Updates

Flu season is rapidly approaching and all children, 6 months or older, should receive a Flu vaccine as soon as possible. Doing so greatly reduces the risk of pneumonia in the upcoming winter.

As in the past, you can schedule a shot-only appointment during regular office hours or receive it during an already scheduled Well Child visit or office visit. Parents are welcome to receive their flu vaccines at the same time as their children.

More conveniently, you may make your appointment at one of our Saturday Flu Shot Clinics:

Saturday 10/5/19 and 10/19/19
10AM - 2:00PM
Location: 45 Castro Street #232

(Others to be scheduled as need dictates)

Updates on the Office:

1. Moving: Our Sacramento Street office will move to 2100 Webster Street, Suite #427, most likely in April 2019. If you have a future appointment at Sacramento Street we will notify you, once our move occurs. Our telephone numbers are the same and the Castro Street location is not affected.


2. PORTAL: Communication through a secure, encrypted, password protected e-mail, is part of the Follow My Health Patient Portal. We use this e-mail to relay important health news or announcements, to answer non-urgent questions, and to report test results. You can use it to download your child’s immunizations, growth measurements, problem list, medications & allergies. Please contact us to enroll in the PORTAL as soon as possible if you have not done so.
3. Telephone/On-line Medical Services: Telephone and e-mail (Portal) communications with the doctor are efficient ways for us to help you, without a visit. However, the time devoted to these remote interactions for diagnosis, professional advice and treatment has greatly increased. Therefore, we will institute a fee for telephone and on-line services on May 1, 2019. The fee will start from $25, depending the complexity of the visit. Communication to follow up a recent visit, or that leads directly to a visit will not require a fee.

Updates on the Physicians:

1. New doctor: We now have five board certified pediatricians, any one of whom you may designate as your child’s primary care doctor. Dr. Jean Lee, a native Californian who is fluent in Mandarin, has joined our practice. Dr. Lee trained in Pediatrics at UCSF and has worked as a hospitalist at CPMC and at UCSF, but her passion is for primary care.


2. Pediatric leadership: Dr. Fukuda is a leader in the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), in California and nation-wide. She is the AAP’s liaison to the Japan Pediatric Society and was just elected Chair of the California region, the AAP’s largest. We know she will do a great job in advocating for children and helping to set policy. Please join us in congratulating her.


3. Physician leave: Dr. Kelly will take a three-month leave for surgery, beginning in mid-March. As always, each of the doctors is available to see any patient, we all work closely together, and we will do our best to maintain a flexible and available appointment schedule.

Health Alert:

Measles outbreaks: Measles is now epidemic in many countries, including Japan, France and Italy. At least 5 of our own patients have had exposures while traveling abroad in the last six months.

If you are planning any travel outside of the Americas, with a child over 6 months of age, please call us, or check the PORTAL to be sure that her/his Measles immunization is current. (For children under 12 months that means at least one dose. For children 13 months or more, that means two doses.)