Our visits are by appointment only. We have tried to make our office hours as flexible as possible in order to accommodate the needs of different families. We try very hard to see our patients on time and we ask that you extend the same courtesy to us.
WELL VISITS: For babies two years of age or younger, you should schedule the next appointment before leaving the office. You are advised to schedule yearly physicals three months in advance. It is especially crucial to schedule these appointments early during the summer months, because they fill quickly. The best time to call for physical appointments is after 10:00 a.m. Please notify us as soon as possible if you are unable to keep an appointment.
SICK: All “sick” or urgent care appointments are booked on a same day basis whenever possible. We ask that you call as early in the day as possible to help us fit your needs. Occasionally, appointments may be delayed 24 – 48 hours if the provider feels a delayed office visit is safe.
As a courtesy to our providers, please provide proper notice for any cancellations. No shows or cancellations with less than 24 hours notice will incur a $50.00 charge after the second occurrence.
If you are late for your appointment, please keep in mind that your appointment will end at the scheduled time to avoid delaying the next patient. Arrivals more than 15 minutes late will be asked to reschedule.
A provider is on call at all times for urgent needs. You can reach the answering service after hours by calling our office number directly 781-922-4499. You will be prompted to leave a message that will be sent to the on-call provider. You should expect to hear back within 30 minutes. If you do not receive a call back within this time frame, please call the office number again. Kindly reserve calls during non-office hours for urgent problems that cannot wait until the office re-opens.
WEEKENDS/HOLIDAYS: The office is typically closed on weekends and holidays. However, urgent visits may be arranged on Saturday mornings as needed after consulting with Dr. McCormack. Telehealth visits may also be arranged on weekends and holidays as needed.
EMERGENCIES: If you have an after-hours emergency that needs immediate attention and cannot wait for a doctor’s return call, bring your child directly to the nearest emergency department and ask them to call us.
- If your child is having a life-threatening emergency, you should seek emergency assistance by calling 911.
- If your child has ingested a chemical or medication, then call the Poison Control Center 1-800-222-1112
Whenever possible, we would encourage you to use the Winchester Hospital Emergency room that is staffed by doctors from Boston Children’s Hospital specifically trained in pediatric emergency medicine or PM Pediatrics Urgent Care in Woburn.
Lab and other diagnostic test results will be posted to your portal account with comments from Dr. McCormack as they become available. Brief questions regarding results can be directed to Dr. McCormack through the portal. When complex testing or multiple lab results need to be reviewed, please schedule a virtual lab review visit for a comprehensive discussion.
Our office staff is committed to helping you navigate your concerns and requests. Telephone calls will be answered during regular office hours 8:30 AM- Noon and 1 PM – 5 PM. At lunch (12:00-1: 00 pm) or if staff are occupied on other calls, the phones are forwarded to voicemail. We will help you determine if your child needs to be seen in the office or via telehealth, or can be managed with a call back from the doctor. Non-urgent calls will be returned during lunch or after hours as time allows, either by phone or via portal message. When call volume is high, there may be a delay in response up to 24 hours when deemed appropriate.
We use a patient portal integrated with our Athena EMR to enable our patients to communicate with our staff and providers easily and securely for non-urgent matters. Our providers do not use email for patient communications. Portal communication options include appointment requests, medication refill requests, billing questions, school and vaccine form requests, and non-urgent messaging with providers. Please note that it may take up to several days for a response. No communication system is perfect and occasionally messages can become buried. If your needs have not been met within a few days, please call the office.
For all urgent matters, please call our office during regular business hours. After hours, callers will be prompted to leave a message for emergent needs, which will be paged to Dr. McCormack.
The convenience of picking up the phone or writing a patient portal message can be invaluable in your busy lives. These telephone and electronic consultations can potentially save you and your child the time and expense of an in-person appointment, or a trip to an urgent-care office or emergency department. However, since the best care is often provided face-to-face during office or virtual appointments, we will request that some of these communications become appointments when appropriate. All non-urgent telephone calls and patient portal communications should be limited to brief matters that cannot wait until your next appointment, and that would not be better served with a scheduled in-office or virtual appointment. If it takes you more than a couple of minutes to compose your message, it is likely best for you to schedule an appointment to discuss these matters with Dr. McCormack or nurse practitioner Michaela Balford.
