Medical advice courtesy service is not for people we have never seen before. We at Mission Pediatrics believe full-service care is important, so we provide medical advice as a courtesy to our Established Patients –24 hours per day seven days per week only when they are physically in California or a California Resident. Medications, however, cannot be sent across state lines. Your health plan assigning you to our practice is only the first step for new patients, if you haven’t been seen, you remain Unestablished and cannot call for advice or medication refills before you have been seen in the office.
For all callers, if you believe your child is experiencing a life-threatening medical or psychological emergency, please immediately call 911. Some insurance plans provide an advice nurse for you to call, and this is an option for those with minor non-emergency questions. (But if you think your insurance advice nurse sends you to the ER for everything, please let us know).
Our advice is available by contacting any office during or after hours or visit our YouTube Channel for tips (not medical advice) with a fun twist, but internet information (including YouTube) this is not a substitute for doctor advice, so ask the doctor is you are ever unsure about what to do using our advice line.
If you don’t have access to an advice nurse through your health plan and you perceive the matter to be urgent enough to call the doctor here is what we recommend:
- Call the office and ask the staff to speak to the doctor or advanced care practitioner, if they are available. If the provider is exceedingly busy, they will have the staff return the call with advice, or they will call you after hours if your question is urgent enough.
- You may be offered a telemedicine visit, and this is not sidestepping your concern, it allows the licensed provider to determine if they should overbook the schedule for you to be seen in person.
- Call the office when it is closed and ask the answering service to speak with the physician, you will be called within a half an hour. Some answering services require you go through your established health plan advice nurse, and although we do not prefer this, we understand it may be a requirement of the health plan, so we provide you those numbers on the advice line.
- If you are not called back after hours within 30 minutes, please call back and let the answering service know so they can locate the doctor and the cause for
- Use the patient portal or secure email system to reach out to the doctor.
- Texting the physician is not advised with the exception of TTY services for the Hearing Impaired (Texting is not secure, and the doctor you text may not be on call and thus miss your message).