Community News

COVID-19 UPDATES:

Updated: 3/28/2020:

Are you wondering how to help your child through the emotions that come during this uncertain time?  On Thursday March 26th, 7pm, there was a YouTube live presentation from Dr. Fatima Watt, Director of Behavioral Health Services at Franciscan Hospital, about "Coronovirus and Our Kids: Addressing Fear and Anxiety in our Children" . You can access the archived version through the link.

OFFICE VISIT UPDATES 3/24/2020:

As of 3/24/2020:

In an effort to minimize exposure to illness for well visits, we are changing how and where we do visits.  We are separating sick and well visits by location and or time. We have many available sick appointments during the day.  Also, we will be closing the office at 5pm in all locations.  IT IS STILL RECOMMENDED TO KEEP YOUR WELL VISIT.  We are doing our best ensure your safety by sanitizing between patients, rooming patients immediately, and wearing masks for all visits.

We will still take walk-ins from 8-9am but we would prefer to schedule all sick visits.

We ask you follow the guidelines below for visits:

  1. Only one adult per child and please limit siblings and other family members.
  2. If a parent has any symptoms associated with COVID-19, another caregiver should bring the child into the office.
  3. If a parent and/or child has been exposed to COVID-19, please call the office to schedule an appointment so we take appropriate precautions.
  4. All attempts should be made to keep any adult over the age of 60 from coming into the office

This can be a stressful time for children.  Please refer to these resources for more information on how to help your child.

5-4-3-2-1 Coping Technique

Grounding Techniques

Coping During COVID-19 Resources

99 Coping Skills

COVID-19 INFORMATION AND TESTING

Please refer to the CDC for all updates and recommendations concerning COVID-19. This includes information about travel, social distancing, and prevention.  The Department of Public Health also has current up-to-date information on local risk and testing procedures.

As of 3/24/2020, we still do NOT have COVID-19 testing available in our office.  Because of the overwhelming amount of phone calls we are receiving, we ask that you please refer to the above resources with questions so that we can help our ill patient who may have had exposure to COVID-19 or who are ill with routine childhood illnesses and need medical advice and care.

 

 

NEW HOURS STARTING MARCH 2ND 2020

Due to patient feedback we are changing our hours starting March 2nd, 2020.  We will now be closing at 7pm in Haverhill on Monday, Wednesday and Thursday and 7pm in Newburyport Lower Level Monday-Friday.  We will be open instead from 5pm-6pm to better accommodate our patients’ needs.  Please let us know if you have any feedback (good or bad) with these changes during our trial period over the next 3 months.

We have recently had an increase in patients late for appointments.  In order to give your child the time necessary and deserved for their appointment, we ask that you arrive 10 minutes early for all appointments to register and complete all paperwork.  If you arrive late you may be asked to reschedule.

A Focus on the Future

URGENT CARE REFERRAL POLICY

At Childrens Health Care, we strive to provide the best care for our patients at both sick and well visits. This includes timely availability of our pediatric providers for urgent visits, with access to your child's medical records, in a friendly and familiar setting. With rare exceptions, such as extreme inclement weather or other emergencies, we are open 365 mornings a year for walk-in sick call and also have urgent appointments available each weekday until 8:00pm.

In most cases, we therefore will not issue referrals or provide approval to insurance companies for outside urgent care or walk-in clinic visits for services that could have been provided in one of our offices on days when we are open. if you have a question about the need for urgent care for your child, please call and speak to our triage nurses or the on-call provider, who can help guide you to the most appropriate care.