Acute Child Care

Sick Visits

Our office is available daily for any sick or urgent need, and we are happy to schedule an appointment for any concern. If your child needs to be seen urgently, our office staff will do their best to schedule your appointment for the day that you call. You may also speak with one or our nurses to discuss symptoms and help decide if an appointment is necessary.

Our pediatric nurses have a great deal of knowledge and training and are readily available to answer questions during business hours. However, if you would like to speak to one of our physicians directly, you may leave a message and they will try to return your call within the business day.

Evening and After Hour Care

Our office provides evening appointments three times a week for families who may not be able to make daytime appointments. When our office is closed, one of our physicians is available to discuss urgent medical issue through our answering service 24 hours a day, seven days a week. A physician should return your call promptly. If you have not received a call back, make sure call blocking on your phone has been disabled and call our answering service to check that your phone number was collected correctly. We ask that non-urgent medical concerns such as medication refills or routine questions wait to be discussed during office hours.

Emergency Care/Urgent Care Centers

In case of a true emergency, Hamden Pediatrics strongly urges our patients to seek care at Yale-New Haven Children’s Hospital. Other local hospitals may not have pediatric emergency room physicians, which can lead to misdiagnosis, prolonged illness and incorrect medication dosing. Please call our office or our answering service if time permits prior to seeking emergency care so that we may help guide medical treatment and provide emergency room staff with important information from your child’s medical record. Please inform the hospital that we are your child's pediatrician so that we receive the hospital discharge summary.

While we understand that local Urgent Care/Walk-in centers may be convenient, many of the practitioners at these centers are not trained in pediatric medicine. They do not have access to your child’s complete medical records and may be unaware of information that can affect appropriate treatment. Also, they are unable to provide continuity of care or long-term follow up for chronic issues.

Please remember that we provide convenient office hours and that our physicians are available to speak with you 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Should you have an urgent medical issue while out-of-town, please call our office first so we can best assist with your child’s care.