It’s Summer!
Can y’all believe that school is almost over? Between summer camps and family vacations, sometimes summer schedules seem to be busier than family schedules during the school year! Before you know it, the end of the summer has come, and you may find that sports physicals or shots for school registration may be necessary before the school year starts. We suggest you get them out of the way at the beginning of the summer to avoid the end of the summer rush.
If your child has had his or her annual well visit already, and they need immunizations before starting school but aren’t due for another well visit yet, you can make an appointment just to come in for those required immunizations. Sports physicals are a little trickier. In my mind as a pediatrician, the physical exam done as part of an annual well visit qualifies to clear for a sports physical, since the well visit is actually a lot more thorough. Unfortunately, several years ago, school districts started to require that sports physical clearances be done after a certain date for them to consider them valid for sports participation for the following school year. If your child’s well visits are done in the fall, then usually schools won’t count that exam as valid. The solution for that is to schedule an appointment just for sports clearance, which is a lot less involved than a complete well visit exam and can also be available same day. Be aware, though, that some insurances may not cover a sports clearance exam and may pass on the cost to the member, but since it’s the school districts’ rules, there’s not a lot that can be done about this.
On a more cheerful note, though, I just wanted to mention that for the next month, some of you when you come in for your appointments may see that I have a “shadow” with me. Jillian Martinez is going into her junior year at Texas Tech and wants to go into medicine, possibly to become a pediatrician. I was so excited to hear that she wanted to shadow me this summer to get the experience of practicing pediatric medicine because … she is a former patient whom I saw from when she was 5 years old! I cannot express the degree of joy of hearing a former patient say that her interactions with me as I saw her for sick visits and well visits through her childhood inspired her to pursue becoming a pediatrician herself! This is definitely emotional reinforcement that I’m practicing medicine the right way. 😊
REMINDER:
Schedule Your Annual Wellness Visits!
Sometimes it can be harder to get children in for their annual well appointments during summer break between camps and family vacations. Before you know it, the end of the summer has arrived and your child might still need a sports physical or immunizations for the upcoming school year.
Avoid the end-of-summer rush and schedule yours today!
We've updated our appointments policy at Cevey Pediatrics. It is our intention to provide your children the best care possible at all times and to accommodate as many requests as is realistic and feasible. It is within this context that we ask you to take a few moments to review our new policy below:
Cevey Pediatrics Appointments Policy
