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Maryland Babies
S/O Pedis....
If I call my pediatrician's office to make an appointment - they ask whats wrong so they know whether or not to charge a co-pay...sick visit vs. follow up. There are two doctors in there that are very similar and I trust both.
But they never say - oh he won't see you unless this is wrong...or unless this symptom is occuring...and its been x # of days with such and such symptom....
I've heard from others that when they call their pedi, they have to talk to a nurse, convince the nurse you need to be seen, then talk to the Doctor, then the Dr. will say if you should bring your LO in or not...
What is your Pedi's appointment policy?
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Re: S/O Pedis....
They will always fit us in or let us come in if we wanted too. I've called in reference to a cold and the nurse asked the symptoms and said really i needed to let it run it's course BUT they'd see me if i wanted (wasting my money though bc there was nothing they'd most likely do). She said if it lasted longer than x days then yes come in for sure. I called when DC had the stomach virus at 4mo and the dr called me and told me what to do and watch for etc, but again there was no reason to come in unless things got worse. DC had an umbilical hernia and when we first noticed it, I called and the nurses said if I felt it was necessary to be seen asap then come on in, but if I wanted I could wait until the well visit (which was like 1.5wks later), so I waited bc i knew what it was.
I've never had to convince them, they are always accomodating and i love our pedis.
We never used to have a problem being seen, but they just moved to a new office and a new electronic health record system... Right now they are scheduling few patients each day since individual appointments are taking longer. As they see each patient they are going over the stuff in their medical records to ensure it got uploaded to the EHR system correctly. I think it is great that they are double checking everything, but it is causing a bit of an issue with getting "fit in" slots.
I know this is just a blip and that once they have the computer system fully up and running this will be MUCH better, but it is annoying right now. I think they made a mistake implementing this new system in the winter when it is cold and flu season. But hindsight is 20/20.
Prior to this current issue, I never had a problem getting DD in the same day I called and I never had to convince the office staff that DD needed to be seen. Right now they are screening people a bit more and it might take a day or two to get an appointment if it is something like an ear check.
I don't know if there is any specific policy.
I know it's hard to not be paranoid, but when babies are really little there isn't much you can do for them when they are sick. I did my best to avoid going to the pedi this winter since there were so many germs going around. My dad checked my kids ears a few times, when DD had a fever for 5+ days. Since he ruled out ear infection I didn't bother taking her in or even calling since I knew it was likely a virus they couldn't do anything about anyway.
If I call to schedule a sick appt that day, I talk to the triage nurse and she will schedule the appointment for us. Occassionally, they will tell me that I should wait/can wait, but will always get me in if I feel like I need to be seen.
I'm fine with it - I understand that very young babies (or others) probably need to be sooner than me - and I'd rather have a 10 day old who's having issues gaining weight seen before my 2 yo who's coming in for a suspected ear infection, kwim?
Which pedi do you use? I've been thinking about switching to one on an EMR. And coming from someone who trains drs to use EMRs, there is never a good time to bring one up, you just have to do it and suffer for a while.
Ha, the receptionists at our pedi's office always says something like "well, it is up to you if you want to come in"...and I'm usually looking for their thoughts on if we should come in or not!
We've never been told NOT to come in, but I have had to wait until the next day for an appointment a lot.
Happy Birthday, little man. We love you so much!
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We actually use a family practice, so DD, my husband and I all use the same doctor. We use Dr. Robin Motter-Mast at Greater Baltimore Medical Associates of Hunt Valley. (They just changed their name, it was formerly called Lamos and Associates.)
They are connected with the GBMC hospital system, so they now have electronic access to all of DD's NICU records, which is awesome!