May 7th 2016

Four Seasons Pediatrics is pleased to offer online booking, making it easier to book an appointment for a sick child.  We will be offering online appointments for the rest of May.   Booking online will offer several advantages for our families with a sick child.  These appointments can be booked the night before (we ask that you only book for the next morning or on a same day basis).  You will not need to call the office, just log in to your Web Portal Account.  Click Appointments… then New Appointment… then fill in the fields for Appointment Search Criteria.   You can even send a message with some history about the illness in the field provided.  Then click the Search field and see what appointments are available.  It is that easy!

Let’s evaluate to see how well it works for you and for us.  Limited appointment availability will be starting Monday May 9th for Joyce Gillespie, RPA and Dr. Elmer.  We will add more availability and more providers as the week progresses.

PLEASE READ THE FOLLOWING INFORMATION BEFORE BOOKING ANY APPOINTMENTS:

Please be aware that our normal process to book appointments is to use a nurse to determine how much time is needed for an appointment.  In order for us to offer this type of service, and to be able to continue to offer it, we ask that these rules be followed:

1) These appointments are for specific types of sick appointments as follows:

• Ear Pain
• Fever
• Sore Throat
• Prolonged Runny Nose (of 10-14 days duration)
• Cough
• Pink Eye
• Rash (unless you are concerned about chicken pox)
• Daycare Clearance

2) Please do not book these appointments 2 days or more in advance – we want these to be used for the next day (after the office closes) and then to be used on a same day basis once the office is open.

3) Please use these appointments for recent onset symptoms.  Prolonged symptoms often require more time for the doctor to evaluate.  In general symptoms should be 2 weeks or less in duration.  (call us if the symptoms are longer – e.g. cough for 1 month, rash for 2 months)

4) Please don’t ask the provider to address other problems and other long term concerns during the visit.  The provider will not be able to give other issues the time that they will need to properly evaluate.  Call for a triage nurse to address multiple concerns and longer term issues

5) If there are no other online appointments available when you click the search button, call the office.   We will have other appointment availability and always do our best to see a child on a same day basis when they are sick.  As always, calling earlier  will work better for you and for us.  We take a lot of calls at the end of the day.  Many of these are for symptoms that have been on going well before the phone call.  Calls placed earlier will create less pressure on meeting the concerns that are more unpredictable (e.g. ear pain that starts late in the day).

We hope you enjoy this new opportunity and that you will use it.  This online appointment availability will give you a new way to book an appointment.  It will save you time and allow you to plan your day – instead of waiting for the office to open.  We will further evaluate the success of online appointments at the end of May.

Warm Regards,

Four Seasons Pediatrics.