We will be upgrading this space November 16-18. Seeing your children in Suite 230 upstairs on those days, re-opening this space Friday, November 19.
We are very excited to begin preparations for our office to open as Akron Children’s Hospital Pediatrics (ACHP) Beachwood on the morning of Friday, November 19.
As we near the transition from being Advanced Pediatrics to ACHP Beachwood, we wanted to give some more details about how the transition will go.
Again, the people currently in the office will remain here. Dr. Julie Hertzer and Dr. Arthur Lavin remain the doctors in the practice. Sam and Sue remain our medical assistants and Tina remains one of our front desk professionals.
We will be welcoming three new people to our office team. Each are not only new to the office, but two provide a level of service not previously available here.
The first person to welcome is Michael Klemencic, RN who will serve as nurse in the office. We also welcome Ms. Allison Garland who will serve as office supervisor. And ACHP Beachwood is in the process of hiring a second full-time front desk professional.
The Transition Period of Monday November 15- Thursday November 18
In order for the transition from Advanced Pediatrics to Akron Children’s Hospital Beachwood to be completed, this office will need to close for a few days. During that time we will not be conducting any regular check-ups, but care for any of your children who need care for an illness will remain available here in this building.
You might ask, how can we see you if our office is closed for these few days? It turns out that Akron Children’s Hospital has a beautiful specialty office right upstairs from us, in Suite 230. Our building is built in a way that you have to enter the central front door for the building to get to our second floor.
So for Tuesday November 16, Wednesday November 17, and Thursday November 18, your children can be seen for sick visits in Suite 230, on the second floor of our building, which you can only gain entry via the central door to our building. Just to be clear, the outside door you enter our building is the left door of the overall building. Our office will remain in the same place as always after these very few days of closing to get the office fully ready to launch.
On these days, Drs. Hertzer and Lavin will be completing our training on the new, upgraded systems, and so our colleague Dr. Richmond from Akron Children’s Hospital Pediatrics will help out, available to see your children for sick visits on these days.
The morning of Friday, November 19 our office re-opens as ACHP-Beachwood, very excited to fly our new banner, with upgraded abilities and service for you all.
Our number and location will be the same, 3733 Park East Drive, Suite 102 and 216-591-1515.
Summary of Office Hours and Access to Care November 15-November 19
Monday, November 15
We open for sick visits as Advanced Pediatrics at 9:00 AM. The office then will close at Noon that day, and our phones will go down until Tuesday morning.
While we are closed Monday afternoon and evening, if you need help, call the Akron Children’s Hospital after hours nurse line at 1-330-543-8776.
Tuesday, November 16-Thursday November 18
Our regular office at Suite 102 will be closed for these 3 days, but our number 216-591-1515 will once again be on starting at 8:30 AM Tuesday, November 16.
Our phone line, 216-591-1515 will remain your number to turn to for help 24/7, every day of the year from that time on.
During this time, your children can be seen for sick visits, but not check ups. Our colleague from Akron Children’s Hospital, Dr. Richmond, will see your children on these days in an office just one floor above our current one. This is the same address, 3733 Park East Drive, but the number is Suite 230.
You need to enter the central outside door to our building to get to the second floor, and therefore, this suite. It is prominently signed as an Akron Children’s Hospital office.
Friday, November 19 and onward
Our current office re-opens to provide our now enhanced set of full general pediatric services. Our office, our phone number, the doctors, and all the current staff remain in the same place and the same people.
But we proudly open a new chapter this day, opening as Akron Children’s Hospital Beachwood, and welcoming a nurse, Michael Klemencic RN, along with our office supervisor, Ms. Allison Garland, and a new front desk professional to be announced.
When you come to our new office for the first time, be sure any child under 18 years old is accompanied by at least one parent or legal guardian who can sign a new consent for us to offer medical care. And be sure that photo ID and each child’s insurance card are available, too. Thank you.
