To make an appointment,
call (928) 778-4581
Appointments are available six days a week and as late as 7:30 p.m. on Mondays through Thursdays. New patient appointments are available most hours we are open. Saturdays, however, are usually reserved for established patients’ sick child visits only and are scheduled the same morning. When you call, please be ready to discuss and provide pertinent information including:
- Child’s name, date of birth, and reason for the appointment (sick, well child, follow up)
- Approximate weight
- Symptoms (i.e. fever, ear pain, vomiting, etc.)
- Fever: Measured (not “feels warm”) and how it was measured
- Any known allergies
- Current insurance information
- Changes of address, phone number, email, etc.
Walk-in hours (for established patients only – no new patients): If your child is sick, we offer walk-in hours
(no appointment necessary) from 7:45 – 9:00 a.m. Monday through Friday. Walk-in patients are seen in the order they sign in. Since there is no way to predict the number of sick children coming in on any given day, please be prepared to wait if there are patients ahead of you.
Also, starting at 8 a.m., patients with appointments start to arrive. Some Pediatric Nurse Practitioners and Physicians are assigned to cover walk-in patients and others have regularly scheduled patients, so scheduled patients may be seen before you even though you arrived first.
We offer walk-in hours as an alternative for parents who would like their child seen as early as possible. On a busy day, you may find yourselves waiting for an hour or maybe even two. The alternative is to go to Urgent Care (3 hour or more wait time) or the Emergency Room (a 5 hour wait time is common). In addition, Urgent Care and ER’s cost significantly more. We charge normal and customary fees for our walk-in patients. Compared to the alternatives, Ponderosa Pediatrics saves patients time and money with daily walk-in hours.
Same day appointments for sick children: If you can’t come in first thing in the morning, we reserve appointment times every day to ensure you can see a provider the same day. On days that are extremely busy, we may ask you to speak with a specially trained RN to discuss your child’s symptoms first. For your convenience, we also have limited same day appointments in the evenings Monday through Thursday.
Saturday appointments: Ponderosa Pediatrics is the only local pediatrics practice offering a Saturday Sick Clinic. Typically Saturdays are reserved for sick child visits, but if needed and we are not too busy, we can schedule well child or follow up visits on Saturdays as well. Please note that Saturday is not a walk-in clinic, but we try to accommodate all children who need to be seen. The phone lines are answered beginning at 8 a.m. to start scheduling appointment times.
All Saturday appointments have an additional $25 after hours charge. Many insurance companies pay the premium, but if they do not, that becomes the obligation of the patient. The alternative is to take your child to Urgent Care or the Emergency Room where patient costs after insurance can be more than $100 with a five hour wait or more. We want our patients to have access to appointments to help avoid the need for time consuming and costly alternatives.
After hours appointments: A Certified Pediatric Nurse Practitioner is available for late appointments Monday through Thursday until 8 p.m. These hours are perfect for working parents needing follow up appointments, well child, sick visits or new patients.
Appointment length and wait times: The primary complaint our patients (and patients of most medical practices) have is how long it takes for a doctor’s appointment. We understand and agree.
One of the most difficult things to predict is how long it will take to care for each patient who comes in. Our scheduling staff try to reserve adequate time for each patient based on the information provided by parents and the type of appointment requested. Providers always spend the time necessary with each patient to meet their needs. But each patient’s needs are different. No provider can predict when a child will be in respiratory distress, needs to go to the hospital via ambulance, is sicker than originally thought, or a routine check unveils something that needs extra attention. These things happen daily and are completely out of our control. While we try to anticipate the unknown by leaving “additional” time each hour, there is a chance your appointment will take longer than you anticipated.
There are also things that can be done to help keep us on schedule. Here are a few of them:
- DO NOT COME LATE FOR ANY APPOINTMENT! If you show up late, we will try to see you as soon as possible, but we will not make patients who come on time wait on those who are late. Late patients typically will be seen, but they will be “worked in” as the schedule allows.
- Please try to be here a few minutes early to leave time for any paperwork that needs to be done including insurance and address updates, demographics changes, etc.
- Many visits require special forms before the appointment can take place. If these are completed prior to arriving, we can typically get your child in and out faster. These forms are all available in the forms section of ponderosapediatrics.com and can be downloaded, you can stop by to pick them up during business hours, or we can mail them to you.
- Limit the OBTW’s (Oh by the way….)! Some OBTW’s are:
- That list of items you bring with you to talk about. We welcome the list, but please make sure you let our staff know beforehand that you need extra time to talk with the provider about additional concerns and try to provide the list ahead of time.
- Sick siblings who were not included in the appointment. Please let us know ahead of time. We will always try to accommodate siblings, but we may need to rearrange the schedule.
- Symptoms or problems that are important, but you did not tell the scheduling staff about when you made the appointment. Please tell us if there are additional symptoms or problems so we can schedule a separate or longer appointment.
- Make sure we have current information prior to the appointment. We verify insurance for each patient. If you have changed insurance plans or have no insurance, it takes extra time to collect and verify new information. If your child has no insurance, full payment is expected at the time of service.
- Try to schedule adequate time in the event we are running late. If you are on a tight schedule, please inform the front desk staff when you check-in. While we may not be able to see you any faster, we can let you know if we are behind schedule and possibly reschedule your appointment if necessary.
