Our Services
Child and Adolescent Clinic offers a full array of services to help your child maintain good health. We follow the Medical Home model of care, and aim to provide children's health care that is family centered, compassionate, coordinated, comprehensive, and accessible. You can read more on this page about specific services.
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Ask Dr. Sue Click here to access helpful answers to many parent questions about caring for your child's health.
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Adolescent Medicine - Adolescence can be a confusing time for both teens and their parents. As the adolescent matures both physically and psychologically, he or she may have an increased desire for privacy and an increasing number of questions about themselves and their place in the world. At the Child and Adolescent Clinic, we acknowledge and respect this increasing independence by changing the structure of our visits to include time with the adolescent alone, as well as time with the adolescent and his or her parent. We try to be good listeners, responding respectfully to the concerns of our adolescent patients.
The transition from adolescence to adulthood takes many forms. For some, this will include going to college. We offer pre-college visits to ensure that the teen has received appropriate vaccinations, including the fairly new meningitis vaccine, Menactra, and the Tetanus/Pertussis (whopping cough) booster vaccine. We also emphasize age-appropriate safety information, including personal safety and the dangers of alcohol and drug use. If the adolescent has chronic conditions that require ongoing prescriptions, we work with the adolescent to ensure continued access to those medications, either by providing the prescriptions through our clinic, or by coordinating the transition to another provider (such as student health) by transferring the necessary medical records and information. For all young adults with complex medical conditions, we work with them to make the transition to adult medical care a successful one. -
Asthma, Spirometry, and Allergy Immunotherapy - The incidence of childhood asthma and allergic disease has been increasing over the last fifty years, resulting in billions of heatlh care dollars spent, and millions of lost school days annually, for children with these diagnoses. Our goal is to offer coordinated care to maximize activity and minimize symptoms for our patients with allergies and asthma. We offer regular asthma review visits with spirometry (a computerized assessment of asthma severity and response to treatment) and communicate this information to caregivers and school personnel through personalized Asthma Action Plans. Because asthma and its treatments may be complex, we offer each asthma patient at our clinic a special Asthma Care binder filled with information about asthma, how it is diagnosed, what medicine may be used to treat it, and how those medicines work to treat asthma. It also serves as a place to file the child's Asthma Action Plan and peak flow meter readings. Our asthma patients also receive priority for flu shots each fall.
Child and Adolescent Clinic pediatricians manage many kinds of routine allergic conditions such as seasonal allergies and eczema. For more complex allergic conditions, we offer prompt referral to a pediatric allergy specialist for evaluation and treatment when necessary. We offer personalized treatment plans for caregivers and school personnel that include detailed information on how to respond in case of a potentially life threatening allergic reaction. We also work with our patients to ensure that they have the necessary medicines, including Epi-pen (epinephrine) shots, available to them both at home and at school.
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Breastfeeding - The pediatricians, nurse practitioners, and staff at Child and Adolescent Clinic are committed to helping you and your infant succeed as a breastfeeding team. We offer consultations with an Internationally Certified Lactation Consultant routinely. In fact, we believe that each breastfeeding mother should meet with our Lactation Consultant once around the time of the baby's first clinic vist, to help prevent problems before they occur. If you choose to breastfeed your infant, we will be there to help you!
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Car Seat Inspection - Over 95% of car seats that are checked in our county are installed incorrectly! The Child and Adolescent Clinic is pleased to offer appointments at the clinic to have your car seat checked by one of our Certified Child Safety Restraint Technicians. Call the office at 360-577-1771 to schedule an appointment. Community Car Seat Clinics are also scheduled every one to two months - check our home page for the next date, time, and place. For more information visit Buckle Up.
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Care Coordination – if your child needs to see a surgeon or pediatric subspecialist, we will help to arrange the appointment, obtain the insurance authorization, and get approval for follow-up care needed.
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Dental Health - Dental cavities are the most common disease caused by infection in children. Our pediatricians and nurse practitioners assess dental health at each well child visit through the first few years of life, and provide guidance for parents regarding cavity prevention. We promote dental health by providing fluoride prescriptions for children living in homes without fluoridated water, and by applying fluoride varnish to the teeth. "The American Dental Association supports the use of fluoride varnishes as safe and efficacious within a caries prevention program that includes caries diagnosis, risk assessment, and regular dental care." Our service is not intended to replace routine dental care, but to supplement it. We also offer referrals to pediatric dentists when necessary for evaluation and treatment of childhood dental disease. Finally, we perform presurgical evaluations for patients who require dental care under general anesthesia.
