What to do if Your Child is Sick

If you are an established patient of the Pediatric Department:

  • Office Hours (M-F, 8AM to 4:30PM) — Please text 667-220-6534.  Someone is available to assist you.
  • Evening Hours (4:30PM to 8PM) — Our Walk-In is open to see all pediatric patients.  Text 302-517-1385.  Someone will assist you.
  • Night time (8PM – 8AM) — Any urgent matter should go directly to the nearest Emergency Department (ED).  We have a pediatric nurse on call through our phone system but they do not have access to your charts and cannot comment on care or manage refills on prescriptions.  They can offer medical advice but it is from a set algorithm.

If you are NOT an established patient of the Pediatric Department:

  • Please utilize our Walk-In Clinic (8 AM – 8PM) for your needs.  We have trained clinicians ready to see any age child. Text 302-517-1385 to for assistance or schedule online.
  • Any emergency should go directly to the nearest ED.

Telehealth:

  • We offer patients Telehealth appointments for most common conditions.  Find out more on our Telehealth Page.
  • Telehealth is available 6 AM to 6 PM, every day.
  • Patients 5 and older are eligible to use Telehealth.
  • Telehealth is available for established patients or non-established patients.
  • To schedule Telehealth: CLICK HERE.

What is an emergency?

  • Fever greater than 104 degrees (or greater than 100.4 in infants under 2 months old).
  • Trouble breathing.
  • Falls or head trauma.
  • Changes in the mental status of the patient.
  • Vomiting that will not stop (intractable).
  • Seizures.

THESE CONDITIONS ARE CONSIDERED EMERGENCIES AND SHOULD BE MEDICALLY EVALUATED IMMEDIATELY.  DO NOT WAIT FOR A RESPONSE.  GO DIRECTLY TO AN EMERGENCY DEPARTMENT.

Patient Portal Messaging - What is Appropriate

While the Patient Portal is a quick and convenient way for parents to send messages about their child’s care, it is important to understand the limitations of this service.

Most importantly, Patient Portal messages are reviewed on a daily basis but please do not use these for emergent or urgent matters as our staff and physicians are busy seeing patients and may not get to review them until the end of the day.  They also do not review messages unless they are in the office, so Saturday and Sunday messages will get reviewed on Monday.  If you need help right away, please text the number listed in the above segment.  We will get back to you almost right away during regular hours.

Things that are appropriate for Patient Portal messages are:

  • General pediatric questions (e.g. “What foods should my child eat?”, “Do I need to get this checked out?”, “Are you providing vaccines?”, etc).
  • Refill requests for medications or other supplies.
  • Requests for physical / daycare forms.
  • Follow up questions from a recent visit.

What is not appropriate:

  • Pictures that request a diagnosis (especially when the provider has not evaluated the child).
  • Requests for antibiotics, when in fact these require an evaluation by the provider.

We consider the Patient Portal an important part of the patient / provider relationship and want to help parents use it to the fullest extent.  Providers have an obligation to make sure they correctly diagnose patients and a large part of the evaluation is being face-to-face to make sure that nothing is  overlooked or a potentially serious diagnosis is not picked up.

Please know that we are committed to making your healthcare experience as simple as possible and our sincere hope is that this guide will help direct parents and patients to the correct source for information.

Thank you for being an important part of our healthcare team.