Office Policies

AFTER HOUR EMERGENCIES (985) 345-2700

1. For any life threatening emergencies, please call 911 or go to the nearest emergency room.
2. After hours questions that are not life threatening but urgent, please call 985-345-2700. Calls should be returned within 20–30 minutes. If you do not receive a return call, please contact the operator and have them page the on call provider again.

Except in cases of life-threatening illnesses or injuries, always contact the pediatrician on-call BEFORE going to an emergency room.  Many times suggestions can be given over the telephone that will avoid unnecessary emergency room visits.  For cases that require immediate attention, the physician will refer you to the emergency room doctor on duty at North Oaks Health System.

APPOINTMENTS

1. Same day appointments are typically available.
2. We offer Saturday appointments for sick and urgent visits. Please call at 7:30 on Saturday morning to schedule these appointments.

EPSDT screenings are provided for our patients enrolled in the Healthy Louisiana program. The purpose of the EPSDT program is to educate you about the benefits of preventative and continuous care services and to provide regular health screenings for infants, children, and adolescents and to detect problems as early as possible. Our Registered Nurses will provide EPSDT health-screenings, immunizations, and preventative health guidance.  EPSDT visits are by appointment only.  Being on time is very important, since appointments are booked several months in advance and difficult to obtain on short notice.

TELEPHONE CALLS

1. Except for medical emergencies, all calls should be made during office hours.
2. Messages regarding medical questions are given to the appropriate nurse or provider. Normally the nurse will be able to return calls more promptly than the physician.  Our nurses are well trained and all advice given is reviewed and approved by our providers.  If you desire further clarification or would like to discuss a special problem, please inform the nurse and the physician or nurse practitioner will be happy to return your call.
3. Patient treatment plans will not be discussed with anyone other than the parents or legal guardian of the patient.
4. Billing and insurance claim inquires are directed to the insurance claims manager.
5. Questions about referrals are handled by the referral coordinator.
6. Medical records questions and requests are handled by the medical records department.

IMMUNIZATION RECORDS AND SCHOOL/CAMP FORMS

1. We require a 24 hour notice for all immunization record request.
2. You may drop off school, college, or camp forms to the office.  Once these forms are dropped off, they will be ready the next day.  If any immunizations are missing or due, the nurse will call to inform you of this.

MEDICAL RECORDS

If you are moving or need copies of your child's medical records for other purposes, please sign a medical records release at your new doctor's office or you can sign one at our office. Ciox copies all of our medical records.  They come once a week on Mondays to do so.  We send records with a written release to another physician’s office free of charge.  Any medical records that you request to pick up as a personal copy are subject to a copying fee.  This is billed to you from Ciox.  Please give us enough time to get the records copied before you need them.  A copy of our release form and letter regarding the copying fee can be printed out from our website.  Please go to Forms page to download and print this form.

REFERRAL TO SPECIALIST

All referrals to specialist must be approved by a physician if we did not already refer you.  Please contact our Referral Coordinator for details.

NORTH OAKS PEDIATRIC CLINIC HIPAA POLICY.PDF