8/16/2022

My child is Covid positive, what should I do?

We advise you follow the isolation protocols and guidance from the CDC. Check with your child’s school or daycare for their specific protocols.

Some people who test positive for COVID-19 have no symptoms. Most people will only have mild illness with symptoms lasting for a few days up to a week and can be treated at home without seeing a medical provider.

Symptoms may include:

• Fever
• Cough
• Congestion
• Sore throat
• Headache
• Fatigue
• Vomiting
• Diarrhea
• Muscle aches
• Loss of taste/smell

Treatment at home:

• Rest
• Fluids
• For 6 years and older – OTC cold/cough medication, dose per package instructions
• Ages 1-6 years old, honey as needed for cough
• Tylenol or Motrin (for 6 months of age and older) for comfort
  • Dosage chart can be found under resources, FAQ, medication dosage chart and dosages are based on the child’s weight.

When to call the doctor:

• Worsening symptoms
• Fever lasting more than 5 days
• Infant < 12 weeks of age with temp >100.3 rectally
• Fever >104.0 F
• Concern for a secondary infection such as ear infection
• Breathing difficulties, shortness of breath
• Persistent chest pain or pressure
• Other severe symptoms

For further details on Covid infection, treatment, and isolation, visit CDC website at:

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/if-you-are-sick/steps-when-sick.html

2/21/2022

The physicians at PAA recommend all patients receive the Covid-19 vaccine once it is available for their age.

12/24/2021

Hello PAA Families,

We are offering a Covid vaccine clinic for 5-11 year olds on Sunday, January 23rd; second dose on Sunday, February 13th.

If you would like to schedule an appointment for your child please read the following :

1. Your child must be a patient of PAA’s.
2. Your child must be 5-11 years old (we are not vaccinating 12 and older at these clinics as we do not have the 30mcg dose).
3. Patient may not be in quarantine or isolation at the time of the appointments.
4. You must remain in the office for 15 minutes after receiving the vaccine so these clinics will NOT be as quick as the flu vaccine clinics.
5. You need to be available for both appt dates to schedule an appt.

Please call our office at 859-277-6102 to schedule an appointment.

Thank you,

PAA

12/2/2021

Hello PAA families,

We hope everyone is healthy, safe and enjoying the holiday season!

We are excited to inform everyone that we will reopen our waiting rooms (both locations) beginning January 1 ^st .  You will no longer need to wait in your car when you arrive for an appointment.  We continue to have a ‘sick’ and ‘well’ side to our waiting room at our main office and we prioritize getting your child into an exam room as quickly as possible.

We look forward to serving your medical needs in 2022!

Thank you,

PAA

11/5/2021

Our Covid vaccine clinics are currently full so we will not be taking calls tonight or Sunday, 11/7 for scheduling.  While we only have a limited amount of vaccine at our office to administer, there is no shortage of the vaccine, so you should be able to get the vaccine at UK, Walgreens or another pharmacy.  Our physicians encourage all patients to receive the vaccine.  If you have additional questions, please call our office to schedule an appointment with a physician.

Thank you!

Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine for 5-11 year olds:

If you would like to schedule an appointment for your child please read the following :

1. Your child must be a patient of PAA’s.
2. Your child must be 5-11 years old (we are not vaccinating 12 and older at these clinics as we do not have the 30mcg dose).
3. Patient may not be in quarantine at the time of the appointments.
4. You must remain in the office for 15 minutes after receiving the vaccine so these clinics will NOT be as quick as the flu vaccine clinics.
5. You can only schedule an appointment by calling 859-277-6102 during the following times:
   1. Wednesday, 11/3 – 5-8pm
   2. Thursday, 11/4 – 5-8pm
   3. Friday, 11/5 – 5-8pm
   4. Sunday, 11/7 – 11-3pm

We are opening our phones lines during this time to take calls specifically regarding scheduling an appointment for Covid vaccine for 5-11 year olds .  We are unable to schedule appointments for the vaccine at any other time.  Our call volume during regular business hours is too high to accommodate calls regarding the vaccine.  We are also unable to answer any questions or make appointments for anything other than the Covid vaccine during this time. Staff will not be able to assist you with anything other than scheduling a Covid vaccine appointment if you call during these times .

