Pediatric Associates of Malden July 2019 Newsletter

Greetings to our patients and parents.

It has been almost 2 years since we adopted Epic as our electronic medical record system.  With this system, there is a patient portal that is called MyChart. Through MyChart, a patient (or parent/legal guardian) may do the following:

1. Access test results that have been reviewed by the physician;
2. Two-way communication with physician via email: examples include sending non-urgent questions to the physician, including photos, and receiving a response or notification from physician such as reminders for an annual check-up;
3. Request to schedule an appointment; 
4. 4. Request refills for your medications. With any email, the response time depends on the person who receives the email.  If he or she does not check the email frequently, there would be a delay. Therefore, questions that are sent via MyChart should be on non-urgent issues.  

To sign up for MyChart, a patient of 14 years or older, or a parent/legal guarding of a patient under 14 years of age, can contact our office and provide an email address. A password will then be provided for access to MyChart. If a parent of a patient of 14 years and older wishes to access MyChart, the teenager has to sign a consent agreement.   

For urgent matters, i.e. if your child is sick, you can either call to schedule an appointment or to ask to speak to a physician.  Since we do have office hours everyday of the year, a sick visit can usually be scheduled within 24 hours. Our website has a Symptom Checker from the American Academy of Pediatrics which may assist you in deciding whether your child should be seen urgently.  When the office is closed, our physicians are on-call. Our hope is that with these web-based tools, our easy-access office hours, and our on-call service in the afterhours, we can reduce unnecessary visits to the emergency rooms. 

We strive to provide our patients the most up-to-date information on medicine and health. Our Epic system is in fact linked to a software program called UpToDate. We also have a Facebook page, on which we present some of the current medical and health related issues that may be of interest to you. We are interested in getting feedback from you on how we can serve you better. You are welcome to send us your comments and suggestions either via email, on paper or verbally when you come to our office. 

Every summer season there are certain medical conditions we see more often, usually related to outdoor activities, such as insect bites, sun burn, poison ivy dermatitis, and chemical dermatitis from sun blocks. Preventive measures include: testing a sun block on an arm or leg before putting it on the face; apply insect repellent for kids over 6 months of age if you are exploring forests, ponds or lakes; and familiarize yourself with poison ivy’s appearance and inspect your backyard. Take breaks from activities in the sun and drink plenty of water to avoid heat stroke. Enjoy the summer.

Sincerely,
Pediatric Associates of Malden