After Hours

St. Louis Children's Hospital After Hours Service is available for your call after hours. Call  314-747-2256  and you will be put in touch with a pediatric triage nurse who can listen to your concerns and offer recommendations.   Please save routine questions (mild illness, appointments, prescription refills) for the morning.  We encourage you to refer to our website first when practical before calling the office.

TELEPHONE ADVICE

Many common questions that parents have about their children are addressed at their well child visits. We know that question do pop up in between well visits, so we would like to refer you to our website which contains information and advice over many different topics. The "Is your child sick?" section is most helpful for assessing what may be wrong at times of illness, but we also have an extensive library of non acute illness topics.

If, after consulting our website, you still have a question, please contact our office and one of our experienced pediatric triage nurses will assist you. They can often answer your questions and concerns; at times, they may defer the questions to your personal pediatrician and then get back with the answer/suggestion to you. A written report is kept of all phone calls concerning patient care.

If it is a matter that the provider needs to return your call, the call is made generally after all patients with appointments have been seen (either late afternoon or in the evening).

Please keep in mind that there are many concerns that are not easily answered with a phone call, and you may be asked to make an appointment to see one of our providers.

When our office is closed and you have an urgent issue that cannot wait until the next time that the office is open, you can call 1-314-747-2256 and be connected to our pediatric nurse triage service through St. Louis Children’s Hospital. You will be given advice regarding your child’s problem; if needed, the triage nurse will discuss the case with the provider on call (We have a provider on call 24/7/365.) You may wish to check the “Is Your Child Sick?” section of our website for helpful information before using the triage service. Medications, most importantly antibiotics and pain medications, will not be prescribed after hours

When calling after hours, please have the following information available for the triage nurse:

• Your child’s main symptoms
• Any chronic disease or health problems your child has
• Your child’s temperature if he/she is ill
• Your child’s approximate weight (for medication dosages)
• The names and dosages of medicine that your child is currently taking
• Your specific questions
• Always have a pencil and paper handy to take down instructions, and have your child nearby in case you need to check something about his/her condition.