Yes, Dr. Tega is a board certified pediatrician. He is certified by the American Board of Pediatrics. In addition, he is a fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics. All of our other providers are also certified.
In response to our patients needs, we have recently extended our office hours with effect from August 1, 2018, to better serve you.
Our new office hours are Mondays through Thursdays, from 8:30 AM to 8:00 PM and Fridays 8:30 AM to 5:30 PM.
We are also open on Saturdays from 9:00 AM to 1:00 PM for sick visits only.
We are closed for lunch daily from 12:30 p.m. to 1:30 p.m on weekdays.
We generally perform WELL CHECKS and PHYSICALS on weekdays only and before 5:30 PM.
We do accept walk-ins at this time. However, to minimize your wait time, we encourage you to make an appointment for your visit. This allows us to serve you and all of our patients better because it allows us to keep wait times to a minimum. You should have no problem getting an appointment the same day you call if your child needs to be seen.
Our nurses are always available to answer your call during the day and our goal is to return your non-emergent calls during business hours Monday through Friday. For all calls requiring the attention of the Provider, such calls will usually be returned within 24 hours. Our nurses can also provide you with triage services. This means that they can help you to decide whether or not you need to bring your child into the office. Our receptionist can connect you to the Triage nurse voice mail. Please leave your child’s full name (and spelling if necessary), DOB, phone number, and chief symptoms. Calls received prior to 3:00 PM will receive a call back that same day.
Your child’s pediatrician is on call every day for you and can generally be reached all evenings from 5:00 PM to 11:00 PM and weekends. If you have an urgent concern that cannot wait until regular business hours, you can reach us by calling our regular business line and you will be automatically transferred to the Answering Service. Just call and give them some basic information (your child’s name, DOB, phone number), and they will page the provider, who will call you back, usually in less than thirty minutes. After 11:00 PM, our answering service sends calls to Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta Triage Phone Nurse. We will try to accommodate all calls. However, in a non-life threatening situation, we encourage you to call our office during normal business hours only. This is to allow our staff and providers to have some quality time for themselves and with their families. In all situations, if you have not heard from our office or provider in a reasonable time, please come to the office with your child same day to be seen.
For non-emergency situations only, you may contact our office through the Answering Service (Please see our Phone Nurse Policy). The provider on-call will discuss your child’s symptoms with you, along with home management options that might save you a trip to the emergency room. In the event that things cannot be managed at home, you will be directed to one of the local pediatric Urgent Care Centers or Emergency Departments. Please note that in all emergency situations, we encourage you to call the local 911 or EMS (Emergency Medical Service) immediately. You may choose to proceed to one of the suggested facilities without calling our office to save time.
Dr. Tega is on staff at Piedmont Fayette Hospital, Fayetteville, Piedmont Newnan Hospital, Newnan and Southern Regional Medical Center, Riverdale. When you arrive at any of these hospitals to deliver your baby, remember to tell the labor and delivery staff that you have chosen PrimeCare Pediatrics and Dr. Tega as your child’s pediatrician. They will notify our office when your baby is born. However, Dr. Tega no longer sees newborns in the hospital. This is because most hospital nurseries are now staffed with Neonatologists who perform that role. However, we recommend that you bring your baby for an office visit within the first week, usually about 2-3 days after discharge from the hospital.
Dr. Tega has privileges at Piedmont Fayette Hospital, Fayetteville, Piedmont Newnan Hospital, Newnan, and Southern Regional Medical Center, in Riverdale. If your child’s medical condition requires more care than available at these facilities, Dr. Tega also has privileges and will refer your child to Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta. However, Dr. Tega no longer actively sees patients at these hospitals, but he has the ability to refer or even transport patients to these facilities where your child will be cared for by the Attending Pediatricians on staff.
