Author: Anderson Hills Pediatrics

Additional COVID Vaccine Clinics Coming Soon!

The authorization of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine for ages 12 and older is a vital step in bringing lifesaving vaccines to children and adolescents. With this recent news, we are excited to be able to provide your child/children with the COVID vaccine in one of our upcoming vaccine clinics.

Summarized below are clinic dates/times that are currently available for scheduling. To ensure all patients receive their second doses timely and to ensure we use our supplies appropriately, we are scheduling patients for their first and second dose as outlined in the clinics below. There is no flexibility to the dates/times.

Clinic 1:

• First Dose on 5/20/21
• Second Dose on 6/10/21
• Available Times: 2:00-5:00PM
• Location: Amelia Office

Clinic 2:

• First Dose on 5/21/21
• Second Dose on 6/11/21
• Available Times: 2:00-5:00PM
• Location: Amelia Office

Clinic 3:

• First Dose on 5/22/21
• Second Dose on 6/12/21
• Available Times: 9:00-12:00pm
• Location: Anderson Office

Clinic 4:

• First Dose on 5/28/21
• Second Dose on 6/18/21
• Available Times: 2:00-5:00 PM
• Location: Amelia Office

Clinic 5:

• First Dose on 5/29/21
• Second Dose on 6/19/21
• Available Times: 9:00-12:00pm
• Location: Anderson Office

Clinic 6: 

• First Dose on 6/4/21
• Second Dose on 6/25/21
• Available Times: 2:00-5:00PM
• Location: Amelia Office

Clinic 7:

• First Dose on 6/5/21
• Second Dose on 6/26/21
• Available Times: 9:00-12:00pm
• Location: Anderson Office

Interested in getting scheduled? Call our team today at 513-232-8100 option 2 then press 2 again or schedule through your patient portal. Note: If you are scheduling on the portal, please only schedule for your first dose based upon the dates listed above. Our team will automatically schedule you/your child for the second dose.

What to Expect during your Visit:

Our COVID-19 Vaccine Clinics will work very similarly to how our Flu Clinics operated in 2020.

• Where to go: Once in our parking lots, look for yellow signs dedicated to Covid Vaccine parking and park at one of those spaces. If someone does not come to you, call our team at 513-232-8100 option 7 to let us know you have arrived. We will then direct you into the designated location or provide your vaccine from the comfort of your vehicle.
• How to Dress: Make sure those receiving the vaccine have one arm free of clothing. The best clothing is sleeveless or loose short sleeved shirt.
  Observation: Based upon medical history, you will be asked to wait in your vehicle between 15-30 minutes after receiving the vaccine to monitor for side effects.
• COVID-19 Vaccines with Other Vaccines: It is now okay to receive other vaccines at the same time as the Covid vaccine if necessary.
• Screening Questions: We are required to ask specific screening questions for patients receiving the COVID-19 vaccine. These will be sent to you through Phreesia prior to or upon arrival to your visit.

Additional Resources Related to the COVID-19 Vaccine:

• HealthyChildren.org: The Science Behind the COVID-19 Vaccine: Parent FAQ’S
• HealthyChildren.org: Getting Your Child Ready for the COVID-19 Vaccine

We look forward to providing you/ your child with your COVID-19 vaccine soon!

This Athena Quick Bill Pay is for payment of balances incurred 04/27/2021 and after. To make Payments for balances prior to 04/27/2021, please call our Billing Office, or send via postal mail. Thank you for your patience in this matter.

What to expect at your next visit…

As part of our commitment to delivering a great patient experience, we are transitioning to our new healthcare technology system tomorrow! We believe this new system will make your access to your child’s health information, appointment scheduling, bill pay, and more much simpler!

