Hospital/Urgent Care
Call us first – Call 911 for serious emergencies
For serious emergencies and admissions we recommend Children’s Health Care of Atlanta (CHOA) serving the city with 3 hospital locations and 5 urgent care centers, dedicated to top notch comprehensive pediatric care.
Closest to our office is Egelston – on Clifton Road on the Emory Campus. Scottish Rite is across from Northside Hospital off of Johnson Ferry Rd, and Hughes Spalding is across from Grady Hospital.
See the locations here: http://www.choa.org/Locations and information about CHOA here: http://www.choa.org/
If a hospital admission is necessary either from our office or through the emergency room we will coordinate care with the staff pediatric hospitalists who will directly provide care for your child while in the hospital. We will communicate with the hospitalists and be ready to follow up on all discharge plans.
Urgent Care/Minute Clinics
Although we have made access to our office easier and easier and are available 24/7 to answer your questions and direct you to care if needed, we know that minute clinics are popping up on all corners and advertise convenience and excellent care. Some patients believe they will receive the same level of care for a “minor” illness that they would receive here at our office. Others are drawn to the appeal of “low cost” physical exams. Here’s why we and the American Academy of Pediatrics disagree!
- Retail-based clinics are used primarily by adults and are staffed by nurse practitioners or physician assistants with no physician on site to help these providers. The experience the practitioner has treating children can be variable and very limited.
- Retail-based clinics don’t have access to your child’s complete medical history and are making diagnoses based on incomplete information.
- Care is fragmented and takes away from the medical home we provide for your child and family.
- No illness is “minor” when it comes to kids – we use every encounter to be sure there are not other issues that need to be addressed.
- As board certified pediatricians we are trained to provide the comprehensive exams that your child deserves.
Here is an article from the American Academy of Pediatrics concerning the use of retail based clinics, commonly referred to as minute clinics.
The AAP Advises Parents Against Using Retail-Based Clinics 2/24/2014 For Release: February 24, 2014
Families may decide to use a retail-based health clinic because they believe it is convenient and less expensive, but according to the American Academy of Pediatrics, these clinics do not provide children with the high-quality, regular preventive health care children need. In an updated policy statement published in the March 2014 Pediatrics, the AAP emphasizes that retail-based clinics are an inappropriate source of primary care for children because they fragment children’s health care and do not support the medical home. Read article: https://www.aap.org/en-us/about-the-aap/aap-press-room/Pages/The-AAP-Advises-Parents-Against-Using-Retail-Based-Clinics.aspx
We know there are times, for certain reasons and problems that a visit to a minute clinic may be appropriate. We encourage you to call us first and let us help you decide if, where, and when your child should be seen. For young children, asthmatics, high fevers, breathing difficulties, serious injuries and true emergencies we will recommend you go to a Children’s facility. For serious emergencies – call 911.