Pediatric urgent care center opens in Jenkintown

A pediatric medical facility that could serve as an alternative to a trip to the emergency room in the middle of the night was recently opened in Jenkintown by St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children.

Billing itself as the first pediatric urgent care center in the Greater Philadelphia region, St. Christopher ’s Pediatric Urgent Care Center at 500 Old vork Road will provide patients from birth to 1U with immediate medical attention for non-life threatening situations that occur after most pediatricians’ offices are closed for the day or weekend, a press release states.

Open Monday through Friday, 5 to 11 p.m., and Saturday, Sunday and holidays from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m., t he center will have walk-in access and will be staffed by a pediatrician, registered nurse and u-ray technician.

“The goal is to be a resource, a place t o t ake kids when they get sick after the [family] pediatrician’s hours,” St. Christopher ’s Hospital spokeswoman iiz Allison said in a recent interview. “We hope to have pediatricians refer clients to us as opposed to an emergency room when [their physician’s office] is closed.”

The urgent care center is not intended to compete with pediatricians or with hospital emergency rooms, but will work with a child’s physician by faxing over a full report of whatever treatment the child received and any recommendations for what the next steps could be, she said.

“It’s really just for non-life threatening situations instead of going to the emergency room,” where there is usually a wait and the cost is more, Allison said. “There is less co-pay [than at t he ER] in most instances.”

The center will accept most insurance and a fee for service at reduced cost for those who are uninsured, she said. Dr. Richard Brodsky, a pediatric emergency department physician, has been appointed the medical director for the facility.

St. Chris’ pediatric urgent care center “is on call when your pediatrician’s office is closed,” Brodsky said in the release. It is “not intended to replace a parent and child’s relationship with their pediatrician. Rather, our goal is to provide immediate medical attention and treat illness and injures that occur after hours.”

The pediatric urgent care center will be at the same location as St. Chris Specialty Pediatrics at Abington at Old vork and Rydal roads, which is staffed by 14 physicians offering a full range of special services from cardiology to urology and eight other specialties in between, for those from birth to age 21. Opened in the Abington area nine years ago, the specialty center moved to its present lo- cation last year, Allison said.

The specialists will use the office during daytime hours and the pediatric urgent care center staff will be there nights, holidays and weekends.

Opening the pediatric urgent care center was “something St. Chris wanted to do … they wanted to expand their reach,” Allison said, by offering after-hours treatment for those in the Abington-Jenkintown community.

According t o t he hospital’s website, it currently has pediatric offices outside the hospital in four locations, two in Bucks County and t wo in Philadelphia, and five specialty pediatric l ocations including the one in Abington.