Primary Care Intake
We are so happy you are considering Healthy Sprouts and House Calls as a choice for your child’s medical home. We strive to provide the best care for your family. We want parents to be confident in our practice and the services we offer. We understand parents have expectations for their child’s care. We will do our best to meet them. In turn, we have expectations of our families when they choose Healthy Sprouts and House Calls as their child’s primary care provider.
We want to make sure we are the right fit for your family!
We do newborn visits post-hospital discharge, well checks, sick visits, and behavioral health visits. Dr. Jeansonne and Jordan Havyar, Physician Assistant work as a team. Dr. Jeansonne sees most well checks and higher acuity sick and behavioral visits. Jordan may see your infant for newborn weight checks, the 9 month well check, 7, 9, 13, and 15 or 17 year old well visit.
People often ask things like the following:
Do you do referrals?
Yes!
Do you do eye and hearing exams like in the office?
Yes! We use a Welch Allyn Vision screener or Visual chart depending on age. We use a hearing screen device for preschool and Kindergarten or older ages where a hearing screen is recommended.
How do you do x-rays?
We send an order for out-patient imaging to the outpatient area of a local hospital or HMG Diagnostic Center. You get the x-ray and imaging then go home and we get the results.
What about labs?
For screening labs we can often do these in the home. If your child has challenging veins or is anxious about blood draws in the home, we send you to a local lab or sometimes a hospital lab for the lab draw. We do nasal and throat swabs, urine collection and other labs some of which can be processed in the home or in some cases, delivered to an outside lab.
What about orthopedic injuries?
Dr. Jeansonne does recommend either the Watauga Orthopedics or Associated Orthopedics of Kingsport Walk-in Clinics for significant orthopedic injuries unless there is a limb deformity or your child will not bear weight on the leg, in which case, we recommend an ER visit at Niswonger in Johnson City. We can also do referrals for pediatric specific concerns to Pediatric Orthopedic physicians at Niswonger and ETSU. We are happy to provide on-call guidance for the decision-making process in this regard.
Do you provide vaccines in the home?
Yes!
Do you offer vaccines for parents?
Yes we do offer Tdap, Flu and COVID vaccine as appropriate and with appropriate screening when in conjunction with a visit for your child.
Do you offer ear piercing?
Yes and we recommend doing so at the 6 month or 9 month visit or 7 years of age or older. We only pierce ear lobes. We use the Blomdahl medical piercing device. The earrings we use are made of medical grade plastic. We also have access to medical grade titanium earrings. These do not contain nickel or allergenic metals.They are sterile. We use a small amount of numbing medication for the procedure. This is a cash, self pay service.
“Do you provide fluoride varnish for children before they establish with a pediatric dentist?
Yes, once the teeth poke through the gums, based on risk, fluoride varnish brushing of the teeth can be performed during a well check every 3 or 6 months depending on dental risk factors until your child is established with a dentist.
Do you manage ADD or ADHD and prescribe the medications?
Yes. Evaluations for ADHD and ADD are done by Dr. Jeansonne and if medication is needed then it is prescribed with follow-up appointments as needed until school and behavior concerns are positively improved. This is a chronic condition and if treated with medication every 3-month appointments are scheduled for monitoring of blood pressure, growth, grades and behavior, as appropriate.
Do you have parent access to our child or children’s electronic health record?
Yes you can sign up for a patient portal.
Dr. Jeansonne does perform Y-canth treatment for Molluscum Contagiosum as appropriate. She is also part of the iPledge program for prescribing isotretinoin for severe acne. Both of these modalities required informed consent, review of possible side effects and follow-up appointments; Isotretinoin requires contraceptive counseling, screening assessment for depression and lab management.
