Provider News

Urgent Care is Expanding Access and Will Soon Offer Virtual Visits

January 5, 2023

A mother and daughter walk toward Seattle Children'sIn order to expand access to pediatric primary care in Washington state, Seattle Children’s will begin offering virtual visits with our urgent care providers beginning in mid-January. In addition, our Urgent Care (UC) clinic in Seattle at the hospital has moved to a larger space, added providers and expanded its weekday hours to open at 11 a.m. (versus 4 p.m.) effective Monday, January 9.

Virtual visits  

  • Will begin mid-January
  • Patients must be in Washington state at the time of their virtual visit.
  • Virtual UC hours: 1 p.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Friday and 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.
  • To schedule, families should use the online Urgent Care scheduling portal and choose “video visit” as their preferred location.
  • Virtual visits will be for children with these symptoms:
    • Allergies
    • Bite (animal, human, insect)
    • Cold and flu symptoms
    • Constipation
    • Cough/congestion
    • Croup
    • Diarrhea
    • Eye infection
    • Fever age 2+ years
    • Head injury (no loss of consciousness)
    • Injury advice
    • Lice
    • Nausea/vomiting
    • Sinus infection
    • Skin rash
    • Sore throat
    • Urinary tract infection

Seattle Children’s UC clinics in Bellevue, Everett and Federal Way will continue to operate as before: from 4 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. Monday through Friday and 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. on weekends. Appointments are always recommended; we allow walk-ins but cannot guarantee all walk-ins will be seen.

Scheduling tips for urgent care (virtual or in-person visits)

Our scheduling portal opens at midnight for the following day. All appointment slots are full by mid-morning but about 30% will cancel or no-show. If a family cancels, their slot will open immediately online so we encourage families to monitor the website and book an appointment if one opens up, even if they are a walk-in already waiting to be seen.

The best way to get a walk-in appointment

The optimal time for a walk-in patient to arrive is typically from 9 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. rather than when the UC clinic first opens. However, we cannot guarantee walk-ins will be seen even if they arrive before doors close at 10:30 p.m.

New phone number for Urgent Care: 206-987-2211

We recently established this dedicated phone line to assist families who have questions about urgent care or need help scheduling an appointment.