibility of the On-Call Doctor.
On evenings, weekends and holidays, the On-Call Doctor may see patients in our main office (the office next to Rex Hospital). Those visits are reserved for conditions that the doctor and nurse determine are medically urgent enough to not be able to wait until the next regular office day.
Because of limited staffing (generally, one pediatrician, one nurse and one front office staff) on evenings, weekends, and holidays, after-hours appointments are available on a limited basis.
Of course you can. Here are a few tips for making your appointment run as smoothly as possible:
When you call for an appointment, briefly inform our staff why you would like your child to see the doctor. Some concerns require more time and this information will help in scheduling the appropriate time for your child.
Please clarify whether this appointment will be at our office next to Rex Hospital or our office at Brier Creek (you can schedule appointments at either facility).
Patients arriving 15 minutes after a scheduled appointment will need to be rescheduled.
Please anticipate if a second child in your family needs to be seen and request an extra appointment prior to arriving at our office. After arriving for one child's appointment, it is unlikely that a second appointment would be available at a convenient time next to your original appointment.
Also, try to know your insurance policy. We do our best to help but it is impossible to keep up with so many that constantly change. Ultimately, you are responsible for knowing your health insurance.
6. Is there such thing as a "Walk-In Appointment?"
Yes, but only at the following specific times and only at our main office near Rex Hospital.
Walk-in appointments are available on weekdays if you arrive at our office between the following times:
Monday - 8:00 - 8:30am
Tuesday - 8:00 - 8:30am
Wednesday - 9:00 - 9:30am
Thursday - 8:00 - 8:30am
Friday - 8:00 - 8:30am
* Walk-in appointments are not available on weekends or holidays.
* Wednesday's walk-in appointments begin an hour later than on other weekdays
* Walk-ins are NOT currently offered at our Brier Creek office
* Patients are seen in order of their arrival.
* Walk-in appointments are for acute (symptoms of short duration) sick visits only.
* Time constraints don't allow us to perform well child care with a walk-in appointment.
7. What if I just have a question about my child's health? Is advice available by phone? (Phone Calls)
Yes, we expect questions and are happy when you choose us to be a chief source of medical information. We are available by phone 24 hours a day and 365 days a year. Of course, routine calls can often wait until regular office hours, but anytime you have an urgent question about your child’s health, we want you to call us (one exception: true emergencies are best handled by calling “911”).
We have a nurse on duty during regular office hours (the “phone nurse”) to help with medical concerns.
The typical procedure is for our staff to pass along your message to the phone nurse who would then call you back.
Many problems can be handled by phone without the necessity of an office visit. However, providing quality medical care typically limits prescribing or making diagnoses over the phone. At times, it is important for your child to be assessed in person so that a more accurate diagnosis and treatment plan can be made.
If you have a question that you would like to discuss directly with a doctor, leave a brief description of your concern with our staff and a doctor will call you back. Be aware that the doctor is less available for phone calls than the phone nurse and call backs from doctors typically occur later in the day than call backs from the phone nurse.
8. What are the policies for certain specific requests of the office? (i.e. Forms and Prescriptions)
Daycares, camps and schools often require your pediatrician to complete their medical form. Information from your child’s most recent well visit/complete physical is used to complete such forms. Bring these forms to your child’s well visit and present them to your nurse. If your child has already had a recent well visit, you may mail or drop the form by our office.
Allow one week for its completion. To avoid further delay, please complete your portion of the form prior to leaving it with us.
When the form is completed, you may pick it up at our office or we can mail it back (please provide a self-addressed and stamped envelope). Due to current HIPAA laws, we are no longer able to fax these forms.
Some children take medication chronically and require prescriptions that need to be refilled from time to time. Please allow 48 hours for processing prescription refills.
Your pharmacist is required to only accept refills for ADHD-type medications in a written format. We can mail that to your home or you may drop by to pick it up.
When leaving a request for a refill of a medication, please be as specific as you can be (patient’s name, pharmacy choice, medicine name & strength).