6. We are offering 6 clinics (3 clinics for 1 ^st dose and 3 clinics for 2 ^nd dose).  The 2 ^nd dose is given 21 days following the 1 ^st dose.  You must be available for one of the following sets of time (i.e. you cannot ask for the 1 ^st dose to be given on 11/7 and the 2 ^nd dose be given on 12/5) and you must be available for the same time for each clinic (i.e. 1 ^st dose on 11/7 at 3pm, 2 ^nd dose on 11/28 at 3pm):
   1. 1 ^st dose 11/7     2 ^nd dose 11/28
   2. 1 ^st dose 11/14   2 ^nd dose 12/5
   3. 1 ^st dose 11/21   2 ^nd dose 12/12

If these dates/times are not conducive to your schedule, you may also get the vaccine at the following (once they open their sites for appointments):

Walgreens – https://walgreens.com/findcare...

UK – ukvaccine.org - 245 Fountain Court, 1 ^st floor – you must schedule an appointment

7. YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR BRINGING YOUR CHILD’S VACCINE CARD TO THE SECOND APPOINTMENT.
8. If something comes up and you need to reschedule the second appointment, you will need to call to cancel your appointment with PAA and get an appointment at one of the other options (i.e. UK or Walgreens).
9. If you have questions regarding the vaccine, please schedule an appointment with a physician.  Those scheduling appointments for the clinics are not able to answer any questions.  We can tell you that all the physicians at Pediatric & Adolescent Associates, PSC encourage all patients to receive the vaccine.  They also understand this is a family decision so it is completely up to you.

*It is very important that we remain organized with our clinics which may not be conducive to your schedule.  We apologize if we are unable to accommodate your request but we must follow the above guidelines.  If that does not work for you, you may also receive the vaccine at one of the following (once they open their sites for appointments):

Walgreens - https://walgreens.com/findcare...

UK – ukvaccine.org - 245 Fountain Court, 1 ^st floor – you must schedule an appt

The state has allocated inventory of vaccines.  We may be limited as to what we may receive.  If you are able to get the vaccine at another location, we would encourage you to do so.

May 11, 2021

PAA Families,

The FDA has approved the Pfizer Covid vaccine down to age 12.  We are now waiting for CDC approval which is expected tomorrow.  We have opened an additional Covid vaccine clinic on Sunday, May 23 ^rd in the afternoon.  The second appointment would be Sunday, June 13 ^th , also in the afternoon.

If you would like to schedule an appointment, please call 859.977.3042 to leave your information for a return call.  We will be making return calls consistently so please be patient.

There are some additional places you may receive the vaccine:

UK - ukhealthcare.uky.edu/covid-19/vaccine
Kroger - kroger.com/rx/covid-eligibility
Walgreens - walgreens.com, follow covid vaccine prompts

Please continue to check our website and FB for updates.

May 10, 2021

PAA Families,

Regarding the Covid-19 vaccine: We are still working on calling back those who left a message before 5pm on Friday. We are unable to add anyone calling after 5pm on Friday to our list at this time.  We are still waiting on the FDA approval.  Please continue to check back for updates as we hope to add additional clinics in the future.  You may also check the Kentucky Covid website for additional places to receive the vaccine.

Thank you,

PAA

May 6, 2021

April 26, 2021

We have received a small shipment of Covid-19 Vaccine!  We received the Moderna vaccine so we are able to schedule some appointments for our patients who are 18 years of age and older.

We will hold our first Covid-19 vaccine clinic on Friday, April 30 ^th .  We are only scheduling appointments for this date at this time; we will open additional dates as we receive more vaccine.  You must have an appointment to receive the vaccine.

If you are a patient of ours, 18 years or older, and would like to schedule an appointment for Friday, April 30 ^th for the Covid-19 vaccine, please call 859.977.3042 (this is a different number than our main office).  You will be required to show a valid proof of identification and you will need to remain on site for 15 minutes after your injection.  The Moderna vaccine requires two doses so we will schedule both doses when you call.

March 22, 2021

Hello PAA Families,

Governor Andy Beshear recently announced that all Kentuckians over 16 years of age will be eligible for a Covid-19 vaccine by April 12 ^th .

We recommend that anyone 16 years of age or older receive the Covid-19 vaccine.  Our office is not administering the Covid-19 vaccine so we recommend you sign up through any available option.  You may visit https://govstatus.egov.com/ky-covid-vaccine for additional information regarding the Covid-19 vaccine in KY.

Dec 2020

We are offering Covid- 19 testing for all our patients in the office . We have the rapid antigen Covid test, which we typically use for patients with symptoms, and return results the same day (offered based on insurance coverage). We continue to offer the PCR Covid test as well. The PCR is more accurate and may be used for patients who do not have symptoms, as well as patients who do have symptoms. An appointment with a physician is required for either test. Give us a call!

10-7-2020

May 4th, 2020

Hello PAA Families,

We hope everyone enjoyed a weekend outside with nice weather and fresh air!