Healthy Sprouts and House Calls has ease of communication and accessibility by text, phone, and email by your choice. If you want encrypted messages for enhanced privacy we ask that you please notify us. Otherwise, we use a password-protected texting platform on our end and the patient portal to communicate or phone calls for more urgent needs. You can choose to receive encrypted or unencrypted messages via our system. Unencrypted messages are not guaranteed to be confidential, but are easier to transmit. You can choose to consent to unencrypted messages. We encourage you to set a password or facial recognition on your phone. If sensitive information or any personal protected health information like insurance numbers, dates of birth, address, or social security numbers needs to be shared with us you may request encryption or another route of communication.
We do charge a separately billable fee for our drive. This means insurance does not cover this fee, but should cover the actual house call or apply it to your deductible. If you have two visits within 48 hours due to a need for follow-up then we waive the charge for the drive on the second visit.
We DO NOT charge a monthly membership fee or Enrollment fee. We are cheaper than Direct Primary Care practices (those that accept cash only) and we do have longer visits and easier communication access compared to typical office practices. Please check with your insurer as some insurance companies treat us as Home Health and may apply our fees to a home health deductible. (UMR Farm Bureau and Medcost do this).
We charge a $30 cancellation fee for same-day cancellations that are not due to a clinician sending the patient to a higher level of care such as the ER. We ask parents to avoid “just in case” placeholder appointment scheduling with a potential plan to cancel the same day. This prevents others from scheduling when they actually do need a sick visit. If you are uncertain whether your child may need an appointment or not, we are happy to guide and triage the concern.
Insurance plans vary. Please inquire with your insurer as to how they cover house calls. Some apply it to a copay and others to coinsurance or deductible. Some treat it just like an office visit and others treat it more like home health. If you have a high deductible plan with a Health Savings account it will be applied to your deductible. Keep in mind not all insurance is the same. So if a friend only paid a copay for our visits, your insurance could handle the visit differently. Even within a Cigna or BCBS type of insurance, a different employer or the same employer, but differing plan options may offer varying types of coverage. Our practice does not determine insurance rates, coverage, and options. Your employer and the insurer determine this.
We do ask that a credit card be kept on file for each child’s chart to ensure the timely processing of payments. Payments should be made within 90 days of receiving a statement. If your family is unable to do this, we can determine a reasonable monthly payment plan. We are very flexible with payment plans. Just reach out and you will see how easy it is to work with us. We are a team on all fronts. We want to be a happy part of your family! We gladly accept mailed checks or you can pay bills using ACH from your bank account which is appreciated as this does save us credit card fees. Just keep in mind that we are also a small business and must also pay our own bills in a timely manner 😊.
We do have typical “office hours” but will see patients after hours if feasible and this is determined on a case by case basis. We block out time early in the morning and in the evening for our primary care patients. If you do not see availability online, please text us about your needs. We are closed on Saturdays. We are open on most Sunday afternoons.
Our office holidays are currently Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Day, New Year’s Day, Memorial Day, Easter Sunday, July 4th, Labor Day, and Memorial Day. We see patients half of the day on the day after Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve, and New Year’s Eve. We do ask that if you have a need on any of our closed days, please reach out to us first as we try to limit your need of urgent care or ER care despite these being listed as holidays.
We do have a waitlist from time to time. Newborn siblings of current patients are added immediately to the practice. If added to the waitlist, you will be given a time frame of when intake will occur. At that time we will reach out to see if interest in the practice remains. Our House Calls practice is unique and unlike most healthcare experiences. Dr. Jeansonne has an initial free-of-charge phone call where parents are provided further details of visit logistics, and call coverage nuances and allowed to ask questions. This is to make sure our practice is the right fit for you.
Our practice does follow the CDC Immunization Schedule. We understand parents may have many emotions surrounding the covid vaccine and parents may choose to forgo this vaccine since it is rather new and children in general have mild COVID illness. We do offer it for those children who may be at risk of serious disease and hospitalization. We are happy to set up an immunization counseling appointment if you have questions about immunizations or anxiety due to what you may hear in the community or see online.
Dr. Jeansonne is very well educated about vaccines and is happy to share that with any families that have questions or concerns. She has seen the significant benefits of immunizations and now the smaller outbreaks occurring due to a decrease in vaccine acceptance which has transpired over her greater than 