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At Your Pediatrician's Office
Top Things to Not Do

By Vincent Iannelli, M.D., About.com Guide

About.com Health's Disease and Condition content is reviewed by the Medical Review Board

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Here are the top things that you should not do:

use caller ID to get the number to the back lines of the office or your Pediatricians home phone number. If your Pediatrician wants you to have his or her home number, he or she would have given it to you. This has become such a big problem that many doctors block their number from going out when they call parents after hours, creating a problem for those people who block anonymous calls. To avoid problems, just use the regular procedures to call your doctor if the office is closed. Even if you just talked to the doctor and have a quick question, it is better to go through their answering service or page your Pediatrician instead of calling them directly at home unless you have been instructed to do so.
wait until after hours to call for a non-urgent problem. Although your Pediatrician is likely on call and available after hours when the office is closed, calling about a non-urgent problem, such as a medication refill, that could have been handled when the office was open isn't appropriate.
avoid paying your co-pay or the fee for your visit. Many parents claim to have forgotten their wallet, checkbook and credit cards when they go to the doctor and ask for the fee to be added to their bill. Their aren't too many other situations where this would be considered appropriate or allowed, so remember to pay for your visit or if you can't afford the fee, ask if other arrangements can be made.
come late to your appointment. If you have a good reason for being late, call ahead and let the staff know.
walk in without an appointment. This makes other people late who already have appointment if they try to fit you in.
don't show up for your appointment. If a doctor has a practice where a large number of patients don't show up for their appointments, then they might take to overbooking appointments. This can be a problem when everyone does show up though.
be rude to the office staff. Since most doctors don't answer the phone, the front staff is really your ticket to see or talk to the doctor.