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Welcome and Croup Information
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Happy spring! We hope that with the longer days and warmer weather we may be beginning to emerge from the winter and all of its illness! Many of you may remember that we mailed out a Croup Protocol (to children 1-5 years old) back in October. We are pleased to report that early data suggests that we have reduced office visits for croup this winter by approximately 50%. This saves you co-pays and enables us to provide more appointments for behavioral and chronic medical issues.
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| Phone Problems
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Recently, we have been experiencing difficulties with out phone lines. As many of you have pointed out, there have been increasing issues with busy signals and not being able to get through. Additionally, there have been longer wait times while on the phone. We acknowledge your frustration (and in fact, are quite frustrated ourselves!) and apologize for the inconvenience. We are currently investigating different options for increasing the volume of phone calls we can handle. One change we have made is the introduction of a message line that enables callers to leave the pertinent information and then receive a call back. While this represents a bit of a culture change for Westwood-Mansfield Pediatrics, we hope that by honoring this, the triage nurses will better be able to keep the lines free, the calls moving, and you satisfied! More improvements will be coming soon.
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| Flu is Here!
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Influenzae has arrived. We have been seeing multiple cases of the flu every day the past few weeks. Symptoms of the flu include fever (usually >103), headache, fatigue, dry cough, sore throat, congestion, muscle aches, and stomach upset (nausea, vomiting and diarrhea). For more information, please refer to the Massachusetts DPH web site: http://www.mass.gov/dph/cdc/epii/flu/flupublic.htm
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Quality of Care Survey
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For the past several years, the Massachusetts Health Quality Partners (MHQP) - a consortium of hospitals, insurance companies, physician groups and government officials - assesses the clinical performance of medical practices and patient satisfaction. Each year, 100 surveys are sent out to patients in each medical practice in the Commonwealth. While we believe it is challenging to fully judge a practice from a survey, we do encourage those who receive them to complete these surveys and we take the feedback very seriously.
Last year, Westwood-Mansfield Pediatrics was rated very highly in this survey. One area in which we have tried to improve is becoming more up-to-date regarding the care delivered to our patients by specialists. We have addressed this issue through working with Children's Hospital to receive all consultation notes via e-mail. These are read and placed in the patient charts within twenty four hours. Additionally, the Linkage Program is being initiated in the Westwood Office in part to improve continuity and insure that the provider knows what is going on with the patient.
For more information, the website is www.mhqp.org.
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| Regional Lyme Disease Forum
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Westwood-Mansfield Pediatrics is excited to host and co-sponsor (in conjunction with the Medfield Board of Health) Preventing Lyme Disease in Ourselves and Our Children, a region-wide talk and roundtable discussion about Lyme disease and its prevention. The forum will be moderated by Dr. Hartman and includes speakers from the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, Children's Hospital, and the Tufts University School of Veterinary Medicine. The presentation will take place on Thursday, April 26th from 6:30-8:00 at Medfield High School.
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Book Recommendations: VACCINE and MAKING PEACE WITH AUTISM
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VACCINE, by Arthur Allen is an excellent book about the history of vaccines and the rise of parental fears. It discusses the need for the vaccine community to allow more parental input prior to bringing vaccines to market.
MAKING PEACE WITH AUTISM, by Susan Senator is a very valuable book for families of children with autistic spectrum disorders. It provides a lifetime guide to coping with school systems and other facets of life with autism.
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| ADHD Assessments
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Our nurse practitioners are trained and experienced in the evaluation of ADHD and other learning issues. If your child is struggling in school and you have concerns, please consider booking a consult with a nurse practitioner. All nurse practitioner consults are discussed with one of the physicians.
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Prescription Drug Abuse
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Many adolescents are prescribed medication to suppress cough, to relieve pain due to dental procedures or injuries or for attention-deficit disorder. All of these medications are potential drugs of abuse. Often, these medications are not used up completely. A recent survey showed that a ¼ of adolescents "divert" (i.e. sell or distribute) their left-over prescription medications to other peers who use it to get high. If your teen is prescribed medication of this type, please take note of how many pills are taken and, if they have stopped taking them, dispose of the medication. Many of the drugs abused by teenagers are over-the-counter or prescription, not sold on the street, as many of us would think is true. Remember to talk to your teen about all potential drugs of abuse so that they are prepared to say no should they be offered an over-the-counter or prescription drug to try. For more information about teen drug abuse and how to talk to your kids about drugs, visit http://www.drugfree.org/Parent/ .
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| Haiti Update
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As you may be aware, Westwood-Mansfield Pediatrics has supported The Haiti Clinic. Dr. Hartman has just returned from a visit and is please to report that the clinic has just installed solar-powered electricity and currently has a full-time doctor. Since opening its doors in February 2006, there have been over 6000 patients and over 8000 office visits. More than 1200 hepatitis B and Haemophilus Influenzae Type b (Hib) vaccines have been given, and over 100 children have been fully vaccinated!
We would like to thank all the families that have inquired and been supportive of this venture!
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