There are, of course, situations when the emergency room or urgent care center is the best option for care such as a head injury or severe pain at night. Please call us at (417) 882-1600 or after hours, (877) 599-8962 before visiting an urgent care center or retail clinic. Afterhours triage staff (pediatric RNs) are available through the excellent services of St Louis Children’s Hospital when our office is closed. These specially trained nurses will guide parents with home care and deciding when a problem cannot wait for office hours the next day. We can often provide recommendations for home care and pain relief that will save you time and money.

When children are seen and treated by other doctors such as local clinics and urgent care centers, it is obviously impossible for us to monitor that child’s health and assure continuity of care. In addition, we have found that the care recommended in these centers may be very different than that we would have recommended. If your child then becomes sicker or a condition becomes chronic, it is much more difficult for us to help you than if we had been able to see the full progression of the illness.

For this reason, we ask that our patients receive their total medical care in our office. If a referral is necessary or you desire a second opinion, we will be happy to arrange this. If parents routinely choose alternative sources of care for their children, we will ask them to continue care with those providers, and we will no longer take responsibility for providing their care.