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Promoting Healthy Lifestyles for our Patients and Families |
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Dekalb Pediatric Center 404-508-1177 |
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To contact us: |
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SICK VISITS |
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We reserve slots each day for children who need to be seen that day for an acute illness or injury. Calling at 8:30am, when we open, is the best way to be sure your child gets a slot. We adjust the number of slots as needed, but sometimes, 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 until the next day. Rest assured that all children with serious medical conditions are able to be seen. Sometimes parents are not sure if their child needs to be seen, and we offer our nurse line to help you decide. An example is fever. 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. Read here to learn more about fever. Sometimes injuries happen during the day (they seem to happen more often after hours!) and we can help asses 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. Be sure to tell our front office staff that your child has had an acute injury so we can properly help you. 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. We do schedule recheck visits, and visits for more chronic conditions in advance. We also offer, as a convenience, same day “nurse visits” for things like throat cultures to diagnose strep throat in older children, urine specimens to diagnose infection, and similar conditions. |
How to have your child seen when necessary |
