PLEASE READ THE FOLLOWING CAREFULLY:

With the onset of H1N1, our office (as well as other physician offices) has been inundated with calls and appointments.  We are seeing over 100 children a day in the office, approximately 1/3 of which are add-ons. Judy, our nurse, is answering in the range of 50-75 phone messages a day (and that is a conservative estimate). Our front office staff have been extremely busy in answering calls and with moving patients in and out. Our physicians are busy as well returning phone calls, seeing patients, and handling emergencies. This does not take into account that every family being seen in the office has additional questions about the flu, which lengthens each office visit. In order to provide timely care in the most efficient manner, we ask your cooperation in reading and complying with the following reminders and suggestions:

1. When leaving a phone message, leave one phone number that we can reach you at. We will make one attempt to call you back. It is helpful if you can be brief and to the point in your concerns and questions because of the volume of calls we are receiving.

2. Have your caller ID turned off. We use our back lines to return phone calls. We leave our other phone lines open for new patient phone calls. If your caller ID is on, it will greatly delay our ability to call you back as we reserve the right to keep our back-lines private.

3. Evening and weekend phone calls are for emergencies only. If you have questions about H1N1, please call Monday-Friday during the day.

4. Please do not call on nights and weekends for prescription refills. Our policy states that we also require a 2-3 day notification for refills in general.

5. Referrals are not able to be done on Mondays. Our policy states that we need a one week notification for referrals, so please plan accordingly.

6. If your child has recently become ill, use common sense in initiating treatment. If it is a common cold or even the start of the flu, we will only tell you to do the obvious: treat the fever, increase fluids, rest, etc. We ask that unless there is a compelling reason for your child to be seen, to give it a few days first and see how your child does. We are trying to conserve appointment slots for the children who are most sick and in need of being seen. We do have to triage phone calls at times to accomplish this, so we ask for your patience and cooperation.

7. As an office, Tamiflu is only prescribed for good reason. We do not give it to otherwise healthy children who have the flu with no other complications.

We have begun to receive a limited supply of the H1N1 injectable vaccine in the office for children ages 6 months to 5 years of age. We are attempting to contact and vaccinate our patients who are at highest risk for complications from H1N1 (diabetes, congenital heart diease, cystic fibrosis, etc.) until our supply of the vaccine improves. DO NOT CALL OUR OFFICE UNLESS YOUR CHILD HAS A SERIOUS MEDICAL PROBLEM SUCH AS LISTED ABOVE. We still have the intranasal vaccine for children 2-5 years of age. (See Flu Update 10-21-2009 for who can get the intranasal vaccine) School age children will still be receiving the H1N1 vaccine through the schools. Because of high demand, we are beginning to schedule appointments for the intranasal H1N1 vaccine on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays between 5:30-6:30 PM.   We can vaccinate only so many additional children during the week because of the business of the office. We may have additional flu clinics, but this is partly dependent on vaccine supply.

We are doing our best in a difficult situation. We realize the media does not help. We realize the messages are sometimes confusing and contradictory. Please continue to check the Website for updates and information. We also suggest checking the RI Department of Health as well as the CDC websites for updated information on H1N1. We truly need your cooperation and understanding. We will try to do our best. We ask for your best as well.