Office Policies and Procedures
Pediatric Associates of Arlington Heights, S.C.
880 W. Central Rd. Suite 4200
765 Ela Road Suite 102
Arlington Heights, IL 60005
Lake Zurich, IL 60047
(847) 259-5070
(847) 726-7654
STATEMENT OF POLICY
Pediatric Associates of Arlington Heights specializes in providing pediatric care to infants, children, and
adolescents. Our goal is to offer an uncompromising level of medical care to meet the physical and emotional
needs of our patients.
THE PRACTICE
Pediatric Associates of Arlington Heights was established more than 40 years ago. We currently have two
offices, one in Arlington Heights and one in Lake Zurich. The practice consists of five general pediatricians
who rotate between both offices. Each doctor is a member of the American Academy of Pediatrics, as well as
various local, state, and national medical associations.
This is a group practice in which each doctor is responsible for all the patients in the practice. The doctors do
not have individual panels of patients. Requests will be honored to see a particular doctor; however, we would
like you to become familiar with all the doctors in our practice.
APPOINTMENTS
The doctors see patients by scheduled appointment only. While all attempts are made to maintain a schedule
that allows for seeing patients at their scheduled appointment time, there are some situations that cannot be
controlled. Delays at the hospital, a child who will not cooperate, emergency phone calls, sick children who
require more time than planned are all circumstances that may delay your appointment.
There are situations, however, which delay the daily schedule which can be controlled; therefore we cannot
accommodate the following situations:
Walk-in appointments
A parent who schedules an appointment for one child and brings a second child to be seen disrupts the
entire day’s schedule. We will be happy to see the second child, but only at the next available
appointment time.
An appointment is made for a brief or moderate office visit, but then a complete
physical is requested.
Patients who are 20 minutes or more late for their appointment - we will require that
the appointment be rescheduled.
We try to keep your wait time to a minimum; however circumstances don’t always allow us to succeed. We
apologize in advance for any delays in your future appointments.
EMERGENCIES
A true emergency such as a child with a seizure or a child who stops breathing should be transported by the
paramedics to the emergency room. Do not call the office - call 911. If you feel there may be an emergency
situation, but are not sure, we are available to assist you in deciding whether or not you should take your child
to the Emergency Room, be brought immediately to our office, or if your child would be more safely handled
by the paramedics. Sometimes transporting an emergency problem by car can be dangerous.
Since it is now difficult for us to stay proficient in surgery, we no longer do wound suturing in our office.
Wounds needing sutures are referred to the local surgeons or the emergency room. Please call if you are not
sure whether to take a child with a wound for sutures.
HOSPITALIZATION
Northwest Community Hospital is our admitting hospital. If the care your child needs is not available at
Northwest Community, we will recommend another hospital to provide that care.
PHONE CALLS
OFFICE HOUR PHONE CALLS
The receptionists answer all phone calls initially. They do not answer any medical questions. The receptionists
will give appointment information, help with insurance questions, and other non-medical questions. If you
have a medical question, you will be referred to a nurse.
The nurses will answer medical questions using written office protocols, or consult with a doctor for direction.
The nurse may be able to help manage the problem on the phone or advise an appointment if she feels that is
the best way to deal with the child’s problem. The nurses do not prescribe medications on the phone unless
the doctor directs her to do so. She may advise over the counter medicines if appropriate.
The doctors will return phone calls as requested. The doctors make calls throughout the day, and after office
hours, especially if more time is needed to answer your question properly. Since the doctors make every effort
to practice the best medicine possible, they generally do not prescribe medications over the phone without
seeing the patient. An exception to this would be in the case of a known diagnosis, such as a positive throat
culture for Strep.
AFTER HOUR CALLS
We recommend that whenever possible, you try to contact our office during business hours. However, if your
child is seriously ill, please call our main number so our answering service can contact us. We will return your
call as soon as we possibly can.
There may be a charge for after-hour phone calls. If the doctor can make a specific diagnosis and prescribe a
specific treatment, thus rendering medical care and saving you an office visit or emergency room visit, a fee
will be charged. We will bill your insurance company for this service; however, insurance companies seldom
cover telephone treatment, therefore making the charge the patient’s responsibility.
