Welcome to Intergalactic Pediatrics primary care!

Please read this important information!

If questions or complications arise during pregnancy, feel free to text us at 206-203-2509. When baby is born, let the hospital/midwife know they'll be getting pediatric care at Intergalactic Pediatrics, and text us to let us know the baby has been born! We'll ask you to go online to make an appointment, and if the right timing isn't available online, we'll reschedule it on the back end. If discharge doesn't happen as planned, let us know.

Please be sure you know exactly how to add baby to whatever insurance they'll be covered under, what forms you'll need, online/phone/mail, etc. Every company/plan has a different method. You'll want to do that as soon as possible after they're born, not wait until the grace period is about to expire. If you're planning to have baby double insured (covered by two plans), you MUST file a coordination of benefits form with both companies, and then primary/secondary will be determined by the policy holders' birthdates (eg if the policy holders' birthdates are January and August, January will be primary and August will be secondary, even if that's not the most financially advantageous).

If you are covered by AppleHealth/Medicaid for your pregnancy, your baby is entitled to coverage too, but you must register them by logging in to https://www.wahealthplanfinder.org/ and clicking "Report a Change" to add them to your family.

Timing of the first visit is generally 3-5 days of age, but may be sooner if needed, most commonly when there are problems with feeding and/or jaundice. Many babies need a few weight checks in the first month. Other routine visits are at 7-14 days, 1 month, and 2-4-6-9-12-15-18-24 months.

We ask that only healthy caregivers accompany baby to visits. Let us know if you want a Zoom link for a caregiver who cannot attend in person. We require all people 2+ to wear a well-fitting mask (KF94, KN95, N95) to every appointment.

You will be texted and emailed a registration/check in link before every appointment. You must complete these before arrival! This is how we avoid crowds in the waiting room and keep traffic moving smoothly. If you have problems with completion, text us. First appointments have more lengthy check ins because they include demographics, family history, medical history, etc. Subsequent appointments will generally have shorter check ins but will ask you to confirm things like demographics (in case you've moved), pronouns (in case they've changed), medications, allergies, etc. Well child visits will have developmental questions and questions about how your family is doing. Don't be alarmed if your baby isn't doing some of the things asked about -- the forms are designed for babies of a span of ages, and we score the form based on the baby's actual (or adjusted) age.

Questions after baby is born?

* Non-urgent questions can be texted to 206-203-2509 or messaged through Spruce. If it's a new problem, make an appointment! We do bill insurance for conversations that are more involved or take the place of an appointment.

* If it’s after hours and your question is urgent and you need to wake up an Intergalactic provider, text 206-203-2509 and respond to the urgency-related questions, or call 206-203-2509 and press 4 to have the provider paged. We prefer the text message route so that we have context (even if you prefer we call you back). There is a $75 charge for after hours calls

* If you’re not sure if it’s urgent, Seattle Children’s has an excellent resource to help you figure out how concerned you should be. https://www.seattlechildrens.org/conditions/a-z/ — and we have our own fever information page.

* Register for the AthenaHealth portal to view lab and imaging results, view visit summaries (desktop only), and have another way to contact us with non-urgent questions: https://25739.portal.athenahealth.com/

* Register for a Spruce account to send secure messages! Spruce is our texting platform and supports SMS as well as secure messaging. Each parent should register in order to have a group thread with all parents included. (Our texting platform doesn't support group text messages.) https://spruce.care/intergalactic