After Hours Resources
We understand that a child’s urgent health issue may arise outside of business hours, and have created this helpful guide to give parents some recommended after hours resources.
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What should I do if I have an urgent question after hours?
If you have an urgent medical question that requires immediate attention and cannot wait until the office reopens, you can call our regular office number to reach the answering service. They will ask you some basic questions, and leave your contact information with the Telecare Nurse Program at Arnold Palmer Hospital. Shortly thereafter, a pediatric nurse will advise you of home treatment, or whether or not to seek further care at an urgent care facility or emergency department. In the morning, our office receives a phone call summary to add to your child’s chart, ensuring proper continuity of care. Please be advised that Arnold Palmer Hospital charges $15 for the use of this service. What should I do if I have a non-urgent question after hours? If you have a non-urgent medical question, you can login to the Patient Portal located at our website. From there, you can choose the “Ask a Nurse” feature to send a secure electronic message to our office. In the morning, our Triage Nurse will review your message and respond via Patient Portal or telephone. You can utilize this service any time, day or night. Please call our office if you do not have a portal log-in or if you need to reset your password. Where should I go if my child needs to be seen after hours? If your child needs to be seen after hours, it is not always necessary to go to the emergency room. There are several urgent cares in the area that are open until midnight or later. Our recommended urgent cares are Night Lite Pediatrics and Nemours Children’s Urgent Care (previously After Hours Pediatrics), as it is always better for a pediatrician to treat a child rather than an “adult” doctor. There are several locations all over the Central Florida area, which can be found at their websites: www.nightlitepediatrics.com and www.nemours.org/locations/nch/urgent-care.html, respectively. After each visit, Night Lite and Nemours Children’s Urgent Care send our office an encounter summary, which is added to your child’s chart in the morning, ensuring proper continuity of care. Just let them know upon check-in that we are the child’s primary care physician and give them our contact information. Where should I go if my child needs to be seen emergently, or if there are no urgent care facilities open? We recommend Florida Hospital Orlando’s Disney Pavilion or Arnold Palmer Hospital’s Children’s Emergency Department. However, when necessary, go to your nearest emergency room. Advise the staff there that we are the child’s primary care physician. The following day, call our office and let us know which emergency room you went to so we can request records and add them to your child’s chart for continuity of care. What if the doctor at the urgent care or emergency room needs to contact my child’s primary care physician? In cases of emergencies, sometimes it is necessary for the doctor seeing you after hours to reach one of our providers. Please advise them to call our office and speak to our answering service; they will page our physician on call. Thanks to our new electronic medical system, our doctors can access your child’s medical record from home should the need ever arise. Am I able to access my child’s medical record after hours? It is possible through the Patient Portal located at our website to download your child’s medical records. Instructions can be found at the Patient Portal. Please call our office if you do not have a portal log-in or if you need to reset your password. |
407-916-4520
Fax 407-916-4525 Hours: Mon - Fri 8:00am to 5:00pm Urgent Care Hours Saturdays 9:00am to 12:00pm |