August 28, 2019 – Short, meaningful story: One day in the late 1970’s, a medical student witnessed a pediatric resident spending her lunch with a young patient in the Burn Center at the North Carolina Children’s Hospital and thought to herself, “That’s the kind of pediatrician I would like to be.”
Story twist: Turns out that story includes two now former pediatricians from our office as the medical student was Leigh Lehan, MD and the pediatric resident was Marjorie Carr, MD.
Fast forward: June 22, 2018: Dr. Lehan retired from RCAM.
August 28, 2019: Dr. Carr retires from RCAM.
Summary: RCAM has said goodbye to two legends in the last 14 months.
Today was Dr. Carr’s last day. Tomorrow will be a different day for her. And it will be a very different one for our office.
Dr. Carr brought real passion and skill for pediatric medicine to RCAM when she arrived in 1979. if you are wondering about her impact, check out the reactions to a recent Facebook post about her nearing retirement:
Thank you Dr. Carr for forty years of attentive and excellent care for the children of the Triangle!
What you have been doing each day – caring for our most vulnerable and most important members of society – our children – has been so important and so splendidly done!
Their is a lot of wellness going around again this summer with a lot of families taking care of their annual physicals.
If your child needs a sports physical, your child’s annual well visit will cover that.
Also, remember that a sports physical is valid for sports participation in Wake County Public Schools for 13 months after the date of exam.
So, if your health insurance is like mine and requires 365 days between each will visit, you still have another month to schedule your child’s next well visit / sports physical. Don’t be pressured into going to an Urgent Care of Minute Clinic –taking your child to see their pediatrician for their annual visit is very important.
2-Nurse Shannon B. Had a Baby Boy
Many of you have been following the pregnancy of Shannon B., one of our nurses from our Brier Creek office.
A few weeks ago she gave birth to her baby boy. He weighed in at a healthy 6 lbs and 9 oz. Everyone is doing great.
3-Dr. Carr’s Last Day at RCAM is August 28th
Dr. Carr has been a huge part of Raleigh Childrens & Adolescents Medicine for quite some time.
Next month she will retire after almost 40 years of caring for the children of the Triangle.
How do you say goodbye to a legend?
4-Happy 4th of July
Reminder: this is a holiday week:
Monday thru Wednesday, July 1st-3rd: Duraleigh and Brier Creek Offices both open regular weekday hours
Thursday, July 4th – Duraleigh and Brier Creek Offices both closed for the Independence Day holiday; holiday coverage described here (in short, a limited clinic starting at 10am at the Duraleigh office)
Friday, July 5th – Duraleigh and Brier Creek Offices back to being open regular weekday hours
Actually the building that we lease office space from has a new transformer – but that is something
We are back at our typical Duraleigh location for our Sunday After Hours Clinic
BIG SHOUT OUTS TO:
Office manager Debbie for all her prep work and for being at the office at 6:30am to make sure everything went as smooth as possible
Nurse Liz who spent the week preparing for Saturday After Hours Clinic to be held in a new location with no electronic medical records – her work made today’s clinic go very well
The Duke Progress Energy Crew for getting it done just like they said they would – even in the rain!
It’s a Typical Sunday, June 9, 2019
No Walk-In Appointments on Sunday
Patients are seen by appointment only
If you think your child may need to be seen, call 919-781-7490 in the morning after 9 am and speak to the nurse working with the On Call Pediatrician.
Sunday After Hours Clinic begins at 10am. Clinic ending time varies depending on how busy we are.
After clinic, we are available to speak by phone about any urgent concerns you may have.
June 7, 2019 – Tomorrow – Saturday, June 8, 2019 – our Duraleigh office will be without power as Duke-Progress Energy will be doing some work on the transformer that serves that building.
Therefore, our typical Saturday After Hours Clinic will take place at our Brier Creek office.
