Practice Philosophies
At Great Destinations Pediatrics, we are committed to providing our patients with the best pediatric care available. With that being stated, we have found it necessary to adopt several practices and policies to ensure the delivery of outstanding pediatric medical care.
Vaccines: Our practice firmly adheres to the guidelines of the CDC pertaining to the administration of childhood vaccinations. We believe one of the greatest achievements of the 20th century was the development of immunization. We thoroughly study the research on all aspects of benefits and risks. Because of our belief in preventive medicine and our need to protect our babies who have not completed their vaccinations yet from potential carriers of these diseases, we do not accept people who choose not to immunize their children. We do not offer alternative schedules. If you are afraid to immunize your child, we would be happy to discuss the pros and cons of doing so. You can read more about vaccines at http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/.
Preventative: Pediatric medicine is based on prevention-prevention of injury, disease, and death. Our goal is to not only treat injury and illness but to help your child achieve wellness through education on good sleep habits, nutrition, exercise, screen and nature time recommendations, social recommendations, and providing you with the latest on safety and mental health recommendations. We want to empower you and your child or teen by giving tools that will help you navigate through the difficulties of life in a healthy fashion speaking of not only health of the body but of the mind and spirit. We feel annual well checks are an excellent way to do this, but we also strive to incorporate wellness teaching during our sick visits, often teaching ways to treat illness in a way that allows the body to heal itself in addition to medication or other conventional therapies if they are necessary. We feel this is a partnership between your doctor, you and your child or teen and we are excited to watch your child grow!
Antibiotics: We recognize and appreciate the miraculous nature of these medications in saving lives and reducing illness. We also recognize due to their over use, we have encountered many problems, including resistant bacteria that can’t be treated. Antibiotics help your immune system fight bacteria. They have absolutely no effect on viral infection. Because of these facts for the safety of your kids, we at Great Destinations Pediatrics never call in antibiotic prescriptions without fully examining our children to determine if an antibiotic is appropriate, and if so which one would work best.
Chronic Conditions (Asthma, allergies, etc…): We take every medicine for our kids very seriously. We feel a good maintenance program is just as important as the original diagnosis and prescription. While it seems quite easy to continue on a chronic medication if it seems to be working, frequent re-evaluation is essential because of the subtleties of the disease process, to avoid over treating if medications can be reduced and because of new medications and new information on old medication. We understand that sometimes it can be inconvenient to follow up every four months, but the best medicine is not usually the easiest.
