Policies

We work hard to not overuse antibiotics.

We educate families on appropriate use of antibiotics, but follow evidence-based guidelines and don’t automatically treat ear pain or a green snotty nose with antibiotics.

We do not routinely prescribe antibiotics over the phone as we do not believe that is good medicine. We will prescribe an antibiotic when we believe it is an appropriate treatment.

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 late for your appointment.

Our practice makes every effort to run on time with appointments, as we believe everyone’s time is equally valuable.

Upcoming Appointments Via Phone/Text Message/Email

Missed Appointments: Broken appointments represent a cost to us, to you, and to 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.

A fee may be charged for a second missed appointment. The third consecutive missed appointment will result in discharge from the practice.

For new patients, a fee may be charged if the FIRST appointment is missed.

Thank you for choosing us as your primary care provider.  We are committed to providing you with quality and affordable health care.  Because some of our patients have had questions regarding patient and insurance responsibility for services rendered, we have been advised to develop this payment policy. 

Included Information about: Insurance, Cash Payments, Co-payments and deductibles, Non-covered services, non payment, Missed appointments, ETC

Our practice is committed to providing the best treatment for our patients.  Our prices are representative of the usual and customary charges for our area. 

Please read it, ask us any questions you may have, and sign in the space provided.  A copy will be provided to you upon request. 

The Department of Health and Human Services has established a "Privacy Rule" to help ensure that personal health care information is protected for privacy. The Privacy Rule was also created in order to provide a standard for health care providers to obtain their patient's consent for uses and disclosures of healthcare information about the patient to carry out treatment, payment, or health when it is appropriate and necessary. We provide the minimum necessary information to only those we feel need your health care information and information about treatment, payment, or health care operations, in order to provide health care that is in your best interest. You may refuse to consent to the use or disclosure of your personal health information, but this must be in writing. Under this law, we have the right to refuse to treat your child should you choose to refuse to disclose your Personal Health Information (PHI). If you choose to give consent in this document, at some future time you may request to refuse all or part of your PHI. You may not revoke actions that have already been taken which relied on this or previously signed consent. If you have any objections to this form, please ask to speak with our HIPAA Compliance Officer. You have the right to review our privacy notice, to request restrictions and revoke consent in writing after you have reviewed our privacy notice. I acknowledge that this consent will remain in effect for 24 months from the date of this consent unless I revoke it earlier as described above. 

Efficiency through the use of technology

You will be encouraged to consult our website, register for and use our patient portal, and effectively use automated reminders for appointments and for routine care/immunizations that are due.

As pediatric healthcare professionals, we feel very strongly that vaccinating children on schedule with currently available vaccines is absolutely the right thing to do for all children and young adults. We are making you aware of these facts not to scare you or coerce you, but to emphasize the importance of vaccinating your child. 

We are more than willing to discuss any questions you may have about vaccines, provide education, and provide resources about vaccines. We will work with families that want to vaccinate, but prefer an alternate schedule. However, these alternate schedules take time to develop and you may be charged a fee for this service. 

That being said, we do want to share our beliefs about vaccines with you:

We firmly believe in the effectiveness of vaccines to prevent serious illness and to save lives.

We firmly believe in the safety of our vaccines.

We firmly believe that children and young adults should receive all of the recommended vaccines according to the schedule published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP).

We firmly believe, based on all available literature, evidence, and current studies, that vaccines do not cause autism or other developmental disabilities.

We firmly believe that thimerosal, a preservative that has been in vaccines for decades and remains in some vaccines, does not cause autism or other developmental disabilities.

We firmly believe that vaccinating children and young adults may be the single most important health promoting intervention we perform as health care providers, and that you can support as parents/caregivers.

The recommended vaccines and the schedule of administration are the results of years and years of scientific study and data-gathering on millions of children by thousands of our brightest scientists and physicians.

The vaccine campaign is truly a victim of its own success. It is precisely because vaccines are so effective at preventing illness that we are even discussing whether or not they should be given. Because of vaccines, many of you have never seen a child with polio, tetanus, whooping cough, bacterial meningitis, or even chickenpox, or known a friend or family member whose child died of one of these diseases. Such success can make us complacent  about vaccinating. 

Over the past several years, many people in Europe have chosen not to vaccinate their children with the MMR (measles, mumps, rubella) vaccine after publication of an unfounded suspicion (later retracted) that the vaccine caused autism. As a result of under-immunization, there have been small outbreaks of measles and several deaths from complications of measles in Europe over the past several years. The United States experienced a record number of measles cases during 2019, with 1282 cases from 31 states reported to CDC's National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases (NCIRD). This is the greatest number of cases since measles elimination was documented in the U.S. in 2000.

It is therefore against our healthcare advice as professionals at Southern Charm Pediatrics to not vaccinate your child. However, we do realize this is your decision and we work with you and help you along the way.