Procedures

An abscess is a localized collection of pus in the tissues of the body, often accompanied by swelling and inflammation and frequently caused by bacteria. They typically require drainage in order to heal. For specific sites, our staff is capable of incising and draining these infections. Depending upon the site and size, sometimes it is necessary for these to be drained at the hospital in the emergency room or by a surgeon.

Our offices provided treatments for burns and sunburn. This includes removing damaged skin as well as providing proper wound dressing and antibiotics as needed.

This is a blood test obtained via a finger stick. It is a part of each annual well child exam. At these visits, it is done to evaluate patients for anemia. This test is also used during sick visits to help physicians determine the severity of a child's illness. The results of this test are obtained within minutes.

We offer ear piercing for children. The earliest age that a child's ear can be pierced is four months old. We believe that infants should have a minimum of two doses of the tetanus vaccine before having their ears pierced. The earrings are included in the fee. Each set of earrings are wrapped in an individualized sterile package. Given that children frequently receive vaccines at well child appointments, it is requested that parents make a separate appointment for ear piercing. This is a non-insurance covered service.

During flu season, our staff can perform influenza cultures. This culture is performed by swabbing the nose of the patient. This culture can identify influenza type A and type B. The result can be obtained within 10 minutes.

In the instance, that a child is having difficulty breathing either due to a respiratory illness or an asthma exacerbation, the child may be given a nebulizer treatment. The nebulizer contains a bronchodilator (Albuterol, Xoponex, Accuneb) used to open constricted or spasming airways. Nebulizer treatments may also contain steroidal medical to reduce airway inflammation.

In the event that your child has an injury, our staff may provide simple splinting to stabilize and immobilize the injury. We do not have the capacity to perform X-rays in our office but we do utilize radiology groups in our practice areas to rule out fractures.

Our staff has the ability to repair simple lacerations. This can be done by suturing, requiring stitches, or by Dermabond, a liquid adhesive. This use of these methods is determined by the provider based on a site and nature of the laceration. If our staff does not believe that is suitable to repair the laceration in our office, your child will be referred to the appropriate specialist or the emergency room.

Our staff has the ability to perform throat cultures to diagnose strep throat infections. We utilize rapid strep cultures which can provide a result within 7 minutes. If the rapid test is negative, an overnight throat culture is performed to confirm the result of the rapid test. If the overnight culture is positive, you will be notified the following morning and a prescription will be called into your pharmacy.

We can perform a screening of your child's urine. This test screens for the presence of blood, protein, white blood cells and sugar to rule out a number of health conditions. This test is done as part of each annual well child exam and as part of a sick patient evaluation when necessary. This screening test does not test for the presence of recreational drugs. A urine drug screening is performed by an outpatient laboratory and requires a prescription.

In the event that a patient's urinalysis is positive for signs of a urinary tract infection, a urine culture or uricult may be performed in our office. This culture can identify the specific bacteria causing the infection and is done overnight. We however cannot perform bacterial sensitivities to identify which antibiotics would be best to treat the infection. This can only be done in an outpatient laboratory. For this reason, we only perform this test when the outpatient laboratory is closed.