Office Policies
Office Hours
Our office hours, by appointment only, are 9:00am - 4:30pm Monday-Friday, and 9:00am - 12:00pm on Saturdays.
Office Appointments
We schedule two types of appointments: Well Child Visits and Sick Child Visits. Well Child Visits should be scheduled at least 2-4 months in advance. There are limited number of Well Child Visits available each day. A 24-hour cancellation notice is required for all Well Child Visits and a cancellation fee of $50 will apply for missed appointments. Sick Child Visit appointments are scheduled for the same day when possible.
If a child is brought to our office without an appointment, and it is not an emergency, you may be asked to schedule an appointment at an available time.
If an appointment is made for one child and you think your other child also needs to be seen, please schedule a separate appointment for the second child before coming to the office.
Please arrive at least 15 minutes prior to your appointment time, so that any necessary insurance and paperwork can be processed. If you arrive late, you may be asked to reschedule the appointment for the next available time. We try our best to see patients on-time; however, sometimes we need to take extra time and care with our patients when the need arises. Please try to bear with us if we cannot always be on-time.
Cancellations
Please notify the office as soon as possible if you need to cancel a Sick Child Visit appointment. Appointments not cancelled may incur a charge for the type of visit that was scheduled.
Well Child Visits require cancellation 24 hours prior to the visit. Appointments canceled without sufficient notice will incur a $50 charge.
Referrals
If your managed care plan requires a referral when seeing a specialist, please allow five business days when requesting a referral from our office, or you will be asked to reschedule your appointment with the specialist. It is your responsibility to request the referral prior to seeing the specialist.
Phone Calls
Our nurses handle routine calls from 9:00am - 4:30pm Monday-Friday and 9:00am - 11:30pm Saturdays. They are specially trained Pediatric Nurses, and can answer most questions and give approved advice. Nurse calls received before 4pm will be returned on the same day. Calls received after 4pm may not be returned until the next day.
After-Hours Calls
If your child has a life-threatening emergency, call 911 or go the nearest hospital. If your child has an urgent medical problem that cannot wait until regular office hours, call 972-341-9697 and follow the prompts given. You will be directed to a specially trained nurse who can answer most of your concerns. The nurse will contact the physician on-call if the matter is urgent.
Prescriptions and Refills
Prescriptions will be called into your pharmacy within 24 hours of receiving the request. For ADD prescriptions, our office needs at least 48 hours to process your request.
For refills, please contact your pharmacy. The pharmacist will contact your doctor for authorization.
Medical Records
Medical records can only be released with written consent of a parent or legal guardian. There is a $25 charge for medical records up to 20 pages, and a $0.50 charge for each page thereafter. There is a $5 charge per form that requires a doctor or nurse signature. For shot records, the first one is free of charge. Any shot record requested thereafter will be $1 each.There is no charge for medical records transferred to another physician. Please allow 10 working days for our staff to process medical records, and two working days to process immunization forms.
Immunization Requirements
Karam Pediatric Group strongly believes in the value, science, and safety of the current vaccine schedule as recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices. We do not accept families into our practice who refuse vaccinations for their children.