Vaccines during a Pandemic

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We are doing our best at RPA to try to keep you and your children healthy, especially during a pandemic. This is why we have recommended that patients under 2 come in for their appointments to get vaccines, and starting soon we will have older patients due for vaccines coming in as well. We are still making sure that there is little to no waiting in the waiting room, we are cleaning rooms after every patient, and separating rooms and time slots for “well child visits” and “sick child visits”. Here is a great article from Boston Children’s Hospital explaining how important these visits are during these times:

https://discoveries.childrenshospital.org/vaccines-during-covid-19/

And if you have any questions about bringing your child into our office feel free to give us a call!

Updates – Expanding Availability of On Site Well Visits

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First and foremost, all of us at Roslindale Pediatrics want to thank you all, our families, for bearing with us and continuing to trust us to care for your families during these incredibly difficult times. We are working diligently to ensure we provide the best and safest care for all of our patients. We continue to look at current recommendations from the American Academy of Pediatrics as well as the Center for Disease Control as we slowly resume in person office visits. It is recommended that we continue scheduling in person well visits for patients that require vaccinations. Thus, our new in office well visit scheduling guidelines are as follows:

At this time, we will continue to ONLY provide well child care in the morning.

All children under the age of 18 months will be seen in our office during the morning hours for well child care.

We will be adding in the following:

Children aged 4 and 11 years can be seen for well visits in our office on Mondays, Wednesdays and  Fridays during the later morning hours.

Additionally, we will be adding in evening appointments for in person visits for our 16 year old patients, as well as those who are college bound. These will be scheduled between 5:30-7:30pm.

We will continue to see sick visits in the office between the hours of 1-5pm. We will continue to offer virtual well visits for children NOT requiring vaccines (those that do not fit into the groups described above), as well as virtual sick visits.

As recommendations and guidelines continue to change, we will continue to update you on what we will be doing at RPA. Thank you for your patience!

Click below for an article from CNN explaining the importance of vaccinating our children during a pandemic:

https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/08/health/childhood-vaccines-cdc-covid-wellness

4 Year and 11 Year Appointments now in Office

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Due to concerns for the risk of preventable diseases spreading, such as Measles, Polio, and Pertussis, we are now recommending that our patients who have recently turned 4 and 11 and are due for their annual check up come into the office for their exam and vaccines.  If you have already had this appointment virtually we will reach out to you to schedule an appointment for their vaccines.  If the appointment is already scheduled we will call you to reschedule it for a timeslot between 11-12 on a Monday, Wednesday, or a Friday starting on May 26th. 

We understand concerns for bringing your child outside the home and into a medical facility, so this is what we are doing to protect our patients:

  • We are only seeing healthy patients in the morning who need their routine vaccines, and only seeing sick patients in the afternoon. 

  • We are also placing them in separate rooms. 

  • We are all wearing masks and eye protection in the office and are asking our patients over 2 and parents to wear a mask when they enter. 

  • We are cleaning surfaces and equipment between all of our patient visits. 

  • We are rooming patients as soon as they arrive so you will not have to wait in the waiting room long. 

Things are changing frequently, so please check back often for updates on our office and visits.  If you have any questions feel free to give us a call. 

Medication Check Virtual Visits

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In the next few weeks, we will be reaching out to our patients with medical conditions who are due for a follow up. We are now offering virtual visits for our patients with non urgent medical problems to help prevent the spread of COVID-19. If your child has a medical condition you would like to have a virtual visit for, including Asthma, ADHD, Anxiety, Depression or Allergic Rhinitis, feel free to call us to set up an appointment. If you are due for a check up we will reach out to you.

Please visit the Virtual Visit page prior to the appointment to be prepared.

Anxiety Handouts

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Here at Roslindale Pediatrics, we know that this difficult time can cause a lot of anxiety for you and your children. Children often react differently than adults to stress, and often need different coping skills. Below, you can find handouts created by Boston Children’s Hospital that may be useful for your children if they are having trouble during this trying time. As always, please give us a call if you have concerns about your child’s anxiety and would like to discuss it with their provider.

