Your Questions Answered: Precocious Puberty, Hypothyroid and Short Stature
On-call endocrinologists at Seattle Children’s are currently spending 20+ hours per week fielding calls from community providers, mostly about three conditions: precocious puberty, hypothyroid and short stature. To support PCPs, we want to bring your attention to algorithms created by Seattle Children’s with input from primary care providers. Our nurses use these same algorithms to triage incoming referrals. We encourage you to consult these resources first and if you still are unsure or if the algorithm didn’t address your question, you are welcome to call the Provider-to-Provider Line (206-987-7777).
New Flyers in 5 Languages Address Mental Health for Children and Teens
Three leading U.S. pediatric health organizations declared a state of emergency in youth mental health on October 19, 2021. We want to take this opportunity to share several new flyers from Seattle Children’s intended to help families find a qualified and available mental health counselor for their child. We encourage our provider partners in the community to share them with patients and families.
What to Expect When Referring Your Patient for Medication Management
As a reminder, patients referred to Psychiatry for medication management will receive consultation and short-term management. We do not provide ongoing medication management.
Short-term medication management can range from two visits — for intake and recommendation/prescription — to taking over care for a few months to oversee a trial of medication. We require patients to be in therapy before considering medications, but therapy does not have to be with us. If the patient is requesting a second opinion on medication, we will see them and then provide recommendations to the referring provider, who would continue to provide ongoing care and medication management.
Return to Sports This Fall: Advice From Our Cardiologists
Many families and providers are wondering what precautions to take before sending kids back to sports after a COVID-19 infection. Using guidelines from the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and American Heart Association (AHA), cardiologists at Seattle Children’s created the proposed protocol to guide PCPs in safely returning kids to sports after infection. It was presented in our July CME, “Return to Sports After COVID-19, Plus Updates on Post-Vaccine Perimyocarditis,” along with information about COVID’s impact on heart function and information about why the benefits of vaccination outweigh the risks of post-vaccine myopericarditis.
Mental Health: Resources for Kids and Handouts for Providers
The return to school and in-person learning is likely to bring up a variety of emotions for children and families. Here are some resources for supporting children’s mental health as back-to-school season arrives.
Grand Rounds: September 2021
Provider Grand Rounds are held year-round on Thursdays from 8 to 9 a.m. Instructions on watching the live webcast are here.
- September 2, 2021: Transition from Crisis to Management: An Overview of Care for Youth with a Restrictive Eating Disorder. Yolanda Evans, MD, MPH, Associate Professor, Pediatrics, UW; Adolescent Medicine, Seattle Children’s; and Nicole Stettler, PhD, Psychiatry and Behavioral Medicine, Seattle Children’s.
PCP Resources From Seattle Children’s
As a reminder, more than 50 algorithms and other resources for PCPs are available from Seattle Children’s on our website to support your patient care.
- Please visit Algorithms for Referring Providers (conditions listed A to Z) and Provider Resources for Clinical Care (our nonalgorithm resources) to see what’s available. Remember to bookmark these sites.
- Alternatively, we created a flyer with links to the sites above and to the specific algorithms and other resources available.
- These resources help PCPs know the best treatment protocols, when to refer a patient for specialty care and which specialty clinic to refer to.
New Referral Guidelines: Dermatology, Rehab Medicine and Biochemical Genetics
Dermatology Now Requires a Referral for All New Patients
- Effective June 21, 2021, all new dermatology patients need a referral. Previously patients could self-refer. Our new policy is intended to help us schedule new patients in a more timely manner with the provider who will best meet their needs. The wait time for a new patient appointment is currently four to six months.
- Common skin conditions such as acne, warts, urticaria, eczema and molluscum often can be managed in primary care, helping patients avoid the wait to see a specialist. For primary care management, the following PCP resources may be useful:
- Acne: Causes, Treatment and Referral Information(PDF)
- Acne: Algorithm (Rady Children’s)
- Eczema Action Plan(PDF) (Spanish)
- Atopic Dermatitis: Treatment Plan(PDF) (Russian) (Spanish) (Simplified Chinese) (Vietnamese)
- Molluscum Contagiosum: Causes, Treatment and Referral Information (PDF)
- Urticaria: Algorithm (PDF)
- Warts: Causes, Treatment and Referral Information (PDF)
Where to Refer Concussion Patients at Seattle Children’s
A new algorithm helps PCPs know where to refer patients for concussion at Seattle Children’s.
- Neurology sees patients who have had ongoing headache for over two months, in the absence of a sports injury.
- Sports Medicine sees patients who experienced a sports injury concussion, are at least 6 years old and have not experienced any of the following: hospitalization for more than 24 hours, skull fracture, intracranial hemorrhage, focal neurological deficit or neurosurgery/brain surgery of any kind in the past.
- Rehabilitation Medicine sees all other concussion patients.
