UTMB

UTMB has begun a new campaign, aimed at directing patients toward seeing their primary physician, rather than heading straight to the emergency room. The campaign, aimed at educating the community about finding a “medical home’ with a family doctor that they know and that knows their families’ medical history.

If you do not a specific doctor that you take your child to regularly, it may be more important than ever to identify a medical home for your child due to upcoming changes in children's services at UTMB.  Beginning September 1st there will be a significant decrease in the space and staff dedicated to specialized around-the-clock emergency care for children at the UTMB Emergency Room. Many parents may prefer or need to make an appointment with their child's identified pediatrician for non life-threatening problems rather than using the ER during these times.

Children that do come to the ER with non-threatening problems will be referred either to their pediatricians (if they have insurance or financial resources to pay for their child’s care) or to community clinics (if they do not have the resources to pay for care).

It’s important for families to work with their pediatricians to keep vital health information at hand in case there is an actual emergency.

Keep a record of your child’s medical information including:

If our child goes to school, a daycare center, or stays with a babysitter, you will need to leave information including how you can be reached quickly, the name and phone number of your child’s doctor (so that the school or caretaker can get in touch with the doctor in case you can’t be reached for some reason). If your child goes to daycare or school, you normally have to sign a release that states that a staff member may authorize medical care if you can’t be contacted.