Dear Parent and patient,
Welcome to Pediatrics Associates at Ridge. Our lead physician Dr. Maria Hoffman, clinicians and support staff, would like to take this opportunity to welcome you to your medical home. As your healthcare providers, we look forward to serving you. We hope that together, we can build a relationship that will ensure you receive the highest quality care and service.
In order to maximize your benefits, it is very important that you become familiar with the systems, policies, and benefits outlined in this section. Our courteous staff will be happy to answer any questions you may have.
Moms and dads, you are the expert of your children, therefore by combining your expertise and our medical expertise we can ensure your child receives high-quality care. Our goal is to help you raise healthy and happy children.
Appointements
Office visits are meant to protect your child’s health safety, to ensure the effectiveness of the treatments received, and to ensure your child’s healthy growth. Your child’s specific wellness needs will determine the frequency of your office visits. Once you and Dr. Hoffman’s team determine your child’s wellness needs, the frequency of the office visits will be determined. It is very important for you to bring your child to every wellness visit.
Frequency of Office Visits:
- Wellness / annual visit
- Frequency of visits may vary depending on medical necessity.
Emergencies
Always call 9-1-1 in case of an emergency. If you have a situation which you feel is urgent our telephone is the same day or night (956) 631-5333. When calling after hours, our answering service will locate your physician/provider. Please explain the nature and urgency of your problem clearly and concisely, and the physician on call will get in touch with you as soon as possible. Physical exam needed for diagnosis is missing in telephone medicine. An office or emergency department visit could be required by the physician.
Medication Reconciliation
Please bring all of your child’s medications to all office visits, if not a complete list of all medications will be acceptable. The list should include over the counter medications when appropriate, doses and frequencies.
Patient Rights
- You and your child have the right to be treated with respect, consideration, and dignity.
- You have the right to high-quality medical care delivered in a safe, timely, efficient, and cost-effective manner.
- You have the right to be assured that the expected results can be reasonably anticipated.
- You have the right to privacy to the extent possible.
- You have the right to have our disclosures and records treated confidentially and expect when required by law, those disclosures and records will not be released without your approval Please refer to our Notices of Privacy Practices for further details on how we safeguard your medical records. You can find the privacy notices posted in the front waiting area.
- You have the right to be provided, to the degree known, compete for information concerning your diagnosis, evaluation, treatment, and prognosis.
- You have the right to copies of your medical records at a nominal cost and, if you request it, those records will be transferred to another practitioner in a timely manner.
- You have the right to be informed of all reasonable options or alternatives to care and or treatments and of the potential advantages and the alternatives to having the procedure performed in an office or other outpatient facility.
- You have the right to participate in decisions regarding al aspects of your care.
Patient Responsibilities
- You have the responsibility to accurately and completely provide all clinical personnel with the health information they need including any medications that your child is taking.
- You have the responsibility to follow the directions of the nurse or physician with regards to diet and exercise or medications.
- Older kids have the responsibility to abstain from using any drugs that have not been prescribed for you and that you have not revealed to our nurse or physician.
- Older kids have the responsibility to abstain from the use of alcohol as directed by your nurse or physician.
- Mom, Dad you have the responsibility to inform the nurse of a physician if you do not understand any directions or if you do not understand the course of treatment planned for your child.
- Last but not least mom and dad, you have the responsibility to timely pay all medical bills which are not in dispute and to forward to us any monies you receive from any insurance company for our services.