FAQs

No appointment is required for a sick visit. You may come in to be seen between the hours of 8:00 AM - 12:30 PM or 2:00 PM - 5:00 PM Monday throu Friday, at all three locations. On Saturday and Sunday and most holidays, you may come in to the Ridgefield office from 8:00 AM - 12:00 PM, for urgent sick visits only.

Well Child Checkups must be scheduled in advance.

Our doctors would be happy to meet you for a consult after hours with a scheduled appointment.

Please call our office to schedule.

All of our physicians and nurse practitioners rotate between offices. You are not limited to seeing just one provider and can choose the first available doctor for faster service. You may request a particular provider between the hours of 8:00 AM -11:00 AM or 2:00 PM - 4:00 PM; otherwise, you will be seen on a first available basis.

Our practice administrator can be reached at 804-379-5437 or you may write to 14400 Sommerville Ct., Midlothian, VA 23113. We will do our best to respond promptly to any complaints and encourage your feedback regarding any employee who goes above and beyond the call of duty to help you.

When a message is left for a physician to call you, he or she will make every attempt to contact you between the hours of 12:30 PM - 2:00 PM for morning calls and before the end of the day for afternoon calls.

Our physicians review calls throughout the day and return the most urgent calls as soon as possible.

Fever is a way for our bodies to help fight off infection or illness. Once a fever reaches 102° F, treatment should be administered to relieve any discomfort. For infants 2 months or younger, please contact your physician for any temperatures over 100.4° F. Older children having a fever of 102° F for more than 24 hours may need to be seen and you should contact your physician for advice. Any child with a fever of 100.4° F or higher should be considered contagious until they are fever free for 24 hours without medicine.

Measuring temperature accurately is very important. For infants, the best way to measure temperature is rectally or axillary (under the arm). To measure the temperature of a toddler, the best method is axillary. Older children can be measured using oral or ear thermometers.

Common ways to treat a temperature:

• Allow plenty of fluids

• Bathe in warm bath

• DO NOT sponge with alcohol as this will cause chills and lower the temperature to rapidly

• Use light clothing and covers to allow body heat to escape

• Acetaminophen and/or Ibuprofen may be used. (Please contact your physician for dosing instructions if your child is under 2 months of age.)

In general, treatment of a sore throat is best accomplished by using Acetaminophen or Ibuprofen for fever relief and using cold liquids. Popsicles or ice cream may soothe the throat. Sometimes a sore throat is caused by streptococci (strep throat) and may be accompanied by a fever, stomach ache, headache and swollen glands. Strep throat is diagnosed by taking a rapid test and/or throat culture and is treated with antibiotics.

If you suspect your child has strep throat, please contact your physician.

The middle ear infection is a common problem of early childhood and may be caused by a virus or bacteria and last 7 – 10 days. Earaches may also be caused by infection of the outer ear, also known as “swimmer’s ear.” The physician should be consulted to examine the ear if your child complains of ear pain.

Vomiting is usually the result of a virus. If your child has vomiting, do not give food or fluids for 1-2 hours after vomiting has occurred. Once your child’s stomach has settled down, you may offer small amounts of clear liquids 1/2 – 1 ounce at a time every 30-45 minutes. Pedialyte or Ricelyte are good choices of clear liquids for children under 1 year of age. Older children can be given flat ginger ale, Sprite, 7-Up, Gatorade or Kool-Aid at room temperature. After 24 hours of control of vomiting, you may begin solid foods such as dry cereal, toast, or crackers. If vomiting persists, please contact your physician. Blood or bile in the vomit must be evaluated immediately.

Diarrhea is the common end result of intestinal viral illnesses and is characterized by frequent loose watery stools, often more than 6 times a day. Your child should be considered contagious until the loose stools have stopped. Dietary management of diarrhea is similar to that of vomiting. If your child has diarrhea for more than 7 days, fever, bloody diarrhea, or is not taking fluids, please contact your physician.

