General

Signing your child up to play sports is an incredible opportunity for them. No matter which sport they plan, they learn the importance of teamwork, diligence and confidence. Physical activity is the perfect balance to a day spent learning in the classroom. However, there are some risks involved with organized sports. With a rise in injuries, especially during practice, it’s important to understand your child’s physical health.

Without regular sports physical exams, small injuries can turn into much bigger problems. Everything from a concussion to a small stress fracture can be compounded if you aren’t aware of your child’s baseline health. Before next season begins, be sure to bring your child in for a complete sports physical exam.

What is a Sports Physical Exam?

A sports physical exam consists of a series of tests performed by a doctor to determine your child’s level of fitness. While the doctor is not looking to decide whether your child is in ideal shape or not, they are looking for any reason why playing sports would be dangerous for your child. Sports physical exams have been mandatory for more than 40 years as a way for schools to keep children safe during their practices and regular season games.

A typical sports physical exam will give the doctor, and your child’s school, enough information to determine whether they are safe to play most sports. For some sports, especially those that are particularly physical, it’s important to ask for additional tests, like a brain physical. We’ll talk more about that later, but it’s important to know that you can ask for more than the standard sports physical exam tests during a doctor’s appointment if you’re worried about your child’s specific health conditions.

Why Does Your Child Need a Sports Physical Exam?

The main reason your child needs a sports physical exam is to set them up for success during their season. The doctor is not looking for ways to disqualify your child, but rather, they want to know what steps to take to get your child ready to play at their full potential.

For example, if your child has a history of a broken ankle, a doctor might show you some specific stretches to do before and after practice to lower the risk of reinjuring the area again. A routine sports physical exam also helps you understand what your child’s natural physical state is. By looking at the same physical exams year after year, you can start to identify any possible long-term effects your child might have as a result of playing sports. Sometimes there are no effects at all. But it’s always worth the time it takes to do the exam when you catch something potentially dangerous. For example, deteriorating muscle mass in a certain part of the body or other concerns.  

Is a Sports Physical Exam Covered by Insurance?

A sports physical exam is not covered by insurance companies. Statcare understands the positive impact sports can have on a child’s life, especially for those who are looking for scholarships in the future. Year after year, we do everything we can to maintain an affordable $60 rate for our sports physical exam. Not only do we make sure our physicals are cost effective, but we also provide additional tests when necessary, all at one location. The ease, convenience and accuracy of our sports physical exam makes us a favorite for many families when the school year starts.

Are Brain Physicals Part of a Standard Sports Physical Exam?

As we mentioned earlier, brain physicals do not yet come standard in a sports physical exam. Despite the importance of brain health, some doctors don’t even have the equipment in their office to do a proper brain physical. All Statcare locations have both the staff and the equipment to do a full brain physical for your child during their sports physical exam. Just ask us to perform one during their appointment and we’d be happy to help!

Even if your child doesn’t have a history of brain injury, it’s still a good idea to ask for a brain physical. Testing your child while they’re healthy gives you a good idea of their base level. You can check against these results year after year to make sure that no injury goes undetected and no permanent brain damage is being done. As we learn more about the horrific side effects that come from chronic brain injury, asking for brain physicals during every sports physical exam will become a no-brainer.

What to Expect at Your Child’s Sports Physical Exam

The sports physical exam will start with questions about your child’s medical history. As always, be as honest as possible when answering these questions because it will help your doctor make the best recommendations for your child. Be prepared to tell the doctor about any illnesses in the family, any previous hospital stays your child had, any past injuries or current pain, and any medication they take. If your child is old enough, they can answer these questions for themselves. Just make sure they’re prepared with the answers when they arrive.

From there, the doctor will start the physical exam. They’ll check the regular stats, like your child’s height and weight. They will evaluate your child’s lungs, heart and blood pressure. They will also check your child’s vision and hearing. At Statcare, we check near vision, far vision, and color vision.

Finally, the doctor will check your child’s skeletal system and the brain, if you request it. Once they’ve recorded all the results, they will offer any medical advice your child might need to successfully compete in their sport of choice. The entire process of a sports physical exam should be quick, painless, and full of information for you and your child.

Where to Get a Sports Physical Exam

When your choosing a location to take your child for their sports physical exam, you’ll want to pick a facility that is capable of performing the standard test, but also any additional tests you want to consider. For swimmers and soccer players, kids who are performing high intensity cardio for extended periods of time, it’s smart to consider a sickle cell screening. Although it’s not required, it is helpful to know in order to keep your child healthy. Trusting that you’re with a doctor who can make those kinds of recommendations, while also keeping the whole exam cost-effective, is a very important factor in deciding where to go.

Statcare offers all those tests, plus a friendly staff who is ready to answer all your questions. Find us at one of our 5 locations every day of the year, including holidays. We are conveniently located by the train, so you don’t have to worry about a long commute. Come in whenever you’re ready to complete your child’s sports physical exam.

Nothing is more overwhelming than trying to help a sick child. Whether it’s a common illness  or a physical pain, when your child is hurting, it’s all you can think about. In that heightened state of panic, it’s hard to know which type of doctor to turn to. Do you wait to take your child to their pediatrician? Is it so bad that you need to go to the emergency room and risk paying high prices? Is the ailment something that can be handled at an urgent care?

As all of these questions are racing through your mind, all you want to do is help your child. We totally understand this scenario. One of the best ways to alleviate panic in the moment, is to have a plan before it happens. To help you make that plan, we’ve come up with the most common reasons you’d bring your child to pediatric urgent care.