We are doing our best to ensure this transition goes as smooth as possible with you. However, we do want to make you aware of a few items to expect over the next few weeks or at your next appointment with us:

• Insurance and Demographic Information: You may be asked through Phreesia or our patient care team to provide key demographic and insurance information at your first visit with us on or after April 27th. A few items we will be asking include updated insurance information, confirmation of allergies and medical histories, the option to upload your child’s photo for their chart, and updated policy confirmations.
• Potential Increased Wait Times: We have reduced our schedules this week in an effort to provide care to you timely. However, you may experience a slightly longer wait than usual as we are learning to navigate the system.
• Website: Our website is changing! We are in the process of updating links on our website for the patient portal, online scheduling, quick bill pay, and virtual visits.
• Patient Portal Sign-Up: If you have not already done so, we will be emailing or helping you at your next visit to sign your child or family up for our new patient portal.

Our new and improved online Patient Portal is almost live! This will be the new place you go to manage your child’s health anytime, anywhere. Schedule appointments, send non-urgent messages, submit controlled substance refill requests, and pay bills online without having to wait on the phone.

A few of the key features we love about our new portal are: 

• Web Scheduling: Schedule or change appointments online 24/7. No phone tag. No hold music. Just a confirmation in 1 minute instead of 8.
• Private Messaging: Communicate privately with us any time of the day or night with secure messaging
• Refill Requests: Request controlled substance prescription refills online without having to take time out of your day.
• Online Bill Pay: Pay your bills with a click instead of a check and save your billing information on file for further use.
• And More! We will be working to add more features in the upcoming months.

How do you sign up for our new portal?

• You will be receiving an email from athenahealth in the near future to set up your new portal account.
• Or, you can see a member of our team at your next appointment to help you register your child/children.

Important Notes!

• Do not submit any messages or requests to the new patient portal prior to our go-live date of April 27th. Any messages or requests submitted prior to that date are unable to be monitored or acted upon.
• Your current patient portal with Medfusion will also cease to exist after April 26th. Should you need to access previous medical records, please call 513-232-8100 option 6.

Our patients are our #1 priority and we are working hard to ensure a seamless transition to our new partner, athenahealth.

We appreciate your patience as we make this update.

First of all, take a deep breath and do not fear.  The likelihood of having a severe complication is extremely low, approximate 1 in a million. As a matter of fact, this is a picture of me receiving the J&J vaccine 4 ½ weeks ago and I am doing quite well and am thrilled that by now I should have very good antibodies against COVID-19.

Why have the FDA and CDC paused the use of the J&J vaccine?

All adverse reactions after vaccines are reported to VAERS. 6 women, ages 18 to 48 years, were reported to have cerebral venous sinus thrombosis after receiving this vaccine. These are blood clots that form in structures called venous sinuses, similar to veins, that drain blood from the brain. All of these events happened between 6 to 13 days after receiving the vaccine. These clots appear to be very similar to the clots reported after the AstraZeneca Covid vaccine licensed in Europe. It appears to involve a response of the patient’s immune system that adversely affects the function of platelets in their blood and by causing a decrease of the number of platelets (thrombocytopenia) due the formation of so-called autoantibodies (antibodies formed against your own platelets).

If you have received this vaccine more than 3 weeks ago, your risk of developing a blood clot is quite low.

If you have received the vaccine in the last 3 weeks AND develop any of these symptoms:

• Severe headache
• Backache
• New neurologic symptoms such as change in vision, fainting, weakness, seizures or symptoms of a stroke
• Severe chest or abdominal pain
• Shortness of breath
• Leg swelling
• Tiny red spots on the skin (petechial) or new or easy bruising
  please seek urgent medical care immediately.  It is important to tell the ED that you have received the J&J vaccine as the treatment for these types of clots is different than the typical treatment of blood clots.

If you have non-urgent questions, please contact our office.

Vaccines:  Children’s is participating in mass vaccination clinics that are scheduled across our region.  The effort is called ‘Get out the Vax’ with clinics on the second and fourth weekends of April and May. Free public transportation to vaccination sites will be available.  The regional goal is to vaccinate 80% of those eligible (age 16 and up) by July 4.  More information is available on the Health Collaborative website —including ALL regional vaccine sites and appointment scheduling on cchmc.org.

For any patient visits after April 27, 2021, all bills associated with your child’s visits will be generated through our new system athenahealth. This means your bills or patient statements will look a little different. The ways in which you can pay your bills will hopefully be easier as well!

