Office Policies

We have a well-trained staff to take your calls regarding appointments and other administrative matters throughout the day.

Although the office is open and patients are seen all day, the phones are answered from 8am to 12 noon and 2pm to 6pm. The busiest phone hours are from 8am to 10am and immediately after lunch. For non-urgent matters, you will find it easier to call at other times. 

We are proud of our excellent and experienced advice staff, who can help you with health questions during business hours. They will pass on messages to your doctor as needed, and your pediatrician will return these calls as soon as possible, but most often over the lunch hour or at the end of the day.

We discourage patients from walking into the office and requesting to be seen without an appointment. We value your time! We do not like to keep people waiting, so we schedule patients accordingly. We always save plenty of appointment time to accommodate any patient who must be seen with a same day appointment. Every effort will be made to see a patient who arrives without an appointment, but there may be a wait for an available doctor, as scheduled patients will be given priority.

On occasion, a patient may be unable to receive immunizations at the usual well child visit, or may choose to receive immunizations separate from well child visits. A patient can make an appointment to return to receive the missed vaccines from our staff without a doctor visit. This is particularly helpful during the fall and early winter when we administer the flu vaccine. 

Even though you will not be seeing your doctor, you must make an appointment in advance so your doctor can review your records and our nurses can prepare for which vaccines will be given during the appointment.

For medication refills, please call our office, or ask your pharmacy to send our office a refill request directly. Allow 1-2 business days for all routine prescription refills. For prescriptions that require prior authorization from your insurance company, please plan ahead to allow at least 3-5 days for approval. Routine prescriptions are refilled Monday through Friday only.

Prescriptions for Class II drugs (i.e. Adderall, Concerta, Ritalin, Focalin, Vyvanse, etc.) should be requested one week prior to need. 

As a general rule, prescriptions for new medications such as antibiotics will not be provided over the phone without first making an appointment for your child to be seen.

Most PPO plans do not require prior authorization, but if your insurance plan does require a referral in order for your child to see a specialist, it is your responsibility to contact our office as soon as possible. We will work as quickly as possible on referrals, but sometimes getting the referral done in less than a few days is not possible.

Please present physical, school, camp, or medication forms with you at the time of your appointment to be completed during your visit.  

Otherwise, for completion of any forms (ie school, camp, sports, medication, FMLA), please email to: medicalrecords@balboapediatrics.com

Remember to complete the parent section and signature part of the form before emailing us. We do our best to return completed forms in 24-48 hrs.  

If your child has not had a recent check up, please call the office to make an appointment as we cannot fill out these forms without a check up within the past year. 

We work hard to not overuse antibiotics. We educate families on appropriate use of antibiotics, but follow evidence-based guidelines and don’t automatically treat ear pain or a green snotty nose with antibiotics.

We do not routinely prescribe antibiotics over the phone as we do not believe that is good medicine. We will prescribe an antibiotic when we believe it is an appropriate treatment.

As medical professionals, we feel strongly that vaccinating children with currently available vaccines is the right thing to do for all children and young adults. We want to emphasize the importance of vaccinating your child and will discuss individual schedules, efficacy, and side effects at each well visit. 

We are happy to discuss any questions you may have about vaccines, please speak with your doctor if you have any questions or concerns. 

A complete medical record will be maintained on each patient. This will include notes of all services provided while you are under our care, in addition to any medical records sent to our practice from a lab, hospital, or another physician’s office. In the future, should you leave our practice, we will gladly forward a copy of your child’s immunization record and growth chart to another physician at no charge. However, fees will be charged for full medical records or other medical documents to be faxed or mailed. 

If you require your child’s medical records, please complete this Records Release Form.

Our medical records department will be happy to assist you with further questions.

There is a parking lot on the street level and covered parking in the basement level of our building. There is a charge for parking in the lot. We do not validate for parking. If you would like to avoid this minimal charge, there are often parking spots available on the street in front of the building.

We kindly ask that you turn off your cell phone or turn it to vibrate if it is important that you be reachable while in the office. Please be courteous to others and step out of the waiting room if you need to use your phone. Please be respectful and do not talk on your phone while the staff or doctor is providing care for you.

We work hard to provide comprehensive medical care and serve as your medical home. To that end, we expect that you contact our office first before seeking specialty care, or heading to another provider for urgent care. We want to be involved in either providing care in our office where appropriate, or referring you to the most appropriate specialist and helping to coordinate your care.

Whenever you do see a specialist, we ask that you request a report be sent directly to our office so that your doctor may stay informed and have the most up-to-date information in your medical record.

Our practice prides itself on efficiency through use of technology. You will be encouraged to consult our website, register for and use our patient portal, and effectively use automated reminders for appointments and for routine care and immunizations that are due.