We do all basic laboratory tests in our office including CBCs, urine analysis, strep, mono, flu, RSV tests and many more. In addition, we are able to collect and send out cultures on blood, urine, stool, throat swabs and other body fluids, as well as collecting blood for the State-mandated Newborn Metabolic Diseases Tests (MDT) and lead screens. Our office also has the ability to do vision screens and advanced hearing screens to detect hearing problems in children of all ages from newborns. For more involved blood tests, we typically use the outpatient labs at the local hospitals (Piedmont Newnan Hospital, Newnan, Piedmont Fayette Hospital, Fayetteville, and Southern Regional Medical Center, Riverdale). Some insurance companies are specific and require that your child’s specimen be sent to only Quest or Lab Corp or some other outpatient laboratory, and we can also do that. We recommend that each parent be familiar with the requirements of their individual insurance plan. If in doubt, you may contact our office, or your insurance carrier.
Breast feeding has numerous advantages. We believe that it is the best source of nutrition for your baby. It is natural and does not require the complex preparations associated with formula feeds. We therefore encourage all mothers to breast feed. Even if you are only able to breast feed for a short time or part of the day, your baby will derive some benefits from it. There are many reasons why breast feeding may not be an option for some families. There are some very good baby formulas available, and we will work with you to determine which is best for your baby.
The decision whether or not to have this procedure done is usually a religious, cultural or cosmetic one. However, evidence abounds that shows that circumcision helps the prevention of certain diseases later in life. Circumcision may be performed in the hospital prior to discharge or in our office up to four weeks of age. Dr. Tega prefers to do his circumcisions in the office. Be sure to discuss this option with our office ahead of time. However, he may be able to circumcise your male newborn in the hospital if you prefer to have it done there. The procedure can also be performed by your obstretrician.
Our waiting room time is typically about 5 to 20 minutes. Computers that are readily accessible from anywhere in our facility alert us exactly as to how many minutes anyone has been sitting in the lobby. This helps us to track your waiting time and to keep it within our goal of 5 to 20 minutes.
Yes. We are able to call in some prescription refills. We can also send them electronically to the pharmacy of your choice. We are generally able do this for certain medications such as those for allergies and asthma. This makes it easier and quicker for medications that you need to be refilled pretty quickly. New prescriptions have to be authorized by the doctor, and will usually require an office visit. Refills may be requested in three ways: having your pharmacy send us a refill request, by completing an online prescription request form from this web site, or by calling our office and or leaving a voice mail on our prescription refill line which has a turnaround time of approximately one business day. However, WE WILL NOT CALL OR SEND AN ANTIBIOTIC TO THE PHARMACY AT THE REQUEST OF A PARENT OR CARE-GIVER WITHOUT AN OFFICE VISIT.
At PrimeCare Pediatrics we accept most insurance plans. Please click here to see a list of the health insurance plans that we currently accept. If your insurance plan is not listed, you may call our office for verification. The health insurance market is very fluid and changes occur all the time.
YES. We are accepting new Medicaid patients. We are also accepting new patients on all the managed plans under Medicaid such as Amerigroup, CareSource, Peach State and WellCare.
Yes! We are accepting new patients on all insurance plans at this time, except Kaiser Permanente.
Dr. Tega is on staff at Piedmont Fayette Hospital, Piedmont Newnan Hospital, Southern Regional Medical Center, and the Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta network of hospitals.
At PrimeCare Pediatrics, we follow the immunization schedule recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics for children and adolescents which can easily be found by following the links provided above. You do not have to memorize this complicated schedule because it is revised often. We keep track of these changes and at each check-up visit, we will let you know which immunizations your child needs then and which vaccines will be due at the next visit.
