Uptown Office: 450 West End Avenue • New York, NY 10024 • 212-769-3070 • Fax: 877-451-0227

Downtown Office: 2 Fifth Avenue • New York, NY 10011 • 212-353-0072 • Fax: 877-451-0227

Uptown Office: 450 West End Avenue • New York, NY 10024 • 212-769-3070 • Fax: 877-451-0227

Downtown Office: 2 Fifth Avenue • New York, NY 10011 • 212-353-0072 • Fax: 877-451-0227

When Your Child Is Ill

Life-threatening Emergencies

In life-threatening emergencies, such as severe respiratory distress, uncontrollable bleeding, or unconsciousness, dial 911, or rush your child to the nearest emergency room. Then call us.

In the event of possible poisoning, call the New York City Poison Control Center (1-212-P-O-I-S-O-N-S).

Everything Else

We leave plenty of time for illness visits in our schedules. Please call the office to set up an appointment rather than just walking in. Your child will receive better care if we are expecting you. We do charge an additional fee if your child, or the sibling of a child who has a scheduled appointment, show up without an appointment and you may also have to wait to be seen if you just show up expecting to be seen. If you think your child needs to be seen immediately, let our staff know when you call and we will triage your child quickly.

If you are not sure whether or not your child needs to be seen, or if you want to know how to make your child feel more comfortable, please feel free to speak with one of our excellent nurses. They are a wonderful resource.

We are open 365 days a year and have weekend and holiday hours for illness visits (uptown office only). If your child needs to be seen on a weekend or holiday, please call the office between 9 and 11 AM to schedule the appointment.

What happens when the office is closed?

One of our doctors is always available, even in the middle of the night. No one else covers our practice. Please reserve after-hours calls for urgent problems that cannot wait until the next day. Urgent calls will be returned as quickly as possible. To be safe, our answering service will instruct you to call back in 20 minutes if we have not returned your call.

For most “non-life threatening” emergencies (for example: minorlacerations, asthma, fractures, or high fever) there is enough time to telephone us so that we can direct a course of action. We may be able to avoid an emergency room visit either by opening up our office to see you or just through good advice. Should we feel that you need to go to an emergency room, we will do everything we can to expediting your care. This includes speaking with the emergency room physician to tell them to expect you, making sure that we stay in touch with the emergency room monitor your child’s progress, and, if necessary, meeting at you at the hospital.