If you are considering taking your child to an urgent care facility or emergency room, please call us first. We may be able to save you a trip! Some insurance plans require prior authorization. If we are not notified prior to the visit, you may be responsible for the bill. If your child was seen at one of these facilities, please call us for any follow-up that is needed. It is not appropriate to return to these facilities for follow-up care.

When you need to contact us, please call our regular office number at 401-334-4021 and push zero when you hear the voice recording. You will then be transferred to our answering service where you can give the pertinent call back information. An alternative number is 401-228-2202 if for some reason you are unable to reach the answering service through our regular office number. At times you may be directed to call Nurse Telephone Triage Service. This is a nursing service we provide to help with late night phone calls. A physician is always available if needed. We do partner with Blackstone Valley Pediatrics in Cumberland, RI, for our weekend phone coverage. Our answering service will direct you to call their office number when appropriate.

Phone Etiquette

Lincoln pediatrics is committed to providing 24-7 telephone coverage. Because the telephone is important to providing excellent care for our patients, the following suggestions would help us to accomplish this task:

• After-hours telephone usage should be restricted to emergencies only. Routine advice, laboratory results, and prescription refills should be done during our normal office hours.
• Please give us one phone number where we can reach you. Multiple phone numbers are not practical due to the volume of calls we must return.
• Please keep the phone line free so we may return your call. We try to call back within the hour and busy phone lines prevent us from providing prompt service.
• Please have your caller ID turned off. We ask you to respect the privacy of the numbers that we’re using to return your call.
• When your call is returned, please state the name, age of the child, and a brief description of your concern.
• Please have a pharmacy number handy and have an approximation of your child’s weight. It is also helpful to give us an exact description of the medicines that your child is currently receiving. Have a back-up 24-hour pharmacy number as well.
• If you are having any problems with the answering service or have any suggestions for us to improve our telephone coverage please let us know.