We believe that immunizations are beneficial to your child’s health. The United States Food and Drug Administration has a very meticulous regimen for approving vaccines, and we feel that they have approved and constantly recommend only vaccines which are safe, effective, and protect our children and others in our community from many serious diseases. Vaccines, like any medicine, have potential side effects; however, it is our belief at PrimeCare Pediatrics that the huge benefits of disease prevention far outweigh the risks of side effects posed by these vaccines. We encourage parents to be informed by reading reliable information about vaccines. Links to some sites with up to date and useful information are provided below: www.cdc.gov www.aap.org www.immunizationinfo.org
Antibiotics can be helpful to eradicate certain bacterial infections, such as ear infections, streptococcal pharyngitis (strep throat) and pneumonia, for example. As a result of the inappropriate use of antibiotics through the years, there is growing resistance to antibiotics among certain types of bacteria. The CDC has currently issued a warning about the threat of a global super-bug, a highly resistant bacteria. After appropriate examination and laboratory evaluation, if we feel your child needs an antibiotic, we will work with you to find one that is both appropriate and effective (and hopefully tastes good). We follow the recommended dosing and administration guidelines. There are many symptoms which may prompt you to inquire about the need for an antibiotic: earache, burning with urination, green nasal discharge, red sore throat, deep cough. Remember, these symptoms may reflect either a viral or bacterial disease process. If your child has any of these or other symptoms, we recommend an office visit and examination. There may also be the need for laboratory tests or x-rays, depending on the situation, to determine if an antibiotic treatment is required. However, WE WILL NOT CALL OR SEND AN ANTIBIOTIC TO THE PHARMACY AT THE REQUEST OF A PARENT OR CARE-GIVER WITHOUT AN OFFICE VISIT. All requests for an antibiotic require an office visit and evaluation by our provider. We believe that the best way to determine the proper treatment needed by a patient is through a face-to-face evaluation. Even though some symptoms may appear to be similar, the diagnosis could be different.
It is the practice nowadays to discharge healthy newborns from the hospital after 24 hours of delivery. Dr. Tega no longer sees newborns in the hospital. This is because most hospital nurseries are now staffed with Neonatologists who perform that role. However, we recommend that you bring your baby for an office visit within the first week, usually about 2-3 days after discharge from the hospital. If your baby needs to be seen earlier, you will be informed by the hospital and we will work with you to make sure that happens when you call our office. All babies receive a Newborn Screen or Newborn Metabolic Disease Test (called NBS, MDT or PKU) prior to hospital discharge. If this test is performed before your baby is 24 hours old, it will be considered invalid by the state. In that situation, we may need to repeat this test in the office, and this may attract an additional cost. Please remember that even if you have a scheduled normal newborn visit, schedule a sick appointment as soon as possible if your baby shows signs of jaundice, poor feeding, or illness immediately, or if you have any concerns.
We are here to serve you. Our goal is to see every child that is sick on the same day if parents so desire. For sick visits, we do our best to see your child the same day you call. Well appointments (Routine Physicals, Camp or Sports physicals), may be scheduled at any time, and the wait times are also usually very short. A typical Well or Routine Physical, Camp or Sports Physical examination can be scheduled in our office within a matter of days.
We will submit a bill to your insurance company following your visit for services rendered. We will make every effort to verify your eligibility with your insurance carrier prior to your visit. However, verification of eligibility is not a guarantee of coverage or payment by your insurance. In the event that your insurance company denies to pay for all or any of the services rendered to your child by our provider, we will send a bill to you, the responsible party, for payment. Note that Sports Physicals may not be covered by some insurance companies. Make sure to check coverage for this and all types of services with your insurance company prior to your visit.
Most insurance plans do not need you to have a formal referral to a specialist depending on the circumstance. However, if you need a referral for special services or if in our opinion, we think your child needs, and will benefit from, a referral to a specialist, we will work with you and your insurance provider to find the best available approach. Please call our office to schedule an appointment to discuss your referral needs.
We encourage parents to obtain the medical records of their children, including records of all immunizations, from their child’s previous physician and make them available to our office for review before their first visit, if possible. Parents may obtain forms from our office for transfer of medical records to our office. This form can also be obtained from our web site. Completed forms may be dropped at our office and we will fax them to the relevant facility for processing. Medical records may be dropped at, faxed, or mailed to our office.
We generally see all children between the ages of 0-18+ years of age. We do have a few patients who are older than that.