Telephone calls regarding simple advice, information about labs tests or home remedy recommendations are
never charged.
REQUESTS FOR PRESCRIPTION REFILLS AND MEDICAL FORMS
We require 24 hour notification for written prescription refills and requests for medical forms to be completed.
There will be a $5.00 fee for any forms requested to be completed in less than 24 hours, and/or the
completion of duplicate forms. Please do not call after hours for prescription refill requests.
TYPES OF OFFICE ENCOUNTERS
We follow the guidelines of the American Medical Association Current Procedural Terminology for reporting all
medical services and procedures.
PREVENTIVE SERVICES
These are the usual well-child, school, or sports physicals. Note that the insurance companies define these as
preventive evaluations without the focus of a medical complaint or preexisting problem. The level of the
preventive service is based on the patient’s age.
OFFICE VISITS
These are the usual “sick child” visits and are defined as problem-focused appointments which include illness,
injury, other symptoms, school problems, etc. There are multiple levels of office visits defined by the problem
focused history, problem focused exam, and medical decision making.
CONSULTATIONS
A consultation is a service provided by our physician when her opinion or advice regarding the evaluation
and/or management of a specific problem is requested by another physician or appropriate source. Examples
of these encounters would be a pre-operative exam or A.D.D. consultation.
NURSE VISITS
These are visits where the nurse performs a procedure such as a throat culture, blood pressure check, weight
and growth check, and when the doctor does not need to see the patient.
Generally, for established patients, an appointment is not required for a strep test without seeing the doctor.
IMMUNIZATION VISITS
We ask that you call ahead of time for immunization visits to make sure the vaccine is in stock, so we can
prepare your chart, and so we can discuss an appropriate time of arrival in order to prevent delays in our daily
schedule.
HOSPITAL VISITS
NEWBORN HOSPITAL VISITS
The physician on call will be notified by Northwest Community Hospital when an infant is born whose parents
have named us as his/her pediatrician. A physician from our practice will examine the newborn daily and
report to the parent until the newborn is discharged.
HOSPITAL CONSULTATIONS
At times, a patient may need hospital admission to receive care for a more serious illness or problem which
would require the need for a specialist to conduct the management care. The hospital or specialist may
request us to provide a consultation for a more complete assessment of coordination of care.
When a patient is admitted through the emergency room, Northwest Community Hospital considers the
pediatric hospitalist the admitting physician. However, we are notified of all our patients who have been
admitted, collaborate on the care of the patient with the hospitalist, and we will include these patients in our
hospital rounds as a courtesy.
INITIAL VISIT FORMS
There are numerous required forms to read and complete prior to your first visit. These forms include Patient
Registration, Insurance Information, and the Notice of Privacy Practices. We ask that you arrive at least 15
minutes prior to your scheduled appointment time to complete all these forms before seeing the doctor.
Several of these forms can be found on our website at www.pediatricassociatesah.com and can be printed and
completed ahead of time for your convenience.
Please refer to our written Financial Policy so that you will be informed of your financial obligations.
Please make every effort to bring, or have your previous doctor’s office send us, all your child’s past medical
records prior to the first appointment. This saves time and makes for better medical care.
INSURANCE
Your insurance plan or policy determines your medical coverage. Each plan is different and independent of
other plans – even within the same company. Please become knowledgeable regarding your benefits. It is
ultimately your responsibility to understand your insurance – what it covers, what it does not include, your copayments, deductible, coinsurance responsibilities, and referrals to other physicians. Our responsibility is to
submit a claim which reflects the services performed in the office based on coding guidelines and regulations.
UPDATES
Please keep us updated on all changes regarding addresses, phone numbers, and family circumstances so that
we may maintain an accurate file for your family. In addition, please have your current insurance card available
at each visit so that we can verify current insurance coverage.
HOURS
Arlington Heights Office
Lake Zurich Office
Monday-Friday: 8:30am - 5:00pm
Monday-Friday: 9:00 – 5:00pm
Saturday:
Saturday:
8:30am – 12:00pm
Both offices are closed from 12:30pm – 2:00 pm for lunch.
www.pediatricassociatesah.com
Revised 06/15
10:00 – 12:00pm