New patient guide

Before your child’s scheduled appointment, you will receive a text message with details of the appointment, as well as a pre-check-in registration that you should complete prior to arriving. This registration will review demographic info, insurance info, and includes an age-appropriate questionnaire for parents to complete.

Kids Plus has a team that verifies and confirms all appointments on the schedule 2-3 days ahead of time and will reach out via text if any insurance issues are found.

It’s your appointment day! Once you arrive at the office, our FCCs will ask for any updated information, collect forms and co-payments, and check you into our computer system. We verify your contact info every visit, just to make sure we can get in touch with you if we need to — you might be surprised how often phone numbers and email addresses change — and also ask for your insurance card, since insurance policies change quite frequently as well.

While you are waiting, our medical assistants (MAs) and providers are busy seeing other patients and preparing your exam room. Because we have multiple providers seeing patients at one time, you may not be called back into an exam room in the order you arrived or were checked in. We know that can be frustrating sometimes! But if someone goes back before you, they are likely seeing a different provider who’s running on a different schedule.

We try, of course, to be as fast and efficient as possible. But we can’t always predict when unexpected problems or even emergencies will arise, and we want to give every patient as much time as it takes to make the best possible assessment and provide the best possible care. We’ll make every effort to let you know when your provider is running behind, but please feel free to ask for an update if it seems like you’ve been waiting for a while.

Once your child is brought back to the exam room, one of our MAs will take their vital signs (height, weight, temperature, and blood pressure) and ask some necessary medical history questions — all of which allows your provider to get a quick picture of what’s going on before they enter the room, especially in the case of a sick visit. If you filled out a pre-visit questionnaire before your appointment, we won’t have to ask you questions since we already have all the info we need. However, your provider may ask similar questions if they need to pinpoint things more clearly.

All of our MAs have medical training, so they’re prepared to spot any warning signs or “red flags” that come up when taking vital signs and reviewing your child’s history. If they see a sign for concern — for instance, if a child who came in for cough and cold symptoms is wheezing and breathing rapidly — they’ll get an available provider into the room right away. Situations like this are one reason why you may sometimes have a longer-than-usual wait. We’ll skip over the appointment order if it’s necessary to safeguard the health and safety of one of our patients.

Once all the info has been gathered, the MA will leave the exam room and let your provider know your child is ready to be seen.

Now it’s your turn! Once the provider reviews your child’s history and asks if you have any questions or concerns, they begin their exam. After a well visit is complete, or your provider has made a diagnosis and recommended treatment for a sick visit, your child may need immunizations, testing, or further treatment in the office. If that’s the case, the provider will alert your MA, who will prepare and deliver whatever you need to complete the appointment.

Once your exam and treatment are complete, you head back to the front office to check out. This is the perfect time to make your next appointment, pick up any forms you need to have completed, and any prescriptions or referrals that have been printed for you. This is also the time for patients who have a balance from the visit and/or pay out of pocket to make your payment.

Even after you walk out the door, your visit isn’t complete — a few very important things are still happening inside the office. 

First, your provider completes what we call an “office encounter” by putting all their notes and other documentation into your child’s chart. Once the notes are complete, you can see a summary of them in your Healow patient portal account. (The notes can take up to 2-3 days to appear, but are usually available by the end of the day.)

We may not know until payment is made if there are certain charges or parts of your bill that your insurance plan did not cover. If you have questions about charges from your child’s visit, please contact our billing department by calling (412) 926-1720.

There’s another important group of people you may not encounter in the Kids Plus office, but speak to frequently on the phone — our fabulous clinical advice team, which is composed of medical assistants, licensed practical nurses, and registered nurses. These experts work together to answer all phone calls and online questions about your child’s medical issues. When necessary, they will consult with a provider to give you the best possible care advice.

All members of our clinical advice team have medical training, so they’re the only ones besides our providers who can make sick appointments, schedule telehealth visits, or refer patients to the emergency room if needed. Any care advice they discuss with you is added to your child’s electronic medical record and reviewed by a Kids Plus provider. Because of these electronic medical records, we can access your child’s information and deliver the same quality care at any of our offices or with anyone you speak to on the phone.

Our phones are monitored 24/7, 365 days a year. So even when our offices are closed, you can still reach a member of our clinical advice team. Just call, follow the prompts, and our on-call team or answering service will be ready to help you.