Virtual Care at Atrium Health Levine Children’s in the Triad  

Every parent has a story about a child getting sick in the middle of the night, complaining of something like a sore throat, painful ear pressure, a stomachache, or red, crusty eyes. When that happens, what’s the best next step when it comes to helping your child start to feel better?

When “waiting it out” doesn’t seem like the right approach, that next step has traditionally looked like frantically trying to schedule a last-minute appointment with your child’s pediatrician or crossing your fingers and hoping you can be seen quickly at urgent care (without exposing your child to more germs in the process).

Enter Atrium Health Levine Children’s Urgent Care Video Visits Pediatrics – a way to see a healthcare professional (either a doctor or advanced practice professional) quickly without ever leaving your home. And the best part? You absolutely won’t have to sacrifice quality of care for convenience.

“If a parent has a phone or even just a flashlight, we can see in a child’s throat or nose to help us know what’s going on,” said Jocelyn Wilson, MD, a pediatrician with Atrium Health Levine Children’s. “Our virtual care team is pediatric trained, and many have worked in pediatric offices before.”

While there may be rare instances where a family will need to schedule a follow-up in-person visit, often a child’s symptoms can be fully addressed with just the video visit.

A short wait time is also a huge plus, says Dr. Wilson. Patients are usually seen within 30 minutes of requesting a virtual visit and you’ll get text and email updates when it’s time to start your child’s visit. That means you can concentrate on caring for your child and trust that Atrium Health will send you a notification when it’s time to log in again to start your child’s video visit.

Virtual care is something that provides lots of value for families, and the team offering this care say they love this kind of work. The doctor or advanced practice professional aims to include the child in the appointment as much as possible, too (adjusting for things like age and communication ability, of course).

“The child is really involved in the visit, and everyone is careful to make sure they do the best exam they can,” said Dr. Wilson. “For younger kids that can be tough, and often more of the appointment ends up being with the parent, but we can get lots of good information about a child through our virtual platform to help us provide care.”

Anyone in North Carolina or South Carolina can have an urgent care video visit with Atrium Health, regardless of whether your child is a current patient or not. Urgent care video visits are available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

In addition to virtual urgent care offerings, Atrium Health Levine Children’s also makes it easy for parents to have virtual chats with pediatric nurses. This service, which is available from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., seven days a week, can help you get an answer to a quick question about your child, help you calm your nerves in many cases, and give you a clear idea of next steps (if any) when it comes to care. If your child sees an Atrium Health Levine Children’s doctor or advanced practice professional, you can access nurse chat by logging into your MyAtriumHealth account. To start a chat with a nurse, just select “Ask a Question” then tap “Pediatric Nurse Advice Chat” on the menu.

To learn more about all of Atrium Health Levine Children’s virtual care options, visit this page.