Exciting News from CHP-A: NEW patient friendly PORTAL arrives Wed. Dec. 23rd. Details: a) Dec 8th, access ENDS to Medfusion, our current portal. b) During transition (Dec 8 to 23rd) we ask for your patience as we rely on work arounds for sending secure messages c) Please kindly bear with us as we work to improve our communication to families relying on our ‘team’ to provide ‘more than medicine’!
Important Reminders for Appointments During COVID.
To help mitigate these risks we are tightening efforts to protect you, your children and our Chapel Hill Pediatric employees.
Please respect:
#1 One parent with child during appointment (face coverings required if 3 years and older)
#2 Limit of one child (scheduled patient) in room during appointment (siblings joining is strongly discouraged)
#3 Request that well child appointments be rescheduled if your child is less than 14 days from close exposure to person with positive COVID-19 test and/or if your child has symptoms of a COVID like illness.
Together we can & must tame the spread of this virus.
You may call our Chapel Hill Office on Thanksgiving Day between 9:00 am and 11:00 am to schedule a same day urgent care appointment. Outside of those hours, advice nurses will be available for a $35 charge on Thanksgiving Day.
On Friday, our Chapel Hill office phones will turn on as usual at 7:30 am. We will have same day appointments available throughout the day. Call to schedule an appointment if needed. After hours urgent care will NOT be available Friday evening and the office will close at 5:00 pm.
Regular Chapel Hill office hours will resume on Saturday, November 28th.
Durham Office:
Our Durham Office will be closed Thursday, November 26th and Friday, November 27th.
Regular Durham office hours will resume Monday, November 30th.
We are updating our phone system. You can still reach us at the same number, but our outgoing calls will come from a different number you may not recognize! It appears on some phones as a call from Zebulon, NC. We hope to have the numbers completely changed over in the next few weeks, so we appreciate your patience with us at this time.
Flu shots are now available for all of our patients, and – new for this year! – we are offering the flu shot to parents who accompany their child. All parents must be registered and make an appointment prior to arriving at the office. We cannot accommodate walk ins or add on appointments. There are weekend flu clinic dates available through September and October! Alternately, a patient and accompanying parent can receive the shot at their regularly scheduled well visit or in-office illness/injury visit, if appropriate. Parents interested in receiving a flu shot must register and make an appointment.
Your scheduler will walk you through updating demographics and insurance information for each person receiving a flu shot. On the day of your flu clinic appointment, you will find labeled parking spots, numbered 1 to 15 on weekends and 1 to 4 on weekdays. Choose an open spot and call our office to check in (phone numbers are listed on the sign). Weather permitting, a nurse will come out to your car and administer the vaccines. In the event of inclement weather, we have an alternate plan in place which will be communicated at check-in.
You can prepare for the flu shot by making sure the injection site is easily accessible. You may need to remove outer layers of clothing or jackets. In general, children over 4 and adults will receive the immunization in their upper arm. Most children under 4 will receive it in their upper thigh. Please ensure anyone in the vehicle 3 years or older is wearing a mask before your nurse approaches!
With the addition of registering parents for flu shots and checking appointments in over the phone to minimize potential COVID-19 exposure, we are receiving a particularly high volume of calls coming into our system. You may experience longer than normal hold times as you try to reach us over the next few weeks. Please bear with us – our staff is working tirelessly to take each call as quickly as possible. We appreciate your continued patience as we strive to bring you more than medicine.
GREETINGS! CHAPEL HILL
PEDIATRICS-ADOLESCENTS COMMUNITY
The Novel
Coronavirus Covid-19 has been keeping all of us at CHP on our toes working to
ensure the well-being and safety of our patients! Working within the parameters
of transition and change is the norm as we strive to balance
recommendations designed to support our patients and their families. We are in
uncharted territory as we move forward. Our goal is to stay informed and put
scientifically based knowledge into action that will elevate our compassionate
pediatric care — the hallmark of our clinic’s desire to offer “more than
medicine.”
In
mid-March, as we prepared for the unknown threat that Covid-19 would bring, we
delayed many appointments. We know that rescheduling these appointments is challenging
to all involved, so we appreciated your understanding then and ask for that
understanding now.
The Academy
of Pediatrics (AAP) and the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) have recommended
that Pediatric Well-Child Care be continued when provided within Covid-19
safety guidelines. Falling behind on routine care increases the risk of
negative consequences involving growth, development, vaccine protection,
emotional health, and physical well-being. These consequences affect young and
older patients as well as those involved in athletics.
After
thoughtful deliberation and planning, we believe that we can begin safely
rescheduling well-child visits and physical examinations.
We ask that
you comply with and support our adjustments to enhance safety as follows:
Every person will be screened for
symptoms via questions and temperature checks before entering our offices,
Face coverings are required for
everyone above 3 years.
We will have separate exam rooms and
pods for well children versus sick visits.
The MDs seeing children with
respiratory symptoms will wear PPE and will not be assigned to see well
children on that same day. Sick children
may be seen in their cars in the parking lot.
All MDs and nurses will wear face
coverings and gloves.
Toys and books have been removed from
exam rooms. However, parents can bring children’s personal items from home.
Appointment times will be staggered
to support social distancing.
Topics outside of the well child
physical exam such as ADHD medicine checks, allergies, asthma, constipation,
atypical sleep patterns, headaches, etc. may be scheduled for telehealth
appointments to allow for thoroughness and respect for social distancing.
We have amplified triage and exam
room cleaning between appointments. Furthermore, a professional cleaning group
will be deep cleaning the office every night.
