It can be challenging when you have a child with an injury or illness after-hours. Sometimes it is difficult to decide whether it can wait until our regular office hours, or whether you need to be evaluated right away. An article in the
Dallas Morning News today gives some common scenarios, and gets the advice of an adult and pediatric urgent care doctor. Overall, I agree with the advice in the article. For true emergencies, we recommend the pediatric emergency room at
Medical City Dallas or at
Children's Medical Center. For urgent illnesses that can't wait until our office opens, we do like the pediatric urgent care clinics of
AcuteKids. In general, we do not recommend an adult urgent care clinic, as they are less experienced with pediatric illnesses. If you are in doubt about what to do, you can always call us first -- one of the doctors in our practice is available to you 24 hours a day to help with this important decision. Many illnesses that seem urgent/emergent can wait until the morning. If we are able to help your child feel better and keep you out of the emergency room, we may assess a $17 charge for after-hour services. If we do recommend immediate evaluation in urgent care or the emergency room, then we do not assess the after-hours charge.