Practice Information at a glance:

RBK Pediatrics is a practice devoted to the care of children from birth (including prenatal teaching) through the college years. It is our feeling that we should not encourage patients to leave at age 18 years. It is frequently more convenient and efficacious for a young adult during college to continue with us rather than looking for a new physician. Certainly the patients ultimately make this decision on an individual basis.

We have found it helpful to acquaint new patients with our office routine. We hope the following information will assist you in obtaining the services available in our office when you need them.

Appointments

We encourage patients to schedule regular check ups in advance. There are various times during the year where there is a rush of requests for school physicals and sports clearance examinations. Please make sure that you do not find yourself in a position, which the child cannot return to school or sports because of medical clearance. We try our best to accommodate all request, but sometimes it may be impossible.

Sick call visits are scheduled during the morning. All sick children must be seen that day.  For chronic or non-urgent conditions (i.e. acne, behavior issues, constipation etc.) an advanced scheduled appointment is required. Our staff will try to accommodate you in the safest and hopefully most convenient way.

Sunday and Holiday hours are strictly reserved for sick calls. No physical examinations will be performed on these days, regardless of the situation.

Physical exams should be scheduled with your primary care provider  of your choice. Sick calls will also be scheduled if possible with your primary care provider. Our policy at RBK-Peds is that if your child needs to be seen on the day that you call, we will not put you off because of lack of appointment space. For this reason if it is not possible to fit your child in with his or her favorite doctor on a particular day, we will schedule your child (with your permission) with one of our other excellent providers.

Exams for newborn infants are performed at 2 week of age, then at 6 weeks of age. Visits will then occur at a frequency of every one-month until 8 months when it slows down to every two months until 12 months of age. After that visits will be every three months until 2 years of age and then it is yearly. Some weight checks may also be done within the first six months. This recommended schedule is designed by the AAAP to accommodate the numerous vaccines that need to be administered and to examine the development of the baby. A deviation from this schedule may occur depending on the well care limitation of your insurance company. Please contact them and find out how many well baby check-ups are allowed. We have no way to follow this for you. Each company and contract is individual.

Each year at the time of your child's physical examination, a generic health form is generated by our computer and filled in by your physician. This form encompasses all the necessary medical clearance data required by all institutions. It is to be used in place of all school, camp and sports participation given to you. We ask that you make copies of the original in the event you need to use it more than once. Replacement of this form will be provided at a nominal fee. We will not fill in the individual forms.

We ask that you give the office at least 24 hours notice if you wish to cancel or reschedule an appointment. There may be a service charge for missed appointments.

Should you have an appointment with one child and wish to have a sibling checked, we ask that you call and notify the office so that time will be made available to accomplish this. If you walk-in with another child, we will not be able to see this child. Our staff will give you the next available time slot which may be right away or after a couple of hours depending on the season.
These are the kind of issues that cause our doctors to fall behind schedule.
( there is never just a quick peek in the ears) It is not fair to the patient who has an appointment and is in the office on time.

Office laboratory Procedures

Our in-office lab is capable of doing throat cultures for strep (including rapid testing), urinalysis, urine cultures, hematocrits (test for anemia), mono screening, testing for occult blood in stools. Ear tympanometry, Lung Spirometry, Pulse oximetry.

RBK-Pediatrics has the ability to do vision and hearing testing required by the local school districts. Unfortunately not all insurance companies reimburse our services. If your child requires a vision or hearing test by the school and your particular insurance company denies payment, you will be responsible for these services.

Regular Office Hours

Both the Commack and Bayshore offices are open and fully staffed daily. It is only during these “regular office hours” that well-child checkups are scheduled. Each day we reserve a certain amount of appointment time for emergency and sick children visits. Frequently, our time for well-child examinations is filled two months ahead; therefore, try to anticipate well in advance your need for camp, school athletic, and other examinations with a deadline.