We have mentioned enhanced services, let us end this review of the new chapter with a couple of examples. We will now be able provide rapid testing in the office for not just strep, but influenza, mono, and COVID. And we will be able to take the small blood sample required to test for blood count and lead testing. We also will be connecting to the truly excellent group of sub-specialists at Akron Children’s, many of whom we have worked with for many years, and always so impressively.
Akron Children’s is the only 100% children’s hospital in NE Ohio, and is the 8th largest children’s hospital in the United States. Very impressively, they have grown to national prominence while remaining true to the core values of caring.
A Few Logistics Changes From November 19 Onward
When we re-open our Suite 120 office, our current office, on Friday November 19, after a brief 3 day period to renovate, the office will look different, but as noted the doctors and much of our staff are exactly the same.
There are a few logistical details that will be different when we open as ACHP-Beachwood.
Phone Call Flow and Response
First, the phone answering process. The phone lines will remain the same number 216-591-1515, but when you call, you will be greeted with some options- to make an appointment, to talk with us for advice, or to ask for a refill. Your call will go promptly as before to the right help you request. The refill request goes to a message service that gets this done quickly. If the volume of calls for appointments or talking to us gets to high, your call will be answered by the Akron Children’s central offices and your request will be taken care of.
At night, the 216-591-1515 continues to be the only number you need to reach out for help. And all calls at night will first go to a wonderful nurse trained to offer you the best advice. That allows you the freedom to call for detail questions you might have hesitated to call a doctor for. If for any reason you want to talk to the doctor on call, just let the nurse know and the doctor can be reached and call you back. The other difference is that Dr. Hertzer and I will now join 6 other Akron Children’s pediatricians in our area in taking turns being that doctor you can reach out to. We will each now be on call 1 full week every 8 weeks, but keep in mind one of the 8 of us will be on call every moment of every day and night, 24/7/365.
During the day, our fabulous nurse Michael Klemencic will begin to handle all our advice calls as a first stop, but during office hours, if you’d like to talk directly to Dr. Hertzer or Dr. Lavin, just let the front desk know and as always, you can.
Arriving
When you arrive, we ask that you call the front desk to let them know you are here, they will now be making sure you can come in when the greeting (waiting) room is not crowded. This has never been much of a problem, so we do not anticipate this mobile check-in step making much of a difference.
Screening
As we open as ACHP-Beachwood, our practice is very pleased to introduce a series of screening questionnaires that will help us make sure we stay in touch on important aspects of your family’s life, such as the mental health of your children, the family’s sense of safety and security overall, and the power of mood shifts post-partum This will take place when you come into office, and really only involves the parents filling out a brief questionnaire at a number of the regularly scheduled visits for your child(ren). We welcome this improvement in service and think you will too.
Bottom Lines
- The week of November 15 will be a week of changes for our office.
- Most of the changes will involve enhancement of services, a name change for the office, a new nurse, and a new office supervisor. The doctors, medical assistants, and front desk professionals remain the same people you have known and whom you trust.
- In order to re-open as Akron Children’s Hospital Beachwood (ACHP-Beachwood), enough changes to the infrastructure of the office are happening to require several days of this physical office to close. We re-open in our current office on Friday, November 19 at 8:30 AM.
- FROM NOVEMBER 15 NOON to FRIDAY NOVEMBER 19 at 8:45 AM- please note the way to access care as laid out above.
- November 19 onward, as ACHP-Beachwood opens, there will be some logistical changes in phone management and checking in outlined above, all designed to enhance how we help.
- We are so thrilled at what is coming up for us all. We have been working very closely with the Akron Children’s team for many months to make sure the transition goes as smoothly as possible, working to provide a state-of-the-art office. Let me say at this important moment how deeply, how profoundly, impressed we are with the Akron Children’s team. Organized, kind, effective, caring, at every juncture, at every step. I am very impressed, and so, so pleased to soon be officially part of this outstanding team. We think you will be too.
No comments yet.