1. Convenience of Pediatric Urgent Care

Regular pediatricians hold regular business hours. That makes sense for them, but rarely helps children who are experiencing unexpected illness or injuries. When your child is dealing with a health concern, it’s not always during the office hours of their primary pediatrician — let alone when you’re able to make a same-day appointment.

Pediatric urgent care, on the other hand, is designed to take patients at a moment’s notice. Statcare Urgent Care is open for extended hours every day of the year — including weekends and holidays. You don’t have to worry about fitting into our schedule, we’re here for you. A convenience you can’t always find with other pediatrician’s offices.

2. Pediatric Urgent Care is Cost-Effective

When your pediatrician is unavailable, you’re faced with two choices to help your sick child. You can either drive them to the emergency room, or you can bring them into an urgent care location. An emergency room is the right choice if the problem is truly life or death. But for everything else, you should choose a pediatric urgent care facility. We have the resources on-hand to help your child, plus we aren’t as expensive as the emergency room.

Don’t let a moment of panic cost you an arm and a leg. You may even want to make a list of reasons to take your child to urgent care and reasons to take them to the emergency room. Keep it on your fridge or somewhere you can easily see it when you’re taking care of a sick child. That way,  you can make a quick yet educated decision when something happens or your child becomes really ill suddenly.

If for some reason, you can’t bring your child into the office, Statcare also does Online Doctor visits for common conditions like Pink Eye and Rashes in children. The online visit with Statcare is covered by all insurance plans, so you can get the same great care from the comfort of your home.

3. Speed of Pediatric Urgent Care

Because the emergency room is dealing with life and death situations, they usually have a longer wait. If your child has a low-priority ailment, you could sit in the emergency room for hours before being seen. Some patients have waited in a room full of other sick people all night to be seen by a doctor. It’s not an ideal situation.

Instead, come to Statcare urgent care if you’re not facing something life-threatening. Our pediatric urgent care services are designed to be fast and efficient. We know that kids find the whole process scary and overwhelming, so we don’t want to keep you any longer than we need to. Because all our patients don’t need to be seen in order of severity, we can generally see patients on a first-come, first-serve basis. This helps you know how long you’ll be there and when you’ll be ready to go home. It’s a convenience many of our patients appreciate.

4. Common Illnesses Our Pediatric Urgent Care Centers Handle

If you’re not sure exactly what the difference is between a life-threatening illness and one that can be seen by a pediatric urgent care doctor, we have you covered. Here are the common illnesses that we can treat at our Statcare locations.

• Ear infections
• Cold and flu
• Sore throat
• Bronchitis
• Strep throat
• Allergies
• Dehydration
• Diarrhea and nausea
• Poison ivy
• Asthma attack
• Pink eye
• Stomach flu
• Food poisoning
• Headaches

If the weather is bad or you are running short on time, Statcare can do an Online Doctor visit for many of the conditions listed above. Of course, sometimes one of these symptoms can be a sign of something more serious. If that’s the case, our doctors will immediately refer you to an emergency room or specialist doctor to treat your child. We will do everything we can to get your child the right care for their health concern.

5. Common Injuries Pediatric Urgent Care Can Fix

Parents are more likely to visit the emergency room if their child is injured. Especially for injuries like broken bones, it’s easier to be safe than sorry. But you can get the same level of care with Statcare’s pediatric urgent care services. Here are some common injuries we routinely treat.

• Cuts and wounds
• Bone fractures and breaks
• Toothaches
• Ingrown toenails
• Neck pain and whiplash
• Dog bites and other animal bites
• Burns
• Spider bites
• Bee and wasp stings
• Nosebleeds

As with the illnesses we treat, if our doctors believe that your child’s condition needs to be seen by a specialist, we will not hesitate to refer you to one. We have the same goal you do — to get your child back to their happy, healthy self.

6. Do More with One Visit

One of the benefits of pediatric urgent care is that you can do more with a single visit. Visits to your primary care doctor or the emergency room require a single focus. Your child’s pediatrician, for example, won’t be able to administer a DOT physical if you wanted to be the most efficient with your time during their existing appointment. However, if you want to come treat your child’s common cold and also need to complete your DOT physical, or want to take an STD test or any of our other services, you can do both things at one location. Save time on travel, save on cost, plus get excellent care. It’s really an unbeatable option.

7. Location of Pediatric Urgent Care

Statcare Urgent Care has five convenient locations that are close to public transportation. We want to make sure we’re easily accessible to our clients — which means not requiring extra taxi rides or miles of walking. Whether you’re visiting us in Hicksville, Astoria, The Bronx, or Brooklyn, you’ll find us close to a bus or subway stop.

8. Business Hours of Pediatric Urgent Care

Statcare Urgent Care is open from 8AM-8PM Mon-Fri and 9AM-9PM on Sat. & Sun. and 9AM-3PM on all holidays except for the Brooklyn Office which is open longer on weekdays. So, if you are looking for an after-hours pediatric urgent care, you can rest assured, Statcare has you covered.

9. Insurance Is Easier at Statcare Urgent Care

Another major benefit of Statcare pediatric urgent care services is that we take most major insurance providers. While your regular pediatrician may be in your insurance network, they often don’t have the most convenient hours. And emergency rooms are always available, but you run the risk of paying too much in a co-pay or the visit not being covered at all. That could be devastating to your financial situation. With Statcare, you can see a doctor at a time that is convenient for you, while also staying within your budget. That’s reason enough to come see us, we think!

Our urgent care locations offer more than just pediatric urgent care services. Like we mentioned, you can get a DOT physical or STD testing there, too. You can even get vaccines if you’re looking for a convenient place to get your shot. We’re happy to help you through whatever medical concern you have.