For Children:

Child Fear Thermometer

Child Deep Breathing

Child Progressive Muscle Relaxation

Child Guided Imagery

Child Relaxation Skills Tips

For Teens:

Teen Fear Thermometer

Teen Deep Breathing

Teen Progressive Muscle Relaxation

Teen Guided Imagery

Teen Relaxation Skills Tips

For Parents:

Parent Fear Thermometer

Parent Deep Breathing

Parent Progressive Muscle Relaxation

Parent Guided Imagery

Parent Relaxation Skills Tips

Resources To Help During These Times

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We know the current situation with COVID-19 is putting a lot of strain financially on many of our patients’ families. Here are some services that may help you and your family in the coming months:

https://www.internetessentials.com/covid19#thingstoknow&all_DoIliveinaComcastarea

https://meals4kids.org/summer

http://www.211.org/services/covid19

We are happy to help if you need anything from our office that may help with these services.

Also, www.healthychildren.org is a great resource for all topics about children and their health. They have a few new articles about COVID-19, please use the links below to access them:

Working and Learning from Home During the COVID-19 Outbreak

Social Distancing: Why Keeping Your Distance Helps Keep Others Safe​ ​

Tips for Coping with a New Baby During COVID-19

Positive Parenting & COVID-19: 10 Tips to Help Keep the Calm at Home

Update from Roslindale Pediatrics

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To our Roslindale Pediatrics families:

In the midst of the global COVID-19 pandemic, the utmost goal for all of us at Roslindale Pediatrics is to ensure we provide safe care for all of our patients. We will be making a few changes over the upcoming weeks.

Beginning next week, we will be limiting staff in our office, as well as significantly limit the well children we are bringing into the office. We will continue to see infants and toddlers who are due for immunizations for their well visits. We will see these patients exclusively in the morning, and reserve the afternoons for sick visits.

Because of our new scheduling, some providers may not be working on the days they typically do. If you or your child has an appointment scheduled in the next few weeks which will need to come into the office, you may receive a phone call to reschedule for a time that your provider is working. As a reminder, routine well visits for older children WILL be cancelled at this time, to be rescheduled in the future. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.

We will also be instituting telehealth visits. In order to be able to be scheduled for one of these, you will need to be set up on MyChart. If you are not already set up for this, please call the office and we can assist you. As a reminder, patients 13 years and older will need their own access to MyChart.

All calls will be forwarded to a member of our clinical team. Calls will be triaged and patients may either:

1.    Receive advice over the phone

2.    Be scheduled for a telehealth visit

3.    Be scheduled for a visit in the office

Thank you in advance for your patience and cooperation. Thank you for the privilege of trusting us to care for you and your families, especially in difficult and worrisome times like these. We are thankful for our community.

Please follow us on Facebook, as well as keep an eye on the website, as we are trying to post daily updates.

Stay safe and healthy,

The Providers and Staff of Roslindale Pediatrics 

Virtual Visits at RPA

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In an effort to contain COVID-19, we are now offering virtual visits, or telehealth, for patients who do not need to be seen in our office. If you are scheduled for a virtual visit by our office, here is some information you should know:

  • You can only access this through a smart phone or a tablet, they are not available on a computer.

  • You must sign up for MyChart through the patient portal and download the MyChart App

  • You must also download the Zoom App onto your smart phone or tablet

  • You must log into mychart at least 15 minutes prior to your appointment to register and sign our consent

    • proxies will sign consents for patients under 13

    • patients 13-17 years old will sign themselves, and parents will consent during the visit

    • patients 18 and older will sign the consent themselves

  • You are able to access the appointment 15 minutes prior to the scheduled time, but keep in mind that your provider may still be with another patient and, and, like in the office, may be running late.

Please review these worksheets if you are having trouble:

Virtual Visit Patient Guide

Preparing For Your Virtual Visit

Virtual Visit FAQs

Please call us if you have any trouble with this process at 617-522-3100. Keep in mind, this is a new system for our office and may develop glitches. We apologize in advance if we have any technical difficulties.

MyChart Access for Telehealth

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 All of us at Roslindale Pediatrics are working hard to identify the best ways to care for our patients. Good news is that we may soon be able to offer Telehealth visits for some of our patients. In order to participate in telehealth visits, you must have a MY CHART account. What can you do now? If you do not have a MY CHART account, please call our office and one of our staff will assist you in signing up for one. If you do have a MY CHART account, please make sure that you are able to sign on. Now is a good time to check that your password is working. More details to follow! ~

In preparation we ask that you have Zoom on your phone or tablet as well, please follow the link to download Zoom:

https://zoom.us/download