Putnam Pediatrics

A Patient-Centered Medical Home is not a building, place or hospital. Rather, it is an approach to providing comprehensive healthcare. As your PCMH, we want to be the first place you think of for all of your child’s medical needs. We believe that the partnership between the patient, the patient’s family, and his/her primary care provider and care team is important. The care team, led by your primary care provider, is committed to providing the best healthcare services possible. Your child’s care team will work with you and any outside providers or facilities to coordinate care across all settings, including behavioral health. The team will offer appropriate medical advice, information, and self-management support based on current recommendations and evidence-based guidelines.

Your Care Team

• Knows the health history of your child
• Listens to your questions, concerns and feelings, as well as those of your child
• Learns about you, your family, your life situation, your health goals and preferences
• Coordinates your child’s care with other healthcare providers
• Creates a trusting, collaborative relationship with you and your child
• Treats your child with compassion and an understanding of his/her strengths
• Develops a care plan with you and your child when needed
• Respects and honors your culture and traditions
• Keeps your child up to date with all vaccines and preventative screenings
• Takes care of short term illnesses, long term chronic diseases, and your child’s overall well being
• Provides behavioral health services when appropriate
• Will notify you about test results in a timely manner
• Gives you information on community resources and other services to support your child’s health
• Helps you make the best decisions for your child’s care

You and Your Child

• Are comfortable sharing concerns and questions with your pediatric team and other health care providers
• Provide a complete and accurate medical and family history to your pediatric team to ensure that the practice has all of the most important and relevant medical information to effectively care for your child
• Routinely communicate your child’s needs and family priorities to your pediatric team
• Remember to tell your pediatric team about any care received between visits (including emergency room visits, urgent care clinics) so we can help coordinate your child’s care
• Ask questions if you do not understand something
• Keep scheduled appointments or call to reschedule as soon as possible
• Bring your insurance card to each appointment
• Pay copays and past-due balances at the time of service

We see you, the parent, as an important member of your child’s health care team. As your child matures, we hope he or she will become an increasingly active team member. Preparing your child to take the lead in caring for his or her own health is, ultimately, our team’s most important task.

We encourage new parents to schedule a prenatal visit with any of our providers before your new baby is born. It’s a great way to meet your pediatrician or nurse practitioner and our office staff. It’s also a perfect time to ask questions about your topics such as birth, newborn care, choosing between breast or bottle feeding, or circumcision. This is a complimentary visit.

We also welcome visits from parents searching for a new pediatrician.

If you are new to Putnam Pediatrics, please read our office policies and complete our New Patient Medical History Form before your child’s first visit.

Regular preventive care checkups help keep your child healthy. We follow the recommendations of the AAP. These visits are also a good way to find and treat any problems early.

We provide each newborn baby with his or her own “baby book.” We use this book to record vital information, such as weight, height and vaccines. Please bring this book to each visit.

We offer the following services at our preventive care checkups:

• physical examination
• evaluation of growth and developmental milestones
• discussion of overall health as well as any nutritional or behavioral issues
• suggestions for lifestyle changes, if necessary
• referral to any specialists as needed
• immunizations – as pediatricians, we require our patients have all the vaccines recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

At each visit, your pediatrician will:

• Advise you on what vaccines your baby needs and if you should give a dose of a fever/pain reducer, such as acetaminophen (Tylenol) or Ibuprofen (Advil), after the vaccines. We do not advise giving these medications before vaccines.
• Discuss milestones to expect until the next visit.
• Record your child’s information in his or her “baby book.”

We offer a wide range of services including:

• sick and well appointments
• care for chronic conditions
• immunizations
• routine blood and urine tests
• hearing tests
• nutrition counseling
• concussion screening

For the convenience of busy parents, we offer some evening and weekend hours. If your child needs care when our office is closed, we have a pediatrician on-call 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Our on-call provider will be happy to answer any questions or concerns. In many cases, we can work with you to find a solution to the problem over the phone. For more serious concerns, we may direct you to a hospital emergency room or urgent care center.

Our front office staff will be happy to help with prescription refills, medication questions, billing problems and insurance questions at 845-279-9652 during regular business hours.

Our nursing staff will screen calls about routine medical concerns such as common over-the-counter medication dosages, first aid treatments, or fever or pain control. We will pass along other types of medical concerns to a pediatrician for a return call that day. Urgent calls will be returned right away.

Our office will give you a reminder call the day before your child’s appointment. Please try to be on time. If you are running more than 15 minutes late, please call the office. We may need to reschedule if you arrive late. If you need to miss a scheduled appointment, please give us at least 24 hours advance notice. If you do not call to cancel, we will need to charge for the visit.

If your child has an emergency, call 911 right away. If you don’t think it’s necessary to call 911, but the situation is urgent, call our office and we will direct your call to a pediatrician right away.

We will provide you with a documentation form and immunization record for your child’s school at each physical examination. At this time, our pediatricians can also fill out any other necessary forms. Please make copies of these documents in case you need for them for other reasons.

If you need another form completed after your child’s visit, we will need 24 to 48 hours to complete your request. We charge a fee to complete complicated forms.

Information for insured patients

Please bring your copayment to each visit. If you have an insurance deductible, we appreciate prompt payment for all visits until your deductible is satisfied. After that time, we will bill your insurance provider if you give us an updated proof of insurance at each visit. We are happy to file the claim for you, but please note that the balance is your responsibility if your plan does not pay within 30 days. Any amount not covered by your insurance policy is due immediately upon receipt of your first invoice from us.

We accept cash, check and credit card (Visa, Master Card and Discover) payments.

Medicare and Medicaid

We do not participate in Medicare, but we now accept Medicaid.

If you have Medicaid or Fidelis, transportation to the office is available. You must call 1-855-360-3543 or visit https://www.medanswering.com/ to arrange for transportation at least 3 days prior to your scheduled appointment.