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Call Us:  201.391.2020  •  Fax:  201.391.0265

Practice Info

Chestnut Ridge Pediatrics is available to our patients on a 24/7/365 basis. We encourage concerned parents to call us at any time to discuss medical issues with their children.

If the office is closed and you have a medical emergency that cannot wait until the office reopens, you may reach our answering service by calling the office at 201.391.2020 and following the instructions.

Please note, if you have a privacy manager or private call blocker, you will not receive a call back from the on-call doctor. To deactivate the privacy manager, pick up your phone and dial *87, then hang up. If you do not receive a call back from the on-call doctor, the most likely reason is that you have not deactivated your privacy manager.

For all non-urgent matters, please call the office during normal business hours.

We will be happy to see your child by appointment during our regular office hours.  We work hard to accommodate your schedule and location needs. A limited number of “walk-in” appointments are available for sick visits, but we are best able to serve our families when we schedule your child’s appointment in advance.

If possible, we recommend booking physicals at least one month in advance. especially during the busy summer season. Under most circumstances, sick appointments will be booked the same day that you call.  If the office is closed, please leave a message, and we will contact you when we re-open to schedule an appointment.

Please let us know if you have to cancel an appointment or are unable to arrive on time..  If you plan to bring more than one child to a given appointment, please let us know so that we can have the chart prepared and that we can allow for some extra time.

Yes, we are open from 9:30 AM until 11:30 AM on Saturdays for sick patients as well as physicals, consults, and labwork.

 
We offer evening hours Monday through Thursday until 7:30.

Call our phone number and you will be connected to our answering service. The covering provider will call you back. We pride ourselves on speaking with our patients directly after hours rather than using a nurse triage service.

 

If you are calling about a non-urgent problem or you need advice you will be asked to leave a message.  We will return the call as soon as possible, and ask that you understand that emergencies and scheduled patient visits take priority over non-urgent phone calls.    Alternatively, see our resources list on this web site for dosage charts and other information.

If you call us with a problem, please have available paper and pencil, the names of any medication your child is taking, and a recent temperature, if relevant.  Also know which pharmacy you use, and whether or not it is open.

We are often asked to prescribe medication over the phone.  As long as we are able to update your child’s medications through regular examinations, we are certainly happy to refill prescriptions for chronic problems such as asthma, allergies, seizure disorders, etc.  In general, however, we feel it is bad policy to prescribe medications, especially antibiotics, without seeing your child.  In setting this policy, our number one concern is your child’s welfare.

Of course we realize that emergencies arise.  In certain circumstances we may prescribe an antibiotic over the phone, but we will expect that you will bring your child to the office as soon as possible so that we can confirm our diagnosis.

Please note that if you have a privacy manager or private call blocker, you may not receive a call back from the on-call doctor. To deactivate your privacy manager, pick up your phone and dial *87, then hang up.

We participate in most insurance plans.  Please call our central billing team at 201-252-8700 during normal business hours if you have questions about insurance plans or billing.  If you belong to a plan with a specific co-pay amount per visit, payment is required at the time of service.  Your insurance plan may restrict you to specific hospitals or diagnostic facilities or require you to receive certification prior to diagnostic evaluation or hospitalization.  Please be aware of your plans provisions.  We may not have access to that information if you call us off hours.

Chestnut Ridge Pediatrics feels strongly that immunizations are safe and highly effective in preventing severe life-threatening illness in infants and children. We follow the American Academy of Pediatrics vaccine schedule and utilize combination products to provide complete coverage with minimal discomfort.

 

Chestnut Ridge Pediatrics feels all children should be fully vaccinated in a timely manner. Not vaccinating your child puts your child in danger as well as other children who may be visiting our office. Therefore, we do not accept families who choose not to vaccinate their children.

 

Yes, adolescents are welcome in our office until age 23. We enjoy working with young adults and understand that they have health care concerns and needs that are different from our younger patients.

Why do you ask parents to leave the room for adolescent visits?
If you have a child aged 12 or older, you have likely been asked to step out of the room for a few minutes at your child’s well visit. We do this for a number of reasons, the most  Important of which is to give all our adolescent patients the opportunity to talk and ask questions about things they may or may not be comfortable discussing with, or even in the same room as, their parents.

While every child is unique, and therefore every visit is a little bit different, we generally will ask a patient about his or her life at home, at school, with friends, and the activities in which they are involved. We will also give a patient the chance to talk about topics that are potentially more sensitive, including dating, drug or alcohol use, sexual activity, gender identity and sexual orientation, and really anything else that might be a source of concern or anxiety. We allow the
patient’s responses and reactions to guide the conversation, in order to truly allow them to talk openly and comfortably about anything that might be on their mind. Finally, we will touch upon mental health issues, and will briefly screen for signs of depression.

Earning and keeping your child’s trust is absolutely critical to being able to provide them—and to continue to provide them–with the care they need, so if your child opens up to us about a topic they would like to keep confidential, please know that it is our obligation to do so. We will, of course, encourage the child to discuss any issues or areas of concern with their parents.

Please also know that we will always alert a patient’s parents if we feel a child is in immediate danger or in need of immediate help, and that we abide by state laws governing adolescent confidentiality in terms of substance use, sexually transmitted diseases, abuse, and pregnancy.

How can you partner with us in this process? First, prior to a visit, remind your child that they can speak with us honestly about anything they might be concerned about, and that we will always respect their privacy. Second, trust that we view and treat each of our patients as an extension of our own families, and that keeping them healthy and safe is at the heart of everything we do.

Yes, we welcome all kids and parents regardless of sexual orientation, and we are comfortable discussing these issues with kids and their families.