Providence Pediatric Practice

Just a reminder about fireworks safety! Additional note in our Covid 19 era - hand sanitizer and fireworks are a huge risk as hand sanitizer is flammable! Have a happy and safe Fourth of July!

We are here for you! We have revised policies and hours in order to keep you, your children and our staff safe: 1. All appointments are screened. If you or your child has any exposure to or symptoms of COVID 19 or recent travel, we cannot bring you in. If your child requires care or COVID testing and cannot come in we will arrange for care/testing at an appropriate site! This policy allows us to stay open during this pandemic for all other care. ... 2. The waiting room is closed. Please call from your car to check in and we will let you know when your room is ready. Bring your own toys/books. 3. Visits are limited to the patient and one caregiver only. 4. We have dedicated rooms for well visits. 5. Nurses and Doctors are wearing masks for your safety. 6. We are now offering Telemedicine visits when appropriate. 7. Please, per our Governors interactions - everyone should wear a mask when going out. 8. Stay safe!! Stay home! Wash your hands and don’t touch your face.

a nice summary. please call us if you have ANY concerns we are here to help!

PROVIDENCE PEDIATRIC PRACTICE IS OPEN AND HERE FOR YOU 1. Please, we encourage you to keep children’s well visits if due for vaccinations and in particular if under age 2 years. 2. We are here for non COVID 19 related illness/issues. If you are worried about COVID 19 symptoms please call us to discuss. We have a lot of advice, most children will not need to seek medical care but some will. If your child needs to be seen we have outpatient places that are equipped to take... good care of your child. 3. We are offering Telemedicine for certain issues or for direct doctor’s advice/time to talk 4. We are taking precautions in our office to keep all of our families and our staff safe. * Please wait in car, call to let office know you are here. You can check in over the phone. We will call you to come up when your room is ready so you do not need to wait in the waiting room * We have dedicated rooms for well visits. There has not been a sick visit in those dedicated rooms in over 2 weeks. We are very strict about that. * We are trying to avoid any caregivers or patients with suspicious COVID 19 symptoms from coming in to the office. However, as we know children and adult may be asymptomatic, so there is never any guarantee. * We are disinfecting common surfaces on a much more stringent schedule. * We are limiting visits to the patient and one caregiver only * Physicians and nurses are wearing surgical masks to help protect our caregivers and patients. 5. We understand these are trying times and we at Providence Pediatric Practice are doing everything we can to support you and keep your kids healthy!

Just a reminder about fireworks safety! Additional note in our Covid 19 era - hand sanitizer and fireworks are a huge risk as hand sanitizer is flammable! Have a happy and safe Fourth of July!

Don’t forget to watch for ticks, bullseye rashes or any signs of Lyme disease.

Great mask advice for our little ones ages 2 years and up!

We are here for you! We have revised policies and hours in order to keep you, your children and our staff safe: 1. All appointments are screened. If you or your child has any exposure to or symptoms of COVID 19 or recent travel, we cannot bring you in. If your child requires care or COVID testing and cannot come in we will arrange for care/testing at an appropriate site! This policy allows us to stay open during this pandemic for all other care. ... 2. The waiting room is closed. Please call from your car to check in and we will let you know when your room is ready. Bring your own toys/books. 3. Visits are limited to the patient and one caregiver only. 4. We have dedicated rooms for well visits. 5. Nurses and Doctors are wearing masks for your safety. 6. We are now offering Telemedicine visits when appropriate. 7. Please, per our Governors interactions - everyone should wear a mask when going out. 8. Stay safe!! Stay home! Wash your hands and don’t touch your face.

a nice summary. please call us if you have ANY concerns we are here to help!

PROVIDENCE PEDIATRIC PRACTICE IS OPEN AND HERE FOR YOU 1. Please, we encourage you to keep children’s well visits if due for vaccinations and in particular if under age 2 years. 2. We are here for non COVID 19 related illness/issues. If you are worried about COVID 19 symptoms please call us to discuss. We have a lot of advice, most children will not need to seek medical care but some will. If your child needs to be seen we have outpatient places that are equipped to take... good care of your child. 3. We are offering Telemedicine for certain issues or for direct doctor’s advice/time to talk 4. We are taking precautions in our office to keep all of our families and our staff safe. * Please wait in car, call to let office know you are here. You can check in over the phone. We will call you to come up when your room is ready so you do not need to wait in the waiting room * We have dedicated rooms for well visits. There has not been a sick visit in those dedicated rooms in over 2 weeks. We are very strict about that. * We are trying to avoid any caregivers or patients with suspicious COVID 19 symptoms from coming in to the office. However, as we know children and adult may be asymptomatic, so there is never any guarantee. * We are disinfecting common surfaces on a much more stringent schedule. * We are limiting visits to the patient and one caregiver only * Physicians and nurses are wearing surgical masks to help protect our caregivers and patients. 5. We understand these are trying times and we at Providence Pediatric Practice are doing everything we can to support you and keep your kids healthy!