Evening Hours

Realizing that parents often return from work and find their children sick, limited staff remain in our Commack office until 8 p.m. Our telephones are available for calls during this time.  If you think your child is too sick to wait until "regular office hours" the next day, please call  and arrange to be seen.


Weekend Hours

Saturday hours are from 9:00 a.m – 2 p.m. in both our Commack and Bayshore offices. Our physicians are available to see sick children as well as performing physical examinations. Our telephones are available during this time to schedule your appointment. If you have a scheduled physical examination please make certain that you keep this appointment. We have a limited number of well care appointments available for Saturdays, so if you are lucky enough to obtain one, please be courteous to the other families and keep it.

 
How to our Telephone system and after hours on call service

1 Call 631-499-4114 for the Commack office and 631-666-1300 for the Bayshore office.
2. Make the call yourself if at all possible. Relaying the message through a third party may result in misleading information.

3. Identify yourself and give your child's full name and age.  Describe the condition in specific terms and be sure to state if the child was seen recently for the condition.

4. Have a pencil and paper ready when you call. Do not rely on remembering instructions - especially when you may be upset.

5. If the staff is unable to solve a problem, which is not urgent, your phone number will be taken and we will call you back between office patients.


Hospital Affiliations

Please note that our doctors see patients at Good Samaritan Medical Center, Southside Hospital and St. Catherine’s of Sienna Hospital. Good Samaritan Hospital is our preferred hospital for sick children. It has freestanding pediatric emergency department, as well as a Pediatric Intensive care unit, and a multidisciplinary subspecialty care department.
The main telephone number for Good Samaritan Hospital is 631-376-3000


Appointments

We realize that your time is important, and it is inconvenient and irritating to wait for long periods in the doctor’s office. We have implemented a schedule which allows us to see patients with minimal delay. Everyone in our office is alert and committed to this goal. There are several things you can do to help us in this effort:

When you call for an appointment, briefly inform the receptionist of the problems you wish to discuss with the doctor. This helps her schedule an appropriate amount of time for your child. Most problems can be handled in a routine appointment. Others such as family, school, and behavior problems require much more time.

If a conflict arises and you cannot make your appointment on time, let us know and we will give you an appointment later in the day.

Please do not “walk-in” to be seen without an appointment unless the circumstance is unavoidable.


Telephone Advice

Many problems can be handled by phone without the necessity of an office visit. You should expect your call to be returned within an hour. If you have an emergency, please alert the operator and someone will be paged immediately. When the office is closed, calls should be limited to urgent problems that cannot reasonably await “regular office hours.”


Payment for Services/Insurance

At the end of your child’s examination, the doctor will give you an encounter form. He or she will note the type of examination, procedures, tests or medications for which you will be charged. Take the form to the "check-out” window at the front desk. Our office is a “fee-for-service” practice and, as such, payment in full is required at the conclusion of your visit.

We expect payments for services from the parent accompanying the child. If an absent parent has financial responsibility, we must ask for payment from you and allow you to make arrangements with the responsible party.

We currently have contracts with several insurance companies in the form of HMOs, PPOs, etc. for which we will accept your co-payment and file for your services.
 
You must present your card at each visit. Occasionally a double co-payment is required if laboratory services are provided.

Please check with your carrier regarding any benefit or co-payment question.


We hope this information will help make your relationship with our office a pleasant one. Please tell us if you are experiencing a problem. We look forward to a warm and rewarding relationship with you and your family.

Office Hours by Appointment

Commack Office:
8:00 a.m. – 8:00 p.m. Monday through Thursday
8:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m. Friday
8:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m. Saturday
Sunday visits are only at the Commack location for emergencies only.
Office opens at 8:00 a.m.- finished
 
***Our telephones are available for calls until 5:50 p.m.

Raleigh Office:
9:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m. Monday and Tuesday
9:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. Wednesday, Thursday, Friday
9:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m. Saturday
Sunday visits provided at our Commack Location from 8:00 a.m. until 11:00 a.m.


Please make all calls on weekends and holidays as early as possible.