March 29, 2024
Dear NAP Families,
We would like to share several changes to our weekend nurse triage and weekend scheduling processes starting this Sunday March 31st.
Unfortunately, we are facing clinical staffing challenges and need to temporarily make changes to our weekend workflows. We have made the difficult decision to use our external nurse triage service that we use overnight on the weekends as well. You will still call the main number and press 9 to speak to our answering service. Instead of them paging your call to our internal nurse triage staff, your call will be paged to our external nurse triage service starting at 6:45 pm Friday night until 8:00 am Monday morning. The external triage service is staffed by highly skilled RNs and use the same clinical protocols as NAP’s nurse triage staff to give our families appropriate advice and guidance. The triage service will have the ability to communicate with our office if needed.
The biggest change you could experience may be in response times. The external triage service covers multiple pediatric practices in our area. The nurses triage and return calls based on severity of symptoms, clinical protocols, and clinical judgement.
For this reason, we ask that non-urgent clinical questions be sent via the portal and will be handled within 2 business days.
If you are calling on the weekend to request a medication refill, the best way to do so is using the MyChart portal. You can also call our main number and press option 3 to leave a message on our refill line. Refills are processed within 48 hours.
To schedule a weekend acute care appointment, call our main number and select option 9 to speak to our answering service who can schedule your appointment. You can also book an acute care appointment on the MyChart portal. The portal shows you which appointments are available to book directly through that site.
Please remember weekend acute care appointments should be reserved for acute issues only (new illnesses or injuries). If you have a chronic condition or complex issue that needs to be addressed, please call our office Monday morning to schedule an appointment with your primary care provider.
We appreciate your patience during this time. We will be putting our full energy towards recruiting and hiring excellent clinical staff to join the NAP team over the coming months and hope to return to normal weekend triage operations by May 4th. If you know of anyone who might be interested in applying for a job as medical assistant, LPN, or CNA, please have them contact our office at contactus@napeds.com.
Looking forward to sunnier days ahead,
Northampton Area Pediatrics