Your vehicle in our parking lot will
serve as the “waiting room.” Please check in via phone by dialing 919-942-4173
and alerting our office staff of your arrival.
A nurse or MD will call to gather
pre-visit details before you enter the office.
One caregiver is invited to join each patient
(one month and older) for a scheduled appointment in the office. Infants less
than one month may have two adults accompanying.
Hand sanitizers and washing stations
are available in each exam room.
Nurses,
doctors, and other staff members recognize the toll that social distancing has
taken on everyone, and we are confident that this preventative mandate has been
protective and is reducing transmission of COVID-19. Therefore, we encourage
families to respect this distancing. Please be assured that Chapel Hill
Pediatrics will continue to protect children and families during this
challenging and unprecedented time. We welcome any suggestions you may have.
Starting this evening, we will no longer offer after hour appointments. Our office will close at 5pm on weekdays. We will still offer appointments on the Saturday and Sunday from 9am-2pm. We are still not currently accepting walk-in appointments. Thank you for your understanding as we go through this challenging time.
For the continued health of our patients, starting the week of March 16, 2020 we are continuing to not accept walk-in appointments. We have also changed our schedule to see all of our well patient appointments in the morning until 2:30pm At 2:40pm each day we will start seeing our sick visits. We ask that no patients or family members with cough and fever come in during our well patient visits. If you have any questions or to schedule an appointment please call us at 919-942-4173. We will keep you updated with any other changes as they occur. Thank you for understanding during this every changing time.
Until further notice, we are NOT accepting walk-in appointments in either of our offices. Please call us at 919-942-4173 to schedule all appointments. Thank you!
Many of you
have questions and concerns about the new coronavirus infection, also known as
COVID-19.
At Chapel
Hill Pediatrics, we are closely monitoring this rapidly changing situation in
order to provide you with up to date, accurate information along with the very
best care.
We are also
going to help you protect yourselves and your families as we protect our
patients and staff.
COVID-19: A Novel (new)
Coronavirus
Coronaviruses
are a family of viruses that commonly cause mild or moderate illness such as
the common cold. At some point in our
lives, almost all of us get infected with a virus in this family.
COVID-19 is
a new strain of coronavirus that had not previously caused illness or infection
in humans. However, now it has become
capable of infecting humans. It was
first discovered in China in December of 2019 and has now spread
internationally, including to the United States and North Carolina.
National,
state and local health officials are actively investigating this virus and
learning more about its impact. While we
know that it is contagious, children do not seem to be at higher risk for
severe disease. In fact, children who
tested positive in China had mild illnesses.
Symptoms of
COVID-19 range from mild to severe and include: fever, cough, shortness of
breath, body aches, fatigue, sore throat, headache and diarrhea.
What we are doing
Chapel Hill
Pediatrics has implemented a screening process based on the Centers for Disease
Control (CDC) recommendations. When you
call to make any type of appointment, you will be asked the following:
Does your child have fever OR
respiratory symptoms such as cough or shortness of breath?
Has your child traveled to an
infected geographic area within the past 14 days?
Has your child had close contact with
a person known to have COVID-19?
These
questions will help us determine whether you should be seen in our clinic, in
an emergency room or if it is best for you to remain at home. Some responses will warrant further
discussion with a physician who will determine the best way to provide care for
your child.
If you arrive at our office and are found to meet the above criteria, you will be asked to return to your car and call our office for a telephone assessment. Our physicians will then determine the next steps in your evaluation.
Testing
At this
time, testing is available on a limited basis for patients based on the CDC
recommendations. Persons are not tested
who do not have symptoms. Decisions
about testing will be made on a case-by-case basis.
If you or
your child has been in close contact with a person who has tested positive for
COVID-19, or you are concerned about your child’s symptoms, please call us
immediately at 919-942-4173.
What you should do to
protect your family
Currently,
there is no vaccine to prevent COVID-19. The best way to prevent infection is
to avoid exposure to the virus.
Wash
your hands often with soap and water for at least 20 seconds. If soap and water are not available, use hand
sanitizer that is 60% or higher alcohol-based
Avoid
touching your eyes, nose and mouth with unwashed hands
Keep
your children away from others who are sick
Keep
your children home if they are sick
Teach
your children to cough and sneeze into a tissue (and throw it away after each
use) or cough and sneeze into their elbow or arm, not into their hands
Clean
and disinfect your household surfaces and objects
Limit
the number of caregivers bringing your child to the office
Bring
only your child with an appointment to the office, no siblings, when possible
Caregivers
over 60 years old should avoid the office unless there is absolutely no
alternative
Further questions/additional
information
We will continue to update our posted information as new updates and
instructions become available. You can
check our website and call our office to speak to one of our advice nurses
during office hours if you have specific questions about your child’s
health. Please remember that we have a
high call volume and we are working diligently to respond in as timely a manner
as possible.
If you have general questions or concerns about COVID-19, the North
Carolina Division of Public Health has established a call line at
1-866-462-3821 to address general questions about coronavirus from the public.
Additional resource links are below.
Thank you for entrusting your child’s care to Chapel Hill Pediatrics
& Adolescents.
Chapel Hill Pediatrics is aware that there is heightened concern for the potential spread of the 2019 Novel Coronavirus within the United States. To date, there are no known cases of the disease in North Carolina. We are closely monitoring the health alerts and following the infection surveillance and prevention recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). Continue to practice good hand washing routines and return to our website and Facebook for updates regarding this infection.
