ATTENTION: WE WILL  BE ADMINISTERING THE H1N1 VACCINE  AND OTHER FLU VACCINES  UNTIL MARCH 31. THE REMAINDER OF THE VACCINE WILL THEN  BE RETURNED TO THE DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH.

Since last fall, a number of you have utilized our website and sent us a number of suggestions via our suggestion box. One result of a suggestion we received was the addition of an automated email notification system when our main page is updated (see below). We would like to take this time to respond to some of the other comments we have received. A few sample comments will be listed below.

1. Comment:  I would love to be able to email quick questions to you so I don’t bother you with phone calls. Love the flu vaccine updates on the homepage. I check them every day waiting for a cling for school age children who missed getting their vaccine in Lincoln. Thanks for doing such a great job!

Comment: My suggestion is for the doctors to have email correspondence. Sometimes I have questions and I hate to call and leave a message for the dr to call me back. Not that the questions aren’t important, I mean they are to me obviously but they aren’t emergencies. I would love to see you office take this on. Dr. Hines is so great about giving advice with behavior issues but seeing him once a year for well visits only is tough. Email is the quickest and most painless way to communicate these days and would make the dr. patient (mommy) relationship so much stronger. Anyway, that is my 2 cents. Have a great holiday!!!

Some of the comment had to do with email correspondence with the physicians as noted in the two comments above. We are not quite there yet on this issue. Converting to an Electronic Heath Record has taken a lot of our time and energy. It is a good suggestion, but one that is on hold for now. The phone is still the method of choice to communicate with our patients.

2. Comment: When I first Lincoln Pediatrics for my children’s primary care Dr.’s I used to call in the mornings and a Dr. used to pick up. Now the answering service picks up most of the time and I hardly get to speak to a Dr. directly unless I request a call back which sometimes takes longer. It says in your website and I thought policy was that we could call before hours to speak to a physician directly. Why is this so? I prefer to speak to my child’s Dr. directly when it comes to a medicine that is not agreeing with my child or a particular concern re: my child.

Comment: I think you need to improve your phone service. I am a new patient and every time I have had to call to schedule an apt or for the doctor line I only get busy signals. It is really frustrating and I have considered leaving the practice b/c of it. I am sorry if I sound frustrated but I came from Mass General and there was never an unanswered phone call. In addition- one of the benefits you advertise is a 24 hour nurse line but but I cannot even get through to get any help. Thanks

Other comments had to do with our phone service as noted in the two comments above. In midst of the H1N1 crisis, we were inundated with phone calls as was every other physician’s office. We had added an additional phone line installed prior to the flu season (giving us a total of five phone lines), but this proved inadequate. We apologize for any inconvenience or frustration this caused. Most of the year it should not be difficult to get through to our office. We do have our calling time every morning from 7-8 A.M. We try to be faithful to this time, but early morning meetings, vacations, and sickness sometimes interrupt our call-in schedule. You should always be able to reach someone 24-7, including after hours and on weekends through our answering service. We do use a professional nursing service at times in the evenings and through the middle of the night. Please review our after hours recommendations on the patient information section of our website.

Please continue to send your suggestions and comments. We also appreciate the occasional complement as well!

Finally 
If you have not signed up for our automatic email notification when a new post is made, follow the link below and do it now. We think it will be a great help to you and your family.

http://www.lincolnpedi.com/resources/email-updates/

Again, we cannot thank you enough for all your patience and understanding during this busy season!

Sincerely,

LPA