Most pediatric visits are either well checks or sick visits. Both types of visits are important to the medical care of your child. During a well visit your child is seen to asses his or her current health, growth and development. During these visits parents have an opportunity to ask questions and discuss their concerns related to nutrition, sleep, behavioral issues and developmental milestones their children go through. During well checks, vaccinations are given, as they are the most important preventative health care tool available. Occasionally we may ask for a laboratory or screening test to assess your child’s health or specific issues that may be of concern.
If your child is sick at the time of the well visit, please be aware that it will require extra time and effort to establish a correct diagnosis and treatment. If this takes place, please be advised that there will be an additional charge. If that is a problem for you, you may want to consult your insurance provider ahead of time to ensure your policy covers a well visit and an additional fee for a sick encounter the same day. If this is not the case, then you may want to schedule separate appointments. Please discuss it with your doctor as well. If the illness is significant enough, the doctor will focus on the sick evaluation and reschedule the well check for another day.
To take a full advantage of the well check, please write down your questions before the visit, so that all your concerns will be fully addressed. We take the education of our families very seriously and in addition to verbal instructions we often provide written material and internet links to nationally recognized sources.
Telephone Calls
Irvine Pediatrics is fortunate to be able to provide the services of a pediatric registered nurse, Jaye Orr, from 11:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. She is a very experienced nurse, who will be happy to provide answers to frequently asked questions regarding your child’s health, feeding, behavior, sleep problems, etc. Please understand that if your child is afflicted by anything other than minor cold symptoms, you will need to make an appointment with the doctor. Out of concern for our patients we will not make a diagnosis or prescribe treatment based only on a phone conversation.
When you call to seek advice, please have your pharmacy phone number and a pen or pencil available in order to write down the instructions you will receive. After hours our answering service will connect you with a pediatrics advisor at Children’s Hospital of Orange County. If necessary, you will be able to talk to one of our on-call Irvine Pediatrics doctors. The CHOC advisory phone number is listed on our website under Links, and you may call them directly. Identify yourself as our patient so they can bill us for the service. If you feel that your child is ill, do not call for phone advice during working hours; rather make a same-day appointment for an office visit. Our families can also take advantage of a time we specifically designate for our sick patients to be seen without appointment: 8 a.m. to 9 a.m. Monday through Friday and 8:30 a.m. to noon on Saturdays.
When calling because your child is sick, we ask you to rely only on your own judgment that your child needs to be seen by a physician; so always go ahead and ask for an appointment. Please keep in mind that the front office staff, who usually answers our phones, is never in a position to asses the severity of your child’s illness! The front office staff is only there to make appointments and to help you with clerical issues. Please do not ask them for advice.
In case of life threatening emergencies, please call 911 first, before calling our office.
In order to help us to return your phone calls, when you leave a message please state your child’s name, birth date, and your phone number, before you start to describe problems you are calling about. Many patients leave lengthy messages that exceed the recording time. Messages may be cut off by the voicemail and we will never know who called until you call again.
In the event that there is no call back by 5 p.m., please call between 5 and 5:30 p.m. and ask the answering service to connect you with the office using our back line. Very likely we are still in the office and either a nurse or a doctor will be able to speak with you.
When leaving a call back number please try to leave a number where you are actually
available. On occasion, parents leave us three or four numbers and pick up none of them. Our
office makes sure that after 5 p.m. on week days, and from 12 noon on Saturdays to 8
a.m. Monday, our answering service is available, and will assist you to reach either a
pediatric nurse at Children’s Hospital or if necessary, one of our doctors.
In the unlikely event of phone failure, you may call the answering service directly at 714-
796- 8508.
Our families can also contact the CHOC Nurse Advice Line directly using the number
published on their website, which you can reach through our links page.