Category: News

All of us at Lake Forest Pediatric Associates wish you a Happy Independence Day! We hope you enjoy family time together as we celebrate our nation.

In honor of Independence Day, we will have limited office hours at the Lake Bluff Office (urgent care only). The Lindenhurst and Vernon Hills Offices will be closed. However, we are available for urgent concerns 24/7/365 through our on-call provider via phone at 847-295-1220.

Independence Day Office Hours – Monday, July 4

Lake Bluff Office
The Lake Bluff Office is open for scheduled urgent care appointments from 8 am – noon.
Call us at 847-295-1220 on Monday at 8 am to make an urgent care appointment.

Lindenhurst Office
Closed

Vernon Hills Office
Closed

We wish to share the news that Dr. Karen Burton and Dr. Katherine Hidaka have announced their retirements. Dr. Burton will be hanging up her stethoscope on July 13th and Dr. Hidaka will follow on August 9th.

Joining Lake Forest Pediatrics in July of 1985, Dr. Burton has been a staple physician with our practice. She served on the practice’s Board of Directors for nearly her entire time with the practice, and has been a vital member recently on the practice’s internal “COVID Committee”, providing insightful review and analysis of the pandemic’s trajectory, reviewing innumerable medical journals and announcements from government agencies, and giving best recommendations to help keep staff and patients safe during these turbulent years.

Joining the practice in August of 2009, Dr. Hidaka has been an adored physician at our practice. She has also served on the practice’s Board of Directors and has worked side-by-side with Dr. Kinsella on new provider recruiting. We will surely miss her easy-going and joyful demeanor.

We wish them both nothing but the best and we hope they enjoy more time with their families.

They may have already spoken with you, or you may have received a letter from us in the mail, but please know that we wish to avoid any possible interruptions in your child’s care. On our “Meet Our Providers” page, you may find brief bios of other members of our practice. Each are Board Certified in Pediatrics and are on-staff at Northwestern Lake Forest Hospital and Lurie Children’s Hospital, and all are dedicated to delivering the best care that every person deserves.

Please feel free to let our front office staff know which physician you would like to see at your next visit. Should your insurance plan require you to select a primary care physician, you may inform them of which physician you have chosen, effective 7/14/2022 for Dr. Burton and 8/10/2022 for Dr. Hidaka.

If you have any questions or if you need anything, please contact our office at 847-295-1220.

Thank you for the continued privilege of providing care for your child.

Some patients who have received an invoice from us, after logging into the Patient Portal, are seeing $0 balance due. If you receive an invoice from our office and see no balance on the Portal, you are still able to make a payment and it will be properly credited to your account.

We apologize for the inconvenience. This issue is not affecting all accounts, but we are working with our EMR provider (Greenway) to resolve this.

Thank you.

We’re pleased to announce the approval has been given for COVID boosters for individuals who are 5-11 years of age and after at least 5 months after completion of a primary series with the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine.

We will be carrying the vaccine in all 3 of our office locations. Starting today, you may contact our office to schedule an appointment.

From the FDA:

“While it has largely been the case that COVID-19 tends to be less severe in children than adults, the omicron wave has seen more kids getting sick with the disease and being hospitalized, and children may also experience longer term effects, even following initially mild disease,” said FDA Commissioner Robert M. Califf, M.D. “The FDA is authorizing the use of a single booster dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine for children 5 through 11 years of age to provide continued protection against COVID-19. Vaccination continues to be the most effective way to prevent COVID-19 and its severe consequences, and it is safe. If your child is eligible for the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine and has not yet received their primary series, getting them vaccinated can help protect them from the potentially severe consequences that can occur, such as hospitalization and death.”

“The Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine is effective in helping to prevent the most severe consequences of COVID-19 in individuals 5 years of age and older,” said Peter Marks, M.D., Ph.D., director of the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research. “Since authorizing the vaccine for children down to 5 years of age in October 2021, emerging data suggest that vaccine effectiveness against COVID-19 wanes after the second dose of the vaccine in all authorized populations. The FDA has determined that the known and potential benefits of a single booster dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine for children 5 through 11 years of age at least five months after completing a primary series outweigh its known and potential risks and that a booster dose can help provide continued protection against COVID-19 in this and older age groups.”

https://www.fda.gov/news-events/press-announcements/coronavirus-covid-19-update-fda-expands-eligibility-pfizer-biontech-covid-19-vaccine-booster-dose

The February recall of baby formula has severely impacted many families across the country. We have been following this closely and would like to share the following Q&A link from healthychildren.org. This may help answer many of your questions.