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Foster Care - Prompt, comprehensive, coordinated care is provided to children who enter foster care. Our mission is to create a family-centered medical home for the new foster family.
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Immunizations - Child and Adolescent Clinic believes strongly in preventative care. We follow the American Academy of Pediatrics guidelines for Immunizations . All vaccines except the influenza shot designed for children older than three are now thimerisol free. The state of Washington provides most vaccines free of charge, so you or your insurance will usually be responsible only for a handling and injection fee. Our clinic is enrolled in Child Profile, a nationwide organization that allows confirmation of your child's immunizations to follow them from state to state, even if other records are unavailable.
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Newborn Hearing Screening - Child and Adolescent Clinic fully participates in the Washington State Newborn Hearing Screening Program. All newborn babies undergo painless Otoacoustic Emmissions (OAE) testing either at the hospital shortly after birth, or at the clinic. Infants who do not pass the initial screening are retested at the clinic at one of their early appointments. Babies with persistent difficulties or risk factors for hearing loss are referred to experienced hearing professionals so that interventions and therapies can begin early for hearing-impaired infants. In addition to newborn screening, all school-aged children have hearing screenings during their annual well-child visits.
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Patient Education - Our patient education program relies heavily on material written by our own doctors and nurse practitioners. This information is kept up to date by regular review and revision. We also have information provided by the American Academy of Pediatrics and other trusted resources available to you. Our goal is to give you as much information as possible so you can be an active, knowledgeable partner in managing your child's health. If you have a particular topic that you would like to learn more about, ask us for suggestions.
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Visiting Subspecialists - When you child needs care that is beyond our area of expertise, or our pediatricians feel your child could benefit from seeing a subspecialist, we provide a referral. Most of our pediatric subspecialist colleagues are not located in the Longview/Kelso area, and for many of our patients this presents a transportation challenge. We have partnered with some of our pediatric subspecialists to allow them to see your child here at Child and Adolescent Clinic. Currently, we have visiting subspecialists for:
Asthma/Allergy - Carolyn Comer, MD, 3-4 times per month
Cardiology - Douglas King, MD, every other month
Neurology - P.J. Pohowalla, MD, every other month
Endocrinology - David Snyder, MD, once per quarter
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Quality Assurance - Child and Adolescent Clinic pediatricians and pediatric nurse practitioners are continually reviewing our policies and procedures to ensure that they meet the most up to date and evidence-based standards of care. We have a weekly meeting dedicated solely to reviewing our existing practice guidelines and incorporating the latest research and literature on a given topic. Our Child Nurturing Guide and patient handouts are updated on an annual basis also. We do all this to ensure that the care your child receives is not only the standard of care, but the best care that they can get.
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Sports Medicine - Every year, an increasing number of children participate in individual or team sports. The clinicians at CAC are happy to perform the annual or biannual Preparticipation Physical Evaluation for your child or adolescent. In addition, we will evaluate your young athlete's acute or overuse injuries. We can help to clarify the diagnosis and to establish treatment plans, and we work closely with local physical therapists, orthopedic surgeons, and radiologists when referrals are appropriate.
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Stop Smoking Assistance - Our staff is committed to helping our adolescents stop smoking. We strongly urge all household members to stop smoking as well. Prevention of second hand smoke exposure has been shown to be an important way of preventing frequent ear infections and pneumonias, and decreasing the chance of developing childhood asthma. We have staff specially trained as Prevention/Intervention Specialists who work with our doctors and nurse practitioners to help teenagers stop smoking. They offer brief counseling sessions using practical suggestions and information you can take home. We encourage follow up visits with one of our doctors or nurse practitioners if there are questions or struggles. We won't give up if you don't!
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Telephone Advice - Child and Adolescent Clinic offers a free telephone advice service to its patients. For parents who have questions about what to do next, or who are not sure whether their child needs to be seen at the clinic, help is available 24/7. Our advice aides follow estalished guidelines to answer questions, and there is always a physician available to address more complicated concerns.
- X-ray - Most of the x-rays needed to make common pediatric diagnoses can be taken during your child's appointment right here in our Longview clinic. For more complex x-rays, CT scans, or MRI, we will make arrangements for your child to get them promptly at another facility.