PROVIDENCE PEDIATRICS COVID 19 TELEMEDICINE ANNOUNCEMENT Providence Pediatric Practice is starting virtual telemedicine visits in this pandemic time to help do our part to promote social distancing while also taking good care of our patients. Not every issue/visit can be handled this way as we will not sacrifice good medicine.... Here are some examples of issues that can be handled through telemedicine during this pandemic: medicine rechecks, mental health, behavioral issues, developmental concerns, potty training issues, simple rashes, pink eye for kids over age 2y (where a visit is required - sometimes can just be handled on the phone), seasonal allergies, add rechecks, acne, diarrhea, constipation, travel medicine. Please note not all doctors do all types of tele visits and a tele visit does not guarantee we will not need to see your child in person. These are charged as office visits through your insurance. However, you are responsible for any copays, co-insurance, deductible and if the visit is not covered by insurance. If you are scheduled for a telemedicine visit: Make sure you sign consent form (on website, office can provide as well) and upload to portal or fax back to us. 2. Enter the specific doxy.me address into your web browser depending on which doctor you are seeing (office will provide). 3. Make sure you enable microphone and video camera. 4. Enter patients name and hit check in. 5. You are then in our virtual waiting room. 6. Just like a regular visit, there may be a delay after check in until we can get to your visit. However, we will try to be as timely as possible! 7. If you are not signed in and waiting in virtual waiting room at the time of the appointment when the doctor signs on - then it is charged same as a no-show in the office. ** Please note ** not all of these visits will be continued as virtual visits after the COVID 19 pandemic has passed.

The best way to slow COVID 19 is to stay home. No playgrounds, no play dates. Do puzzles, read, play outside your house, go for a hike just your immediate family, ride a bike and play games. Now is not the time to be social! As always, please call our office with any questions.

COVID 19 OFFICE PROTOCOL CHANGES Providence Pediatrics is devoted to our mission to protect the health and wellbeing of children. Subsequently, we are taking measures to safeguard the health of our patients and our staff, which we depend on for our mission, during this COVID-19 pandemic. We will be changing our normal operations to reflect the following:... As always, no walk in patients are permitted. All requests for in office sick visits will be screened and potentially scheduled by our nurse triage staff. Due to the expected volume of COVID-19 calls, please expect a longer response time than normal. As always, call backs will be returned based on determined acuity. We are NOT testing for COVID 19 (novel coronavirus 19) in our office and if you have any concern your child has had COVID 19 exposure please CALL and talk to a nurse before scheduling appointment so we can best take care of you. Patients with fever, cough, congestion and/or runny nose AND a known COVID-19 exposure SHOULD NOT come to our office for testing. We ask that you first call and we will help direct you to the appropriate place for testing and to determine if emergency care is needed. To limit exposure of patients and their families, we will be limiting all office visits to only scheduled patients and 1 caregiver. No other persons, including siblings, will be permitted unless the sibling also has an appointment. We ask that caregivers with fever or cough avoid accompanying their child to the visit. We have removed all toys and children’s books from our waiting and exam rooms. We ask that you bring your own toys or books for your child’s use during their visit. At check-in, all patient caregivers will be asked screening questions about the presence of fever, cough, any travel or recent contact with any confirmed OR suspected COVID-19 case. This will aid in appropriate protective measures for other patients and our staff. Our waiting room is configured to minimize exposure of healthy children to sick children. Please observe posted signs. We are working to implement a telehealth program for selected evaluations. This will likely include an opportunity to speak to a provider for a fee. This is a process, please be patient. Please stay tuned for more details. We recognize that these are extraordinary times. We appreciate your patience as we work to keep your children healthy. Helpful and Hopeful Things to Remember about Coronavirus - Most patients (80%) have mild symptoms - Infants, children and pregnant women in particular seem to have milder illness - If your child has mild symptoms, they DO NOT need to be seen - Sing songs to promote longer hand washing - Play in open areas like parks, not crowded places - Save all hugs for your family!

So let's talk Coronavirus. Coronaviruses are a family of viruses that typically cause mild colds. We see them year round, although like all cold/cough viruses, more in the winter. Influenza (the flu) and COVID-19, the illness caused by the new coronavirus, are both infectious respiratory illnesses. Although the symptoms of COVID-19 and the flu can look similar, the two illnesses are caused by different viruses....Continue reading

We promise to keep you informed as new information comes our way - for now here’s the AAPs trustee resource - they suggests relying on information from the AAP, CDC and health departments for updates (not just the media)

A good summary about the novel coronavirus. Remember, as of the last cdc update, there have only been 15 confirmed cases in the US and none yet confirmed in Pennsylvania. In contrast, the cdc estimates over 26 million cases of influenza!

The flu (influenza) virus has come on strong this year. Here is some helpful information. As always, call us if you have any concerns or need an appointment. CDC estimates about 19 million cases of influenza so far this year reported and over 173 million doses of flu vaccine given. The flu vaccine is the best protection we have. Even in a year with variable effectiveness at preventing the flu, it will decrease the risk of complications by at least half!

Here is a nice recap of colds vs. the flu. As always, please give us a call if you have any concern.