Welcome to the office of Dr. Stephen D. Borchman. Dr. Borchman specializes in pediatric care from infancy through adolescence. He is a Diplomat of the American Board of Pediatrics.
The office may be closed alternating Wednesdays and Thursdays, and every other weekend. Almost always Dr. Patterino will be available in these circumstances to see your child.
Sick appointments are scheduled the same day as requested without exception. Although regular office hours end at 5:45 PM, emergency sick appointments will be made available until 8 PM. Please call as early in the day as possible to request this appointment, but should you get the answering service, simply instruct the service to have the doctor on call paged.
Well baby visits are scheduled for the first hour of each day and first hour after lunch in order to protect them from ill patients.
PLEASE NOTE: HOURS POSTED BELOW ARE WHEN THE OFFICE IS OPEN AND THE SECRETARIES ARE IN TO HANDLE THE CALLS.
Appointment times may be different from posted below.
•We recommend that well appointments should be made at least two weeks in advance.
• Sick children will be seen the same day.
• Please make arrangements for childcare givers to bring an ill child to the office, if at all possible, if both parents are working.
CONTACTING THE OFFICE
* Please be advised that due to health information privacy laws set forth by the federal government, we are no longer allowed to communicate via text message. The phone number we have been using to do that with. 917-816-8003, has been disconnected. In order to reach us you must call the office or service directly, or through the secure patient portal. Contact our office for instructions on accessing us thourgh the portal. Emails though AOL, hotmail, gmail, and icloud can no longer be responded to either.
When Dr. Borchman is not available, your child can be seen by our covering physician, Dr. Charles Patterino, 718.494.6400
Should you feel your child needs immediate medical services when my office is closed, it is always best to check with the answering service first, to see if either Dr. Borchman or Dr. Patterino is available to see the child. Often, just simple advice is all that is necessary, and the child can easily be seen in the office during regular hours the next day. Of course, if you feel your child has a life-threatening emergency, then by all means call 911 or proceed to the nearest emergency room.
BILLING
Our billing is now done through Allieds Physicians Corporate. If you receive a bill you think is erroneous, or you simply don’t understand it, call our office and leave a message for Toni to call you back.
DAILY OFFICE HOURS UPDATE FOR April 22, 2019. The office will only be open this week on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. We will be closed for a short vacation from Thursday the 25th until Monday, the 29th. We will open on the 29th at 9 AM for our normal hours When the office is closed, the primary on call physician is Dr Charles Patterino for all patients. His number is 718 494 6400, and he is located at 2281 Victory Blvd. We also now have Dr Arthur Bounaspina available to see patients when are closed, and he may be reached at 718 984 5437 His office is located at 107 Edgegrove Ave. However he cannot see our patients with Fidelis or Child Health Plus, If you have Fidelis or CHP, you must call Dr Patterino
The Zika virus threat is real. Travel to a tropical destination is not recommended if you are planning a pregnancy. Infection with this virus is strongly associated with major central nervous system malformations of a developing fetus. I advise mothers to take precaution to prevent pregnancies during travel to these areas.
PATIENT PORTAL IS ACTIVE! If you have not already registered on our patient portal, please do so right away. This can be done on the phreesia registration pad in the office. The portal allows us to answer you questions, refill medications, send you test results, and also send school forms. It is secure and is compliant with federal privacy laws (HIPPA). We are no longer allowed to communicate through text messages or regular email servers like AOL or Gmail.
AFTER HOURS CARE
Many parents find using urgent care centers convenient, especially if their child becomes ill after regular office hours are over. If you do take your child to an urgent care center, it is important that you touch base with us the next day so we can
Ensure you have been given the right diagnosis
See if your child needs a follow up examination
Make sure your child has been given the appropriate dose of medication
NOT ALL URGENT CARE CENTERS ARE PROPERLY STAFFED WITH DOCTORS WITH NECESSARY TRAINING IN PEDIATRICS. Some are only staffed with physicain extenders, such as physician assistants. They miight be quite unsure of the true nature of your childs illness and be only guessing at the diagnosis. Always check the credentials of the practitioner who is seeing your child. Ideally, a doctor who is board certified in pediatrics,family practice, or emergency medicine should be present. The only exception to this would be a pediatric nurse practicioner, (PNP). I have spoken to the medical director of the Ivy Urgent Care centers, and he assures me that there is always and MD on site, board cerified in either Emergency Medcine, Family Practice or Pediartrics. PM pediatrics at 2407 Richmond Ave. is staffed with board certified Pediatricians
SCHOOL FORMS AND CAMP FORMS
Its that time of year again. Time to get your child’s school or camp medical form in. Sometimes the forms are quite simple, sometimes complex. But they will always require a chart review to fill them out with the most current, accurate information pertaining to your child. We ask you to try and get these forms to us at least 5 business days in advance to give us adequate time to review the chart and complete the form. Remember, patient care comes first. We cannot interupt patient care to take time out to do forms. There will be a $25 surcharge to anyone requesting a form for non-medical services be completed the same day
Annual Physical appointments for children over age 5 continue to be a big challenge for us, as despite our best efforts to schedule these dates for your child up to a year in advance, at least half of these appointments are broken within 48 hours of the appointment time. We do our best to reschedule these, but cooperation is often lacking as many of the voicemails, text messages, and emails we leave go unanswered. School is almost here. If your child still needs their annual physical, please call as soon as possible to get an appointment.