The following are examples of requests manageable by telephone or patient portal communications:
- Brief questions that do not require a new diagnosis, change in treatment plan, additional follow-up, paperwork, referrals, or prescriptions.
- Brief requests for clarification on labs, medication dosing and treatment plans from a previous office visit.
- Brief questions regarding possible reactions to medications or supplements.
- Prescription refill requests for medications prescribed by our providers.
- Appointment scheduling or rescheduling.
Telephone or patient portal topics that may become a virtual visit include:
- Urgent advice requests that require extensive triage, treatment plan updates, laboratory orders, prescriptions, or referrals.
- Non-urgent consultation requests for existing or new symptoms that do not require an office evaluation.
- Any symptom or topic that requires further evaluation, additional lab testing, changes to treatment plans, or new prescriptions.
- Frequent or lengthy emails or patient portal messages with multiple questions.
- Topics that require back and forth discussion.
- Request for new lab orders prior to the next visit.
- Review of labs.
Requests should be called in during regular office hours or sent to office staff through our portal. Refill requests received from pharmacies are not always accurate and will not be completed without confirmation from patients that a refill is required. Please allow 72 hours to complete refill requests.
You are responsible for providing us with your current insurance information. Please present the insurance card at each visit. We are members of many insurance companies, but you will need to call to make sure we are listed on your insurance.
Referrals for specialist care will be processed once the appointment is scheduled. Please call Monday – Friday during office hours and provide the following information:
- Date of the appointment
- Patient’s name and date of birth
- Name of the insurance company (ID # if new plan)
- Specialist’s name
- Reason for the visit
It is your responsibility to make sure that the specialist is contracted with your insurance company.
Health and vaccination forms are provided at yearly wellness visits and are also available to download from the portal. We do not charge for simple forms that can be completed briefly and without chart review. Some forms and letters require more time and review of medical records, including but not limited to forms for prior authorization, disability, insurance, FMLA, legal purposes, treatment grants, and jury duty letters. These will be charged a $40.00 fee that is not reimbursable by insurance. Please allow 3-5 business days for all forms and letters. Any paperwork that requires a faster turnaround will incur a rush fee of $25 in addition to any other fees.
At Wholistic Pediatricians we are committed to providing the best possible medical care from infancy through the college years. We hope that as your children grow, our relationship with them will grow also. Adolescence is a special time of transition in the lives of both children and their parents. Although they are not yet fully adults, teenagers are beginning to establish their own separate identity. It is important for them to take gradually increasing responsibility for their own lives. Individual teens do this at different rates and different ages.
As teenagers begin to take more control of their own health, sometimes they may not feel comfortable sharing health concerns with their parents. While our physicians consider the relationship between parents and their adolescents to be of utmost importance, it is essential that teens feel free to share information with their doctor with the expectation that it will be kept private. Many teenagers say worries about confidentiality are a big reason why they may avoid seeking medical care or guidance. Thus, we have developed the following principles in guiding our care of adolescent patients:
Starting at age 13, we generally expect to spend part of a teen’s wellness visit alone with them. Under certain circumstances, a teenager may decide that they prefer to have a parent in the exam room with them while they see us. This request will be honored.
When we do see teenagers alone (or speak to them by telephone), information discussed is considered private and confidential. This means it will not be shared with others (including parents) without permission of the teenager.
This does not mean that we do not also speak to parents. A parent may wish to speak to us, or we to them, with or without the teenager present. We consider a parent’s perspective and concerns of great relevance to their child’s care. If we can, we will reassure them about worries they have, answer general questions, or give advice. We do not disclose confidential information, however, and hope parents will trust that we are taking the best possible care of their children.
Often our discussions in private with adolescents are about things we feel should be shared with their parents. We will tell the teenager when we feel that way, and ask for their permission to do so. Most often, they agree. If they do not, we may try to convince them by explaining our reasons. Ultimately, we will respect their decision except in extreme circumstances.
In rare situations, we may decide we have no choice but to break confidentiality. This will only be when we think someone is in imminent danger of severe harm and the only way for us to protect him or her is to break confidentiality. The person in danger might be the adolescent, or it might be somebody else. In either case, if we are going to break confidentiality we will make every effort to tell the teenager before we do so, and look for alternative solutions.
The above guidelines apply to information of any kind about any subject. They are in accordance with Massachusetts law, general principles of medical ethics, and the policies of the American Academy of Pediatrics.
