We still have appointment slots for tomorrow, Saturday 10/17/20, but ONLY in the morning. Call our office at 650.216.7794 or use your MyChart portal to schedule an appointment online. Unfortunately we cannot accommodate walk-ins due to COVID safety precautions. PLEASE READ THIS CAREFULLY BECAUSE THINGS ARE DIFFERENT THIS YEAR:

• Flu vaccine clinic will be held in a pop-up tent in our parking lot, look for the big green tent. You do NOT need to come in to the office, just go directly to the tent.

• There can be 1 adult with each child.

• Everyone over the age of 2 years will need to wear a mask.

• This flu vaccine clinic is ONLY for the flu vaccine and ONLY for established PWG patients

As always, thank you for your patience…and for getting your children immunized!

Even orange skies can’t stop us 😊We will be having flu vaccine clinics again starting October 15 on Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday afternoons from 1:30p to 4:30p. COVID social distancing requirements require us to have an appointment-based system in order to safely deliver flu vaccines to our patients. We cannot accommodate walk-ins at this time.

PLEASE READ CAREFULLY as this is a little different then what we’ve done in the past:

• flu vaccine clinic will be held in a pop-up tent in our parking lot
• there can be 1 adult with each child
• everyone over the age of 2 years will need to wear a mask
• we will be making appointments up to 1 week in advance
• You can call the office or send in an appointment requests via a MyChart message using the UCSF patient portal
• this flu vaccine clinic is ONLY for the flu vaccine and ONLY for established PWG patients

Pediatric Wellness Group will be closed on Monday September 7th in observance of Labor Day.

We will resume normal office hours on Tuesday September 8th.

We will have our urgent care hours on Saturday September 5th

It’s that time of the year, and we have started to receive flu vaccine doses. We anticipate having enough for everyone but unfortunately we do not get all the doses at once, and we have no control over when additional shipments will arrive.  COVID social distancing requirements will mean that we need to have an appointment based system in order to safely deliver flu vaccines to our patients. We had hoped to be able to offer online flu shot appointments but the folks at UCSF IT were not able to complete that project for us yet. We will update you when that changes.

Since it’s important not to delay flu vaccinations we are going to start offering flu shot clinic next week, here are some important details. PLEASE READ CAREFULLY as this is a little different then what we’ve done in the past:

• the first round of flu vaccine clinics will be held Mon 8/31/20 to Fri 9/4/20
• flu vaccine clinic will be held in a pop-up tent in our parking lot
• there can be 1 adult with each child
• everyone over the age of 2 years will need to wear a mask
• we have a limited number of appointment slots and cannot accommodate walk-ins at this time
• We will start making appointments for flu vaccine clinic on Monday 8/31/20 at 9am.
• You can call the office or send in an appointment requests via a MyChart message using the UCSF patient portal
• we will be reaching out to our high risk patients to schedule their flu vaccine appointments
• we will have more flu vaccine clinics as we get more vaccine supplies, we anticipate having enough for everyone this season
• this flu vaccine clinic is ONLY for the flu vaccine and ONLY for established PWG patients

We are actively preparing for the upcoming flu vaccine season…we do NOT have flu vaccine in yet but will let you all know ASAP when it arrives. Merrie is part of our stellar front desk crew, she wrote up step by step instructions on how to sign up for MyChart access which is the patient portal to our EHR. This will allow you to schedule flu vaccine clinic appointments online:

1. Go to pediactricwellnessgroup.com

2. Click on PWG Patient Center → Select “Patient Portal”

3. Scroll down and you will see “Here’s how you can sign up:” a. Click on the Age Appropriate Proxy Authorization form PDF (0-11 yrs or 12-17 yrs) i. Parent must fill out one proxy form PER CHILD.

4. After Parent fills out Proxy Authorization Form, they can submit it to the Front Desk to verify information & identity. (Photo ID IS REQUIRED!)

5. Front Desk will either: email or text the UCSF MyChart link to the Parent

6. Once Parents receive the link, they must sign up using THEIR information (PARENT’S SSN, PARENT’S DOB, ect…)

7. For patients who are 18 years of age or older, they can enroll directly. i. Give MRN # and direct them to ucsfhealth.org/mychart

If you have any questions, you can call our office at 650-216-7794 or MyChart Customer Service at (415) 514-6000 to speak with MyChart staff 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

PWG will be closed on Friday July 3rd and Saturday July 4th, in observance of 4th of July Holiday.

We will resume normal business hours on Monday, July 6th.

We wish everyone a happy and healthy holiday.

Click here for more information on After Hour Pediatrics for urgent care needs.

We have been getting lots of questions about how to safely navigate the process of re-entry to school, work, play, etc. Experts are cautioning that as we open back up there will be more potential exposure, but that does not mean we cannot take steps to protect ourselves. Three highly effective precautions are: 1) wash your hands well and often 2) wear a mask if you cannot maintain 6 feet of social distance with people who are not part of your household 3) avoid touching your face. Some experts are also talking about the idea of a “social bubble” or “quarantine “pod” in which two or three families agree to socialize with one another but no one else. In a pod, families hang out together, often without regard to social distancing — but outside of the pod, they follow recommended social distancing rules. There is no perfect answer or universal solution, every family needs to balance their needs with potential risks and make a decision that is right for them. If you have questions, feel free to set up an appointment to discuss this further with your doctor at PWG.

Here are some important updates about COVID we thought you should know:

• COVID lockdowns prevented 60M cases in the US
• Children with COVID-19 were rarely the source of infections in their household, according to a study published in May. Many experts are advocating for strategies that allow children/young adults to go back to school safely because of growing evidence that prolonged isolation can harm their social development.
• There is no current evidence that pets play a significant role in spreading COVID-19 to people
• Multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C) is a rare inflammatory condition linked to COVID, but we still do not know a lot about it. Many cases are concentrated on the East Coast, unclear if this is because the East Coast was hit by a variant from Europe while the West Coast was hit by a variant from China
• Anywhere from 30% to 50% of coronavirus spread may be traced to people with no symptoms. This reinforces the importance of following 3 basic precautions: 1) wash your hands well and often 2) wear a mask if you cannot maintain 6 feet of social distance with people who are not part of your household 3) avoid touching your face

There are multiple guidelines that can change rapidly as we learn more about COVID, rest assured that Team PWG is working constantly to update our protocols to keep our families, staff, and community safe!