The “Written-In-Stone” Weekend Plan: Saturday, June 8th
After Hours Clinic with be at the Brier Creek office (click here or see below for directions)
No Walk-In Appointments on the Weekend
Patients are seen by appointment only
If you think your child may need to be seen this weekend, call 919-781-7490 in the morning after 9 am; our answering service will send us a message and you will get a call back from the Weekend Nurse working with the On Call Pediatrician.
Weekend Clinic begins at 10am. Clinic ending time varies depending on how busy we are.
After clinic, we are available to speak by phone about any urgent concerns you may have.
The “Stay Tuned” Weekend Plan: Sunday, June 9th
Power should return later Saturday so that we can return to Duraleigh for our regular Weekend After Hours Clinic on Sunday
Of all people, we know things can be unpredictable so our Sunday Backup Plan is to use our Brier Creek office again Progress Energy
If we are going to a backup plan, that information will be posted here on our website
Going Old School (No EMR)
While the power is down at Duraleigh, we will not have access to our electronic medical records (EMR) system
We’ll be making a paper record that will be entered into the electronic record later
We will not be able to send prescriptions electronically; if your child is prescribed a medicine, you will receive a written script that you can take to your pharmacy
Where is the Brier Creek Office?
Some of you are very familiar with our Brier Creek location and some of you have never been there before. It is right down the road from a Target if you have some other errands to run that day.
If your child is seen this weekend, we will do our best to see that things go smoothly
Being committed to seeing our patients in our office 364 days a year takes some extra effort – we think that is very important and well worth the effort
Whenever possible, it is best to be able to avoid urgent cares, pharmacy clinics and emergency rooms and see your pediatricians when your child is sick
May 24, 2019 – As a pediatric office that prides itself on top-notch care of newborns and their families – when one of our own is expecting – our baby shower game can’t disappoint.
Gotta keep it fresh – like we did in 2015.
When faced with five (yes, it was five) expectant staffers, we pioneered the Dirty Santa White Elephant Auction Baby Shower.
That day featured five expectant mothers all competing for their portion of the same baby shower booty.
The typical baby shower chorus of “Ooh’s” and “Ah’s” were replaced by “Watch out!” and “Oh no she didn’t!?!”
This past Wednesday‘s mild 80 degree temp and overcast sky were a perfect setting for breaking new ground again as we took to the Duraleigh office parking lot for Nurse Shannon B’s Flash Mob Tailgate Baby Shower.
We had the grass below us and the cool sky above us. We had corn hole and music featuring “Baby” in the title.
This graph depicts the last three years of likely flu activity in North Carolina (from the NC Dept. of Health and Human Services). It shows how this year’s flu (red line) peaked in February (as it usually does) and has steadily trended downward to now much lower rates as typically seen in April.
Official declarations on the efficacy of this year’s flu vaccine won’t come until later but early reports show it wasn’t bad. Preliminary results putthis year’s vaccine effectiveness at about 47% (up almost 10 percentage points from last year).
TAKE-HOME MESSAGE: Plan to get your families flu vaccine for the 2019-2020 flu season in October.
2) As Flu Winds Down, It’s Time To Schedule Your Child’s Well Visit
Every child 3 years of age and older are recommended to get an annual “check up” or “well visit”.
School athletics, scouts, and most summer camps will also require that your child has an up to date physical and likely require their form to be completed so that your child can participate.
TAKE-HOME MESSAGE: Beat the summer rush. Call and schedule your child’s annual well visit now.
3) Upcoming Holidays at RCAM
The holiday office schedule will be covered again as we get closer to those holidays.
Last week, our very own Dr. Emily Ross got the pre-wedding pediatric medical office makeover (a.k.a. How many uses for exam table paper can you come up with?) from the RCAM nurses. Congratulations to her and her husband on their big day this past weekend. #BigTimesAtRCAM
Also, you may remember Sylvia who used to work at our front desk (her husband is Steve – between the 2 of them, they worked about 70 years at RCAM)? She stands to win ten’s of dollars in the Unauthorized RCAM March Madness Pick ’em if Virginia wins the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament tonight. #BigTimesAtRCAM