If it is necessary to call after regular office hours, you can reach our after-hours nurse triage by dialing the regular office number. Please follow the instructions and be sure to wait for the confirmation before hanging up. Your call will be relayed to a nurse who will be happy to answer your questions and address your concerns. One of our doctors is always on call and available if necessary. Please reserve requests for prescription refills, discussions of routine behavior, and/or chronic problems for our regular office hours.

Emergency Numbers:

• After hours service – call any location to get to our after hours service

• Poison Control – 804-828-9123 or 1-800-222-1222

• Rescue squad – 911

• Patterson office – 804-282-9706

• Ridgefield office – 804-754-3776

• Sommerville office – 804-379-5437

Freshly expressed breast milk can be stored for 48 hours in the refrigerator or 3-4 months in the freezer (6 months in the deep freezer at zero or below).

Previously frozen breast milk can be stored for 24 hours in the refrigerator and should never be re-frozen.

Thawing frozen breast milk should be done in its container under running water increasing the water temperature gradually. It can also be placed in its container inside a larger container of warm water adding warmer water until thawed.

The milk will separate while frozen so a gentle swirling of the container is recommended to mix the milk.

Never use boiling water, very hot water, or a microwave to thaw frozen breast milk. This will cause uneven heating and could burn your baby’s mouth.

Always discard any unused milk after feeding.

Our practice firmly believes in the effectiveness of vaccines to prevent illness and to save lives. We firmly believe in the safety of vaccines.

Our entire group has reviewed all of the literature, evidence based research, and current studies, and we firmly believe that vaccines DO NOT cause Autism or other developmental delays.

Our practice understands that you want what is best for your child and so do we. We know that, in light of the recent measles virus outbreak, there has been much conflicting information on immunization and vaccine safety. We can help you get the reliable information you need to make an informed decision.

Our practice firmly believes that vaccinating children and young adults may be the single most important health promoting intervention we perform as healthcare providers and that you can perform as parents.

To accomplish this goal together, our practice will follow the guidelines and schedules for immunizations established by The American Academy of Pediatrics and The Centers for Disease Control. We do not recognize any “alternative” immunization schedules.

While we understand that parental choice may play a role in the vaccination of children, we request that you abide by our policy. If this is not an acceptable choice for you, we respectfully request that you seek out another pediatric group for your children’s care

To make sure you get the quickest care possible on the weekends, our weekend walk-ins are on a first available basis only.

You must receive a patient portal invite from our office to connect to the portal. Please call the office and the front desk staff will be able to send you an invite or fill out this form here. If you already have a FollowMyHealth account created, you will still need an invite to sync your existing account.

We do not have a waitlist. Patients who wish to book an earlier appointment are welcomed to call as frequently as they would like to see if a cancelation occurred.

We do have a call list. We have individual call lists for each location and each provider. Please ask to be put on the provider’s call list at the location you frequent. We will call you when we have the schedule available.

We believe medication management is best done by your primary care. For this reason, our prescription refill policy states you request medication refills 3 days prior to running out of medication. This gives us time to get your provider to manage your medication. Additionally, we require all of our patients to be seen every 6 months for a medication check. Normally, one check is at the annual well-child exam and the 2nd check is 6 months after. Prescriptions are sent electronically to the pharmacy.

We schedule appointments for our annual well-child exams and lab appointments. All other office visits are walk-in based. If you have further questions you may call the office.

We will need your medical records from your previous practice to ensure you receive the best care. Please request your medical records from the prior practice prior to your scheduled appointment. We also will need new patient paperwork filled out. You may fill this out online or we will ask you to fill it out at your first visit.

All of our providers are accepting new patients.

You may drop off the form to any office at your convenience. Please fill out the form as best you can prior to dropping the form off. Our office policy is that you give us 3 business days to fill out the form. There is also a $10 fee per form the be filled out.

Our Ridgefield office is the only office open on the weekends. The hours at that location are 8am- 12pm.

They average 3-5 days for the basic labs.

We follow the CDC and AAP guidelines and schedule at RVA Pediatrics.

A urine sample is good out of the refrigerator for 2h and good in the refrigerator for 24h. It is always best to use a first morning void.

Fever, redness and swelling are all expected 24-48H following vaccines. A cold compress can help swelling. If any other symptoms occur, please call our office.