When you, yourselves, have decided the problem can wait to call until the office reopens, and When you are simply checking out something you may have heard in the media or from friends or family, and your child is not ill. We greatly appreciate you not using the after-hours phone as a general information service, but rather for urgent health problems that cannot wait until the office reopens.
Does your office provide care over the phone?
Yes, much of what we do is offer symptom relieving care by phone. The challenge for parents and for us is to always try to recognize which child requires more than telephone care. Prescribing antibiotics by telephone is fraught with hazard and inaccuracy. We prefer not to do that and usually request an office visit if we feel that antibiotics might be helpful.
What are your average waiting times for scheduling a routine visit?
Infant well check-ups are scheduled more quickly because they are growing fast and time moves fast when you are an infant; teenagers may wait a month or two for a well check-up, because time moves more slowly when you're a teenager. However, consideration is given to sports and activity deadlines.
What are your waiting times to be seen after arrival for my scheduled appointment time?
Putting epidemics aside for a moment, our goal is to have you in and seen within one hour of your arrival or appointment. We often do much better than this. However, epidemics are a reality, e.g. the Flu, or RSV season. Your waiting time might be longer in an epidemic, but we do try to help all who are ill and need us; and we hope and expect that our staff will keep you informed of any circumstances that lead to any unusual delay in seeing you as scheduled.
What are the practice's ideas about breast-feeding, discipline, allowing a baby to cry, medicine use, antibiotic use, and immunizations?
The pediatricians at PAMPA strongly support breast-feeding; but we do recognize and acknowledge an individual mother's right to choose how she will feed her baby. We offer nutritional advice and support whenever we can.
We believe in loving discipline. After all, the word discipline is derived from the Latin word for "teaching". We certainly believe in teaching children about the world and appropriate behavior and decorum. We find that variations on the theme of "time-out" are usually effective.
Sometimes it is necessary to allow a baby to cry in order to learn how to self-quiet; but only after attending to your infant's immediate needs and comforts, e.g. hunger, wetness, burping, rash relief, clothing comforts, etc. Babies who don't cry are already expert at self-quieting; babies who cry can learn to self-quiet, but humanely please.
We believe in using medication appropriately to relieve symptoms when relief is necessary. We don't believe in medicine for medicine's sake. The use of medicine is a science and an art and our pediatricians are engaged in a life-long professional effort to relieve suffering and improve health. We try to use medicines safely and appropriately.
We do believe in and use antibiotics, but as mentioned above, almost never by phone. We are well aware of the current debate and controversy about antibiotics and strive to be current and well informed. On occasion and after a full discussion of pros and cons with a parent, we may choose not to use an antibiotic and monitor the situation carefully with you.
Our pediatricians believe in immunizations! Vaccines have saved more lives than all the doctors who have ever lived or ever will live! We try to educate and always get your permission before immunizing your children. When a few parents choose not to immunize their children, we try to point out the possible serious consequences of their decision, offer alternatives and try to agree on a compromise position that offers protection to the child. We respect a parent's right to decide, but we will share with you if we think a parent has made a wrong choice. We think parents would want to know if their doctor thought they had made an incorrect decision that could harm their child. We hope you agree with us. .