Late Arrivals
At Stepping Stone Pediatrics, we strive to provide your child with the time and attention needed to deliver the best possible medical care. By its very nature, this makes scheduling a bit unpredictable. However, we recognize that your time is valuable and are constantly working to make your office visit a pleasant and efficient one. We pledge to work diligently to respect your time.
One constant challenge for every medical practice is the patient who arrives significantly late. This has the potential to cause every patient scheduled after the late arrival to be delayed as well. While we will always address severely ill children promptly, in general we give priority to patients who are on time for their appointments. Please help us keep waiting times for everyone to a minimum by being on time for your child’s appointment.
Late Policy for Sick Patients
We are dedicated to providing you and your child with the highest level of care. As a result, we request that you are on time for your appointments. Patients who are more than 15 minutes late will need to reschedule or may be given the option to wait to be seen as a “work-in.” “Work in” patients are generally seen during any gaps/breaks in the appointment schedule or after scheduled on-time patients. We cannot guarantee which provider they will see.
Of course, regardless of the above, special concessions are given to patients who are in distress.
Late Policy for Well Child Appointments
All patients who are late 15 minutes or more for their Well Child Check may be required to reschedule. Because these tend to be longer appointments, it is usually much harder to “work in” Well Child Checks, although if it is possible to “work in” a late Checkup we will offer that option to you. The decision to try to “work in” a patient rather than requiring them to reschedule will be based on the provider’s schedule and the projected impact on the remaining patients and is wholly at the discretion of the practice.