While most routine questions can be answered on our "Patient Education" pages, occasionally parents need to speak with a physician after hours.  Our providers alternate being on call to handle emergencies.  If you call our main number, the voice mail directs you to the number of the provider on call.  If you leave a message for a return call, please set your phone to allow blocked calls or we may not be able to return your call.

Non-emergent questions should be called to the office to be answered during normal business hours.  Alternately, feel free to click on the "Ask a Question" tab above to ask questions that can be answered within the next week.  The on call provider does not have access to the office schedule while on call, so please do not call to ask about, schedule, or cancel appointments.

Please remember that we cannot give insurance authorizations after hours or direct you to a facility on your insurance plan.  Contact your insurance carrier to learn where they contract for after hours care.

If you feel your child needs to be seen after hours, there are two local urgent cares that see exclusively children, After Hours Pediatrics (click here for details) at 143rd and Metcalf, and Children's Mercy South at 1-435 and Nall.  The main campus of Children's Mercy at 31st and Gillham Rd (Missouri) is also available 24 hours a day for emergencies.  Please contact the respective locations for their hours and insurance coverage.  We do not recommend other walk-in clinics because of variable experience with children among their providers.  Both campuses of Children's Mercy and After Hours Pediatrics fax the information of your visit so that it can become a part of your child's chart in our office.  Specifically, Take Care Clinics in select Walgreen's do not fax any information to our office, so your visit will not be documented in the medical home chart, which can lead to confusion about frequency of infections or most recently used antibiotics. 

Many times parents are frustrated at the long wait times at urgent care centers, but any walk-in type clinic has the potential to be busy.  This is in part because many non-urgent matters are brought in for convenience of the family.  More urgent and emergent matters such as difficulty breathing are triaged ahead of routine problems such as fever and sore throat.

We agree with the position of the American Academy of Pediatrics that most medical care should be done in the "medical home."  A medical home is an approach to providing comprehensive primary care.  A medical home is defined as primary care that is accessible, continuous, comprehensive, family centered, coordinated, compassionate, and culturally effective.  When you bring your child for routine concerns, such as sore throat and earache, to urgent cares or emergency rooms, an opportunity is lost for coordination of care with your medical home.  For example, if your child has multiple ear infections treated elsewhere, we are less likely to recognize the need for a referral to an ear specialist.  If you can manage symptoms at home until our office is open, please bring your child to our office so that we can be involved with your child's health and well being.  If your child has immediate concerns, such as difficulty breathing, please use one of the pediatric facilities available.