Our goal is to now make paying your bills easy, by meeting you where you are and offering multiple ways to pay:

Email: In a couple of days after your visit, you’ll receive an email from our office with your bill information and an option to pay.

Mail: Prefer a hard copy? We’ve got you covered. Within a couple of weeks after your appointment, you’ll receive a letter in the mail with instructions on how to pay and a unique code you can use to access your bill.

Patient Portal: You can log into your Patient Portal to pay your bill anytime. Talk to us about signing up!

Please also be aware that our offices will be closed at select times this week due to athenahealth training. We will continue to have our team available by phone during these closures should you or your child need anything.

• Anderson Office: Closed on April 13th from 12:00 -6:00PM and April 14th from 8:00AM-1:00PM
• Amelia Office: Closed on April 13th from 8:00AM – 1:00PM

Our patients are our #1 priority and we are working hard to ensure a seamless transition to our new partner, athenahealth.

We appreciate your patience as we make this update.

On April 27, 2021 we will be launching our new patient portal though our partner, athenahealth! We believe signing up for our new patient portal will be a worthwhile experience. The new portal will allow for better access to your child’s patient medical records, bill pay, and more!

Here’s why we recommend signing up for the Patient Portal: 

• Easy Bill Pay: Pay with a click instead of a check. Plus, you can save your credit card information for future payments.
• Message Us Anytime: You can securely message us to ask non-urgent questions or patient care needs.
• Schedule Your Next Appointment: You will still be able to schedule or change your appointments online, saving yourself time.
• Receive Letters from Your Pediatrician: Easily retrieve letters, like return to school, from your provider.
• Manager Your Child’s Record: We will be working with athenahealth to allow for more health record information to be available to you and your child. Over time, our goal is to allow you to share your health records with other providers, schools, and more.

We will be sending more information with a link and instructions on how you can register for our new portal in the near future. Our patients are our #1 priority and we are working hard to ensure a seamless transition to our new partner, athenahealth.

We appreciate your patience as we make this update.

As part of our commitment to delivering a great patient experience, we have partnered with Athena health and are transitioning to a new healthcare technology system towards the end of April. We believe this change will improve the on demand access to your child’s health information, scheduling and payment tools.

A few important things you need to know about this change:

• Patient Portal: Our patient portal is changing from Medfusion to Athena health. This means that towards the end of April you will need to sign-up to join our new and improved portal. We will send information and instructions to help you do so as we get closer to our transition date.
• Checking-In for you Visit: For the foreseeable future will continue to partner with Phreesia to help check you in for your visit. You may notice a few changes in the interview questions you are asked. Your interview may be longer the first visit in the new system.
• Insurance Information: Your insurance information will not transfer from our current medical record to Athena health. You will likely be asked to provide your insurance card again at your first visit so that we bill you insurance carrier for the services your child received appropriately.
• Medical Records: Rest assured that your child’s medical records will be available upon request as they always have been. However, our new patient portal will not provide patient care information prior to April 27, 2021.

Our patients are our #1 priority and we are working hard to ensure a seamless transition to our new partner, Athena health. We appreciate your patience as we make this update. Stay tuned for more information as we get closer to our transition date.

We received great news from Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center (CCHMC) that adults and older teenagers eligible under phases 1B, 1C, 1D, 2A or 2B of Ohio’s vaccine distribution plan, can make an appointment with CCHMC’s scheduling center. (Links work best with Chrome.)

The first clinic is Wednesday, March 17. There will likely be additional clinics to follow. In an effort to help you access their clinics, they are currently being scheduled in the evenings and weekends at the Sabin Auditorium. CCHMC has also indicated they are administering Pfizer vaccine, but may receive different vaccine in the future.

These appointments may fill up quickly. CCHMC has indicated it will continue to schedule more clinics based on vaccine supply. You may also visit the Ohio Department of Health’s Vaccine Management Solution website for other vaccine availability in the area.

Please do not hesitate to reach out to our team if you have any questions regarding the vaccine or your child’s care.