That is a great question! Pediatric clinics and urgent care centers are instituted to help reduce the number of patients that often overburden emergency rooms. The reason why emergency rooms are notorious for long wait times is because of the high volume of patients they receive and their obligation to prioritize patients who are experiencing life-threatening medical emergencies over those that are not. Consequently, bringing your child to a pediatric clinic for diagnostic services that are unrelated to a life-threatening emergency is both in your best interest and in the best interest of emergency rooms, so that you can receive timely care and the doctors and nurses in emergency rooms can focus on giving care to those that need it most.

Another benefit of visiting a pediatric clinic for diagnostic services rather than an emergency room is the expense! For any service you require, emergency rooms will be significantly more expensive than pediatric clinics or urgent care. With all that in mind, a pediatric clinic is probably your best option for pediatric diagnostic services. Moreover, all of the staff at pediatric clinics are professionally trained to care specifically for children and will be generally able to relate to them more effectively than emergency room staff.

Diagnostic services are a terrific resource for doctors in providing accurate diagnoses for their patients and prescribing proper treatment. They are also very helpful for you whether you are a patient or a parent! They offer certainty and answers for any troublesome symptoms that you or your child may be experiencing, and they can also rule out more serious conditions. Our diagnostic services at Julia Barriga MD include in-house lab testing, developmental screenings for hearing and vision, and more! If your child is exhibiting any worrisome symptoms, bring them in for an appointment with one of our pediatricians and they will co-ordinate the appropriate diagnostic services to get to the bottom of what is ailing your child.

They sure are! We believe every child should receive the care they require at Julia Barriga MD, and so we do everything in our power to make it affordable for you! We accept most major medical insurance providers at Julia Barriga MD and team up with Florida Medicaid and Healthy Kids Programs. For a full list of the insurances we accept, visit our Insurances Accepted page. On that page, you will find a list of logistical details that we kindly ask you to verify with your insurance provider prior to your appointment to streamline the checkout process!

Come to Julia Barriga MD for our first-rate pediatric diagnostic services! We would be happy to help you find answers to your child’s symptoms. If you would like to book an appointment with us, you can either do so on our website or you can call us at (813) 984-8846. Our pediatric clinic is conveniently located at 5001 East Busch Blvd in Tampa, Florida and is open Monday through Thursday from 8:30 AM to 5:00 PM, Friday from 8:30 AM to 1:00 PM, and Saturday from 9:00 AM to 1:00 PM. We serve patients from Tampa FL, Terrace FL, Thonotosassa FL, Lutz FL, Greater Carrollwood FL, Lake Magdalene FL, Westchase FL, and Town ‘N’ Country FL.