Practice News

We are currently scheduling flu clinics. We have a variety of options for flu clinics including weekdays, nights, and weekends. Call today to make an appointment for your child!

We now have enough flu vaccine in stock to start scheduling nurse appointments on weekdays to vaccinate your children.  We are offering both the injectable and the “shot free” nasal vaccine this year.  We will soon be posting a schedule for weekend and evening flu shot clinics.   

Now is the time to be immunized for the coming flu season.  It will be especially important to protect children from influenza this year, and keep them healthy during the COVID-19 pandemic.  It is possible to be co-infected with both influenza and COVID-19 at the same time, which could lead to increased severity of illness.  In accordance with the guidelines of the CDC and American Academy of Pediatrics, we strongly recommend that all children aged 6 months and older receive their flu vaccine every year.

This week marked an unusual return to school.  Whether in person, through remote learning, or some combination of the two, this has certainly been challenging for both families and schools alike.

As pediatricians, we use the updated CDC recommendations to determine the need for COVID-19 testing. Current testing is based on a child’s symptoms plus exposure risks that include: close contact with a COVID-19 positive person, the current level of COVID-19 in the community, and potential exposure risks from travel. Please read the CDC policies on screening students K-12 for COVID-19, and pay close attention to the return-to-school recommendations. 

Since school has started, it has come to our attention that if a child is sent home from school with any symptoms of illness, some schools are requiring clearance from the child’s pediatrician, AND a COVID-19 test in order to return to school. Although this requirement for a COVID-19 test for every student before they return to school may not align with the CDC recommendations and the clinical decision making of physicians, we understand that schools have made these rules to keep everyone safe in a very challenging environment. If your child is sent home from school due to a symptom of illness, we will support you through the return to school process as required by your school. 

Appointments are available at Pediatric Associates for a medical provider in our office to evaluate your child if they are sent home from school. We are unable to write a note to clear your child unless we see and evaluate them in person. Right now, COVID-19 testing is not yet available in our office. We are on a waiting list for a shipment of rapid COVID-19 tests that can be performed as a nasal swab in our office with results in 15 minutes. Unfortunately, we do not yet know when this shipment will arrive but will keep you posted on our website.

Returning to school is therefore a 2-step process: a visit to the pediatrician plus an off-site COVID-19 test (see bottom of post for COVID-19 testing sites). Current test results are typically available within a minimum of 24 hours and your child must remain at home in quarantine while awaiting test results.  

We will continue to do our very best to support our families through this back to school transition and will keep you updated as recommendations and requirements change over time.

Effective immediately, all patients, both sick and well, will be entering the building through the front entrance.  If your child is sick, please remain in your car when you arrive, and call our front desk to check in.  We will call you in when a room is available, and you will enter through the front of the building to that room.  When your appointment is complete, you will leave out the back door of the building.  If you are well, you may come right into the front entrance to check in.  When your appointment is complete, return to the front desk only if you need to schedule a follow up well appointment.  Otherwise, please leave out the back door of the building.  

We will continue to update these guidelines for our office as needed, based on changing volumes of sick and well patients, and to maintain social distancing within our building. We remind you that we ask only 1 well parent to accompany their child/children during an office visit (except for newborn appointments), and that faces should be covered with a mask or other similar covering when entering the building.  
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Thank you to all of our families for working with us during these complicated times.  We are very pleased with how well things have been going in our offices and we owe that to our families, staff and nurses for their hard work and for graciously accommodating us as our guidelines continue to change and evolve over time.