Policies

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.

Everyone's Time is Equally Valuable.

We ask that you arrive 10-1 5 minutes before your scheduled appointment time. We understand sometimes things happen beyond your control that may cause you to be late. However, we reserve the right to ask you to reschedule if you arrive late for your appointment.

Our practice makes every effort to run on time with appointments, as we believe everyone’s time is equally valuable.

Upcoming Appointments Via Phone/Text Message/Email

Missed Appointments: Broken appointments represent a cost to us, to you, and to other patients who could have been seen in the time set aside for you. If you are late or miss an appointment, our office reserves the right to ask you to reschedule your child's appointment and mark your child as a No Show for that visit.

If your child is marked as a No Show, that will result in a $20.00 no-show fee being added to your account. 

Our practice allows our patients to receive 3 No Shows during a years time. Once a 3rd No Show is received, our practice may discharge your child from our practice.

Click here to download and print our Financial Policy

Download and print a copy our privacy policy here.

Efficiency through the 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/immunizations that are due.

At Apache Drive Children's Clinic, we strongly support and recommend that all children receive vaccinations according to the immunization schedule recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and the American Medical Association (AMA). 

We believe that vaccinations are safe, effective, and an important part of protecting children, families, and our community from serious and potentially life-threatening communicable diseases. Vaccinations have been proven to reduce the spread of vaccine-preventable illnesses and help protect those who are unable to receive certain vaccines because of age or medical conditions. 

We recognize that parents and legal guardians may have questions, concerns, fears, or uncertainty regarding vaccinations. We are committed to providing parents with accurate, evidence-based information and answering questions so that families can make informed decisions regarding their child's healthcare. 

While we strongly support and recommend all vaccinations, Apache Drive Children's Clinic respects a parent's or legal guardian's right to make decisions regarding vaccinations for their child, subject to applicable federal, state, and local laws and regulations. 

Parents and legal guardians who choose to delay or decline recommended vaccinations should understand that doing so may increase their child's risk of: 

• Contracting vaccine-preventable diseases

• Developing serious complications from those diseases, including hospitalization, permanent disability, or death. 

• Spreading communicable diseases to infants, other children, pregnant individuals, immunocompromised individuals, and others who may be particularly vulnerable.

• That they may directly contribute to an outbreak of vaccine-preventable diseases in our region.

• If our region experiences an outbreak of a vaccine-preventable disease, your child may be required to miss school, childcare, activities, or other opportunities due to their lack of vaccinations.  

Vaccination does not guarantee that a child will never become ill; however, recommended vaccines substantially reduce the risk of many serious infectious diseases and their complications. 

Parents or legal guardians who choose to delay, partially delay, or completely opt out of recommended vaccinations will be required to acknowledge that decision by signing a vaccination waiver that will be notarized at the time of the document signing. A new waiver may be required if vaccination decisions change or as otherwise determined by the clinic. 

Apache Drive Children's Clinic will continue to strongly support and recommend routine childhood vaccinations and will provide families with current, evidence-based vaccination information to help them make informed healthcare decisions for their children.

Our practice values the opportunity that we have to treat your child for all of their healthcare needs.  We realize that at times it may be necessary to take your child to see another healthcare provider such as an urgent care or ER. However, our providers ask that you keep that to a minimum and only do so if instructed to by our staff or on-call service. 

Reasons to visit an ER should be due to a true emergency.  This would include things such as a broken bone, if your child was involved in a car accident, if they are having difficulty breathing, if they need stitches and our office is closed, a fever of 105 or greater that you cannot get under control with medications, etc. Urgent Care should not be used unless our staff or on-call-service advises you to take your child. We ask that you bring your child to see our providers above taking them anywhere else. 

Our practice monitors our patient's use of the ER and Urgent Cares. We receive reports when a patient of ours is seen at another healthcare facility and the reason for their visit. If you utilize  other healthcare settings for non-emergent reasons, or without being instructed to do so, you will receive a warning letter in the mail. If you continue  use the ER or Urgent Care after you receive a warning letter- your child will be discharged from our clinic.