We wanted to let you know about some changes in our office that will effect Sundays.  We will continue to have a physician in the office for acute illnesses but we will no longer have a nurse available to give advice.  The process of getting in touch with the office on a Sunday will remain the same.  You will call the after-hours number and have us paged.  A front office receptionist will return your call and offer you an appointment.  We do have limited hours on Sundays so please call early if you need an appointment.  Because we have limited hours, we are only able to see acute illnesses which cannot wait.  If you need to speak with a nurse only, we will be able to take your information and a nurse will return your call on Monday.

Stay healthy and safe!

May 1st

Hello PAA Families,

We just wanted to remind everyone that our EAST office (171 North Eagle Creek Drive) is reopening on Monday, May 4 ^th !!!  This location will function like our Well Clinic at our main office; we will only see check-ups (well visits).

Please call our office to schedule an appointment at 859.277.6102 AND please remember to wear a mask when you come to any of our offices! When arriving for an appointment at the EAST office, please remain in your vehicle and call 859.759.1033 to let us know you’ve arrived.  We will let you know when we are ready for you to enter the building.

April 29, 2020

Hello PAA Families,

We want you to know that we continue to prioritize the safety of our patients and staff!

Beginning Thursday, April 30th we will check the temperature of every person entering our office (the patient of course, and any person attending the appointment with the patient). If your child is scheduled for a check-up appointment and has a fever or sick symptoms OR if the person attending the visit with the patient has a fever or sick symptoms, please reschedul e the appointment. We will be glad to see your child as a sick visit, with a physician seeing sick patients if needed, but please call to reschedule rather than arriving at the office. If you arrive and are ill, we will not be able to see your child for a check-up and will need to reschedule.

During this time, we ask that our patients and families p lease call this number 859-977-3043 when they arrive to the office. Please wait in car until instructed to come in. Thanks for understanding!

April 27, 2020

Hello PAA Families,

We hope everyone continues to stay healthy, both physically and mentally!  As Kentucky begins to lift restrictions, we are able to start seeing more patients in our offices.  While we are excited to see more patients, your safety and the safety of our staff remains our top priority.  Healthcare is the first group of businesses having restrictions lifted; however, we are being held to certain guidelines to do so.  There are several things we’ve been doing, and will continue to do, as well as some new things we will implement for safety.  We will need your help for a few of those! We will begin seeing all check-up appointments in our offices beginning Monday, May 4 ^th (during this time we were limiting the check-up appts to only essential appointments).  We are pleased to announce the reopening of our East office (N. Eagle Creek Drive) on May 4 ^th as well.  We will only see check-ups at that office at this time.  Our apologies for any inconvenience this may cause.

We will:

1. Wear masks and use proper hand hygiene at all times. * Per the CDC guidelines, a mask or face covering is recommended for children 2 years of age and older. Here is the link for CDC on Use of Cloth Face Coverings to Help Slow the Spread of COVID-19 https://www.cdc.gov/.../pre.../diy-cloth-face-coverings.html
2. Practice social distancing when possible.
3. Clean our office diligently each hour, as well as, cleaning between each patient and continuing to have our office cleaned professionally each evening.
4. Propping our doors open throughout the office to decrease touching hard surfaces.
5. Separating well and sick patients and assigning specific physicians to see sick patients daily.  Reminder…we are not testing for Covid-19 in our office at this time.  We ask patients with fever and cough to see a physician via e-visit.
6. Offer well visits until 5pm daily, M-F for most physicians.  This helps with social distancing of our patients.
7. We will treat our parking lot like our waiting room.  We will keep our waiting rooms in our office closed to patients.

What we need from you:

1. You will be required to wear a mask or face covering at all times while in our office.  This applies to everyone entering our office and it should remain on at all times.  If you do not have a mask or face covering, we will have to reschedule your appointment.
2. We ask that you continue to limit the number of family members attending visits.  We prefer only one adult attend visits.  Please leave siblings at home if possible.
3. Please remain in your car when you arrive at our office.  You will call us to let you know you are here and we will bring you in we are ready.
4. Please use proper hand hygiene at all times.
5. Please be patient with us as we work through our processes.  We may change things frequently.

Please call our office to schedule your child’s summer check-up appointment or to reschedule an appointment which was recently cancelled.  We look forward to seeing you soon!

April 6th, 2020

Dear PAA Families

I hope all is well at each of your homes.  I wanted to share some new information with you regarding Covid-19 infections in our community.  The President, and our Governor, have both spoken about the upcoming two weeks being our hardest regarding this pandemic.  The model that many experts are using to predict peak infections (and hospitalizations) was developed by the University of Washington.  Up until recently, Kentucky was expected to peak in mid-May after most of the nation.  This was adjusted over the weekend to April 21.  These models use data to project, and I speculate that due to the increase in daily deaths in our state, this projection was adjusted.  Though our daily cases have increased most days, the overall positive test rate per total tests taken has been encouraging.  Remember our state has an older population, as well as leading the nation in some of the pre-existing condition categories.

