Appointment Procedures

Appointment Only

Please make an appointment for all visits to our office. Appointments are made for a particular hour and day by calling the office during regular office hours. We do ask that you arrive 10 minutes prior to your appointment time in case there is a problem with your insurance and to complete the necessary paperwork.  If you would prefer to complete the paperwork prior to your visit, please click here to download the forms.   

You may schedule an appointment with the physician of your choice. There are certain times, however, when a particular physician may be unavailable for an office visit because of a full clinic schedule, continuing medical education courses, vacation, etc. For this reason, it is a good idea to become acquainted with more than just one physician in our practice.  

We require that the parent or a legal guardian accompany the child on the first visit. 

Same Day Sick Visits

We strive to ensure children who are acutely ill or who have urgent concerns will be seen on the same day that the appointment is requested.  

Well Checks

Routine check-up appointments and follow-up appointments should be scheduled well in advance to ensure convenience.  

Late Policy

If you are delayed, please let us know as soon as possible. You are considered late if you arrive 10 minutes after your scheduled appointment time. We will try to work you back into the schedule as best as we can, but we cannot guarantee this. Please be patient.

We respect the value of your time, so we make every effort to stay on schedule. This is why prompt arrival for appointments is so important. Sometimes, however, emergencies or the care of a particularly sick patient may slow us down. We will try to notify you if this happens, and we appreciate your understanding.  

Cancellation/No Show Policy

We understand that unexpected circumstances sometimes prevent you from keeping your child/children’s appointment. We do ask that you give at least one hour’s notice so that other children needing an appointment can be seen.

Due to a recent increase, we have developed the following No Show policy: the first missed sick or wellness appointment (per family, not per child) will be charged $50.00 if a one-hour notice is not given. The second missed appointment will be charged $75.00. If there is a third missed appointment within 3 years, the physician holds the right to dismiss the family from the practice.

All specialty appointments (i.e. counseling) and initial ADD/ADHD appointments will be charged $100.00 for any missed appointment if a 24-hour notice is not given.

Complex Visits

If your child has a complex problem (example: evaluation of ADHD, behavior problems, or other situations that might require counseling, etc.), or if this is your child’s first visit to our clinic, please indicate this to our receptionist when making your appointment so that she will know to schedule extra time. This will allow our physicians time to evaluate your child more thoroughly.

Multiple Children

If you have more than one child that needs to be seen, please indicate this when making the appointment so that adequate time can be scheduled for each child. 

Walk-ins

Patients in our clinic are seen by appointment only. Occasionally, a child’s condition demands such immediate attention that there is not time to phone ahead to make an appointment and an urgent trip to our office is appropriate. Examples of these types of conditions are extreme breathing difficulty, seizures, etc. Patients who “walk-in” to our clinic without an appointment for more routine complaints delay us unnecessarily resulting in prolonged waiting times for our patients with appointments.

To be fair to all our patients, our clinic has adopted the following policy:  patients who “walk-in” to our office without an appointment will be seen by the doctor that day, but only as our schedule allows, usually at the end of an appointment session. With your cooperation, we can keep waiting times to a minimum. 

Alternative Caregiver 

If someone other than the primary caregiver will be accompanying the child, be sure they are included on your child's HIPAA form so that we can discuss your child’s health with them. Please also send a detailed note concerning the child's illness and medications. The physician needs to know the symptoms, such as fever, nausea, vomiting, etc., and how long or how often these symptoms have been going on. The physician also needs to know the medications that have been given to the child with the amounts and when the last dose was given. Make sure that this person makes notes or can adequately relay the physician’s instructions back to you. This will save on telephone calls, and it will ensure that you will be able to promptly begin your child’s treatment.  

We also ask that you make sure that your payment is sent with the person accompanying the child. "Billing the parent" is a time-consuming expense which will result in higher fees to you. Familiarize this person with your insurance coverage and any co-pays or co-insurance that you may have.