Update as of 5/18/2022: President Biden has invoked the Defense Production Act which is intended to “to speed production of infant formula and authorized flights to import supply from overseas”. As part of this invocation, this “requires suppliers of formula manufacturers to fulfill orders from those companies before other customers, in an effort to eliminate production bottlenecks. Biden is also authorizing the Defense Department to use commercial aircraft to fly formula supplies that meet federal standards from overseas to the U.S.” https://apnews.com/article/biden-health-government-and-politics-df586c2e52b5e5865ea9f8091d4d1f80

Please contact our office with any additional questions.

Thank you!

We wish to share the news that Dr. Heather Begley will not be returning from maternity leave. Her last day with our practice will be June 18th.

Joining Lake Forest Pediatrics in July of 2012, Dr. Begley has provided great care to her patients. She has said this was an extremely difficult decision, but one that is necessary for her family. We wish her and her family well.

Our Front Desk and Patient Education staff may have already spoken with you, or you may have already received a letter from us in the mail, but please know that we wish to avoid any possible interruptions in your child’s care. On our “Meet Our Providers” page, you may find brief bios of other members of our practice. Each are Board Certified in Pediatrics and are on-staff at Northwestern Lake Forest Hospital and Lurie Children’s Hospital, and all are dedicated to delivering the best care that every person deserves.

Please feel free to let our front office staff know which physician you would like to see at your next visit. Should your insurance plan require you to select a primary care physician, you may inform them of which physician you have chosen, effective 6/19/2022.

If you have any questions or if you need anything, please contact our office at 847-295-1220.

Thank you for the continued privilege of providing care for your child.

We’re wishing you a Happy Memorial Day! Enjoy your time off with family and friends as we all count our blessings and remember those who gave their lives for our country.

In honor of Memorial Day, we will have limited office hours at the Lake Bluff Office (urgent care only) and the Lindenhurst and Vernon Hills Offices will be closed. However, we are available for urgent concerns 24/7/365 through our on-call provider via phone at 847-295-1220.

Memorial Day Office Hours – Monday, May 30

Lake Bluff Office
The Lake Bluff Office is open for scheduled urgent care appointments from 8 am – noon.
Call us at 847-295-1220 on Monday at 8 am to make an urgent care appointment.

Lindenhurst Office
Closed

Vernon Hills Office
Closed

Some patients who have received an invoice from us recently have reported that they were unable to pay their bill on the Patient Portal. Instead of showing a balance due, their account shows a $0 balance. We apologize for the inconvenience! This issue is not affecting all accounts.

We notified Intergy, our practice’s Electronic Medical Record system provider, and they are working on a solution.

If you receive an invoice from our office, log in to the portal and see a $0 balance on the Portal, you are still able to make a payment, and it will still be properly credited to your account.

Thank you.

Latest CDC News and Guidance:

https://www.cdc.gov/respiratory-viruses/guidance/respiratory-virus-guidance.html

COVID-19 Vaccine

We’re now taking appointments for the COVID vaccine, ages 6 months and older! Please contact our office to schedule an appointment.

We have been asked which vaccine we recommend for children. We only recommend that children receive a COVID vaccine, but we do not have a preference for which one they get. We will, however, only have the Pfizer vaccine in our office.

COVID-19 Information

The disease in children is generally mild and not unlike the other cold and flu infections you may have helped your children through in the past. Serious complications including the possibility of a post Covid-19 multisystem inflammatory response remain rare.

Symptoms

Any one of the following symptoms in a child can be consistent with Covid-19: runny nose or congestion, headache, sore throat, cough, shortness of breath, fever, fatigue, muscle aches, nausea or vomiting, poor appetite or poor feeding, diarrhea, loss of smell or taste. These symptoms are the same as seen in multiple other infections making it impossible to distinguish who has Covid-19 vs another viral or bacterial infection. Children can also be asymptomatic yet shed the virus and infect others.

Dear patients, parents, and guardians,

Since the summer, we have experienced a dramatic increase in calls to our office, and we apologize for any inconvenience this has caused you. Your time is valuable and we are working very hard to reduce hold times.

We have been revamping our internal workflows and have also rolled out more self-service options for you in the hope that these changes will reduce the number of calls we’re receiving and also reduce the time you spend on the phone with our staff.

We have general appointment requests (link), morning sick call requests (link), COVID vaccination appointment requests (link), symptom checker (link), a COVID vaccine FAQ (link), and more.

Using our Patient Portal (link) will also help you save time if you’re looking for medical records, lab results, or if you want to make a prescription refill request.

We’re not done with making changes, and will continue to retool our workflows in order to better serve you.

Thank you for your patience and understanding!