Welcome to Holliston Pediatric Group!
Thank you for entrusting the pediatricians at Holliston Pediatric Group with your child’s care. We understand that choosing a pediatric practice for your child involves careful consideration of the fit between the practice philosophies and your own. Excellent care happens when physician and office staff practices are aligned with your family’s priorities and philosophies regarding medical care. We ask that all prospective new patients please read the following carefully to be sure Holliston Pediatric Group is the appropriate medical home for your child.
Vaccines: We firmly believe in the safety of childhood vaccines, and we believe that immunizing your child according to the schedule recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and the Center for Disease Control (CDC) is the best way to prevent serious illness and save lives. Please review our Vaccine Policy in full.
Antibiotics: We work hard to not overuse antibiotics. We educate families on appropriate use of antibiotics, and follow evidence-based guidelines. We do not prescribe antibiotics over the phone. We will prescribe an antibiotic after careful evaluation when we believe it is an appropriate treatment.
Medical Home: We provide comprehensive medical care and will serve as your child’s medical home. To that end, we ask that you contact our office first, before seeking specialty care or heading to another provider for urgent care. We want to be involved in either providing care in our office where appropriate, or referring you to the most appropriate specialist and helping to coordinate your care. When your child does see a specialist, we ask that you request a report be sent directly to our office so that we may stay informed and have the most up-to-date information in your child’s medical record.
Office Hours: We make every effort to meet the needs of our patients, offering both routine well visits and same-day sick visit appointments. Visits are by appointment only. Please familiarize yourself with our office hours to see if they work for your family.
Patient Communication: There is always a physician available to address urgent medical needs. If you have an urgent medical concern when the office is closed, please call the office to speak with the provider on call. We encourage our patients to register for and use our patient portal, MyChart. The patient portal is an excellent way to communicate non-urgent medical concerns. Portal messages are routed to a general clinical pool and this is checked during regular business hours. Please do not send urgent concerns to the patient portal. Portal exchanges with a physician may incur a small fee.
Insurance: Please make sure we participate with your insurance plan. It is your responsibility to know the limits and coverage of your particular health insurance policy, to show your cards to us at each visit, and to be prepared to pay any copays or deductibles prior to the time of service.
Our billing staff will do their best to assist you with insurance questions, however, if you have questions about your coverage, it is best to check with your specific insurance company. Our office does not want you to be surprised by a bill, but must always bill your health plan based on federal guidelines and according to the services provided. Please read our Financial Policy for more information regarding insurance.
Timeliness and Missed Appointments: Our practice makes every effort to run on time with appointments as we believe everyone’s time is equally valuable. We ask that you arrive 5 minutes before your scheduled appointment time. We understand sometimes things happen beyond your control that may cause you to be late. However, we reserve the right to ask you to reschedule if you arrive more than 10 minutes late for your appointment. Missed appointments represent a cost to us, to you, and to the other patients who could have been seen in the time set aside for you. We reserve the right to charge a fee for canceled or missed appointments. We request 24 hours notice for cancellation of appointments. Patients who repeatedly miss their scheduled appointments will be asked to leave our practice.
Prescription Refills: For monthly medication refills, we require 48-hours notice during regular business hours. Please plan accordingly. We require regular medication follow-ups for chronic conditions such as ADHD and asthma, scheduled every 3 to 6 months.
Office Conduct: Our staff works hard to cultivate an office environment that is a welcoming and friendly place for our patients and families. We understand having a sick child is stressful, and we are here to help. We expect our patients and families to treat our staff with patience and respect at all times. Interactions with our staff that are perceived as threatening, aggressive or disrespectful will not be tolerated and may result in dismissal from the practice.
Adolescent Health and Transition to Adult Medicine: Holliston Pediatric Group is committed to helping our patients make a smooth transition from pediatric to adult health care. During teen well visits, providers will spend some of the visit time with teens without a parent present in order to help teens set their own health priorities and to support teens to become more independent with their own health care decisions. Certain health information is, by Massachusetts law, confidential. That means that if your teen talks with us about certain issues, we need their permission to talk to you about it. At age 18, youth legally become adults. We respect that many of our young adult patients choose to continue to involve their families in health care decisions. Only with the young adult’s consent will we be able to discuss any personal health information with family members. We will collaborate with youth and families regarding the age for transferring to an adult provider and recommend that this transfer occur before age 22. Please read our Transition Policy for more information.
We invite you to reach out if you have questions about any of these policies. We hope that Holliston Pediatric Group is a good fit for your family and we look forward to serving as your child’s pediatric medical home!
Sincerely,
The Holliston Pediatric Group care team