Having said that, from now until April 21 is crunch time for our community.  We have been successful in keeping large outbreaks from hitting our pediatric community and we must double-down on this so I am offering some suggestions:

1. Until our state has hit its peak, stay home.  Limit your family to your own yard.  Avoid going to the gas station, grocery and hardware store until the peak has passed.
2. If you were allowing neighborhood  children to play with your own, or if your teen was still seeing a friend or two, this is the time to eliminate that contact (including boyfriends and girlfriends).
3. If you work out of the home, shower immediately upon arriving home.
4. If you must go out, wear a face covering per new CDC guidelines.
5. We will be encouraging all sick visits to be done via an e-visit if possible.  For those children coming in for vaccines, we will continue to limit your time in the office and will continue to wear PPE for all our visits.  Wear your face coverings in our office if you can.
6. Try to keep your children active and busy at home.  Art projects, yard projects, spring cleaning and NTI are all possibilities.  Take the time to teach them some games from our childhood such as "Red Light Green Light", "Mother May I" and "Ghosts in the Graveyard" if they don't already know them.
7. Keep taking that allergy medication as the tree pollen count will move into "moderate" range this week.
8. If your family has religious traditions (i.e. upcoming Holy Week, Passover, and Ramadan), get your children involved in those traditions at home.
9. Try not to talk too much about the pandemic around children as it will increase their anxiety.  They may already be anxious over the change in their schedules and lifestyle.  Allow them to be frustrated, angry or sad about not seeing grandparents, friends and neighbors.  Encourage them to plan celebratory reunions with friends (including food and decorations) when restrictions are lifted.
10. Talk openly with your teenager and college student about the pandemic but try not to overshare.   Realize that they may be grieving the loss of important milestones (i.e. prom, graduations, etc).
11. Explain to them that these restrictions are like preparing for a test over an entire 9 week grading period.  If you prepare really well then the test will not seem as difficult (and it will be less stressful than cramming!)
12. Try to keep them on a school schedule for sleep and not on a summer schedule.
13. Limit their time watching the news and limit social media particularly before bedtime.
14. End each conversation and each day with optimism and encouragement.  Remember it's ok to laugh and enjoy those fun life moments.    Remind them that brighter days are ahead.

We value that you have trusted us to care for your children and though this journey has taken some unexpected turns, we continue to walk this path with you.  Though this advice sounds extreme, we are advising this only because it's the only weapon we have against this invisible disease.  The antibiotics, malaria medication, and plasma transfusions are all promising treatments but they are being reserved for hospital patients so our only defense is a strong offense, and that offense must be extreme social distancing (at least until we pass our peak).   A vaccine will be here at some point (hopefully sooner than we think) but until then avoid contact with others when you can.

A new morning will come to our homes and our community.   One day, hopefully soon, we will be back at our dance recitals, soccer games and neighborhood cook outs.  But until then, we have some work to do.  We are truly doing something that matters by merely staying home.

I spoke to my 99 year old grandmother on the phone this week.  Besides lamenting that she can't get her hair done and she would love some Kentucky Fried Chicken, she gave me some advice.  My mamaw lost her 4 year old brother to diptheria (which we now have a vaccine) when she was 11 years old.    She said, "Better days always come, you might as well be around for them."

Dr. Brian Gillispie

March 30th

Dear PAA families:

As we continue to try to meet the needs of our patients,  we want to provide you with more information.   In our office in the first two weeks of March we had very large numbers of influenza (particularly influenza B).  The positive flu cases in the last two weeks have become almost non-existent.  Therefore, if you or anyone in your family, are experiencing flu-like symptoms with fever, cough, body aches, and chills then assume this is Covid-19 and self-isolate the ENTIRE family per CDC guidelines until you can speak to us.   If this is happening in your household, call us for an e-visit and we can walk you through this anxiety-producing experience and help you decide when to seek care in person.

For the vast majority of our patients, you are healthy at home and we encourage you to keep your family at home.  These next two weeks are crucial for our community and we advise against play dates or get-togethers (even if they are small) with other families.  In the world of virology, this is how viruses die.  When the weather is nice outside, please refrain from having your children play basketball or any sports with other children.   As extreme as this advice may seem, this is the only way to continue to keep the majority of our families healthy.

Finally, it is predicted that the tree pollen count will increase in Kentucky in the next few days.  Now is the time to restart daily antihistamines if you have not done so already.   In mild cases of Covid-19, you may only experience cough and nasal discharge, so eliminating allergies as a cause of these symptoms will be helpful.

This is a challenging journey for all of us but the physicians at PAA plan to be here for our families and help you through this.  We love each of you and hope you will stay safe and healthy.

Slow the Spread

Sunday, March 15th, 2020

Hello PAA patients & families,

We want you to know that we continue to closely monitor the COVID-19 pandemic.  We follow the CDC recommendations for how we handle screening our patients for possible COVID-19.  As of today, the recommendations have not changed, so we are doing the following:

1. If you call our practice and the patient has a cough, fever and/or shortness of breath…
2. We will ask you if you have traveled outside of the U.S.  We will also ask you if you have been exposed to someone diagnosed with COVID-19 (exposed means you were within 6 feet of the diagnosed patient for 10 minutes or longer).
3. If the answers to both questions are no, then we will schedule you an appt in our office.
4. If you answer yes to either question, we will have a nurse call you back and they will review the CDC screening form with you.  After we gather the appropriate information, we contact the health dept, send over the information and then they contact you regarding possible testing.
5. We are not testing in our office, but want to direct you to the appropriate avenues for your healthcare if you do meet the criteria.

For patients coming into the office:

• While we still agree with the CDC, your risk of exposure is low, we want to do our part regarding social distancing.
• Starting this week, we will do our best to see the majority of our well visits in the morning and offer mainly sick visits in the afternoon.
• We are still seeing a high number of cases of influenza, strep and other illnesses that may require treatment.  It is important to seek care if your child is sick.
• In the afternoon (when we are primarily seeing sick visits), we will divide our waiting room into ‘fever & cough sick side’ and ‘all other illnesses’ on the other side.
• We continue to clean our waiting room every hour as well as our hard surfaces, door handles, etc, as well as deep cleaning every evening.
• We are leaving our doors at entrance into the building and entrance into our waiting room open to allow more fresh air.
• We continue to ask you to limit the number of family members coming to the office for visits.
• Please cover your cough or wear a mask if you are ill.  Unfortunately, we are not able to provide patients with masks at this time due to a national shortage.
• Use proper hand-washing technique.

For patients wanting an alternative to coming into the office:

• We will offer e-visits (telemedicine visits) upon request for the following:  ADD/ADHD rechecks, Med rechecks, rashes, conjunctivitis (pink eye), lice, Hand Foot Mouth, acne and feeding questions.
• We will have limited availability for these appointments and may not be able to offer them for every physician, every day.
• While we have been working on implementing e-visits for some time, this situation has forced us along.  This process is still very new for us so please be patient.
• You will be required to pay your co-payment over the phone when you schedule the appointment.
• You will need access to an ipad, computer or laptop with camera and microphone capabilities.  These cannot be done via cell phone.
• We are not able to offer e-visits for all patients, as most illnesses require you to see a physician.  If your child has symptoms other than those listed above, you will be asked to come into the office.
• It is still very important for us to see your child for their well visit, which we are unable to do via telemedicine.

The safety and well-being of our patients is very important to us.  While we are taking many steps in our office to offer social distancing and reduce exposure to germs, we encourage you to do some things at home as well.  While school is out for several weeks, consider doing outdoor activities rather than indoor recreational activities.  This will help to limit your family’s exposure to unnecessary germs.

Thank you,

Pediatric & Adolescent Associates, PSC

Wednesday, March 11, 2020

Hello PAA Patients & Families,

We want you to know that we are constantly monitoring the COVID-19 health situation and are always concerned about the health of our patients. We are continuing to see patients in our offices, as normal, and agree with the CDC that risk is still low. However, we are trying to decrease the spread of germs by sanitizing the waiting room frequently throughout the day, getting patients back to an exam room as quickly as possible and removing items such as our sucker baskets out of the reach of children. Our facilities have always been cleaned thoroughly each evening and we will continue to do so with extra caution. There are also some things you can do to minimize exposure to germs while in our office:

* Limit the number of family members attending doctor’s appointments
* Cover your cough
* Use proper hand-washing technique
* Distance yourself from others in waiting rooms
* If you would like to wear a mask, please bring one with you as we have limited supply (which are currently reserved for staff)

We are not currently testing for COVID-19 in our office and are unaware of any positive cases affecting our patient population. We are asking patients who are concerned about their symptoms and exposure to COVID-19, to call our office and speak with a nurse. We will help direct you to the appropriate facility for testing if you meet the criteria.

Thank you for allowing us to care for your family!

Click here for more information on COVID-19

Know your Facts on COVID-19 from CDC