Medicine Evaluation Visit

You and your child will meet with one of our providers to talk about medicines to treat your child’s symptoms. We will schedule you for 2 visits 2 to 3 weeks apart. Your child will be weighed and measured and have their blood pressure taken each time if the visit is in person. If the visit is via telehealth, it would be helpful if you could get these measurements prior to the visit.

The first visit usually lasts up to 90 minutes. The second visit usually lasts 45 minutes and includes feedback from the clinician about diagnosis, treatment recommendations, and psychoeducation about recommended services. Some patients will be seen for short-term medicine management, while others may be referred to their primary care provider or another community provider, depending on our openings for treatment. 

If we recommend medicine, we will either make recommendations to your primary care provider or will prescribe for a limited time to help your child get started on the right medicine for them. Then, once they are stable, we refer you back to your primary care provider or to a community psychiatrist or psychiatric nurse practitioner or psychiatric physician’s assistant for ongoing management. 

Many conditions are best treated with a combination of medicine and therapy. Your clinician may ask you to establish care with a therapist in order to receive medicine treatment at our clinic.

Most of the time, we don’t give prescriptions at the first visit. Decisions about prescribing are based on:

• Your child’s symptoms
• Information from your child’s records and questionnaires
• Other medical conditions your child has
• The risks and benefits of prescribing medicine

Please fill out all the questionnaires we gave to you and return them at least a week before your next visit. When you come in person, bring in the bottles or a list of any current medicines that your child is taking for any reason. Include all over-the-counter medicines, herbal medicines and vitamins your child takes, too.

All of these providers are licensed to prescribe and manage psychiatric medicines:

• Psychiatrists (MDs or DOs)
• General psychiatry residents and child and adolescent psychiatry fellows
• Psychiatric nurse practitioners, psychiatric physician assistants, and advanced practice provider fellows

Please Note: Clinical psychologists or therapists cannot prescribe medicines.

• The best way to get a prescription renewal is at your child’s clinic visit, before your current prescription runs out. Your clinician can electronically prescribe most medications.
• Try to plan and schedule your child’s next visit before you leave clinic each time when you are in person, or to call and get scheduled if you have a telemedicine visit (206-987-2164, option 1).
• If you will run out of refills before your next appointment call us (206-987-6130) or send a MyChart message to your provider (which will go first to our nursing team):
  • If we haven’t seen your child for 6 months, we need to see them for an in-person or telemedicine visit before we can prescribe more medicine. Call to schedule a visit at 206-987-2164, option 1.
  • If your child has been in clinic or had a telemedicine visit within the last 6 months, we can give you a refill and will ask you to make the needed follow-up appointment.

Request refills at least 5 business days before you run out of medicine.

If you use your local pharmacy, call them to request a refill.

If you use Seattle Children's pharmacy, you can:

• Call
  Main Campus Ocean Pharmacy (Level 6)
  206-987-2138
  Mon-Sun, 8:30 a.m. to 11 p.m.
• Refill online
  refill.seattlechildrens.org
• Use RefillPro mobile app
  Scan the barcode on the prescription bottle or enter your prescription number.

If you have a medication concern between visits, please call and leave a message on our nursing line at 206-987-6130. You can also send a message to our Psychiatry or Autism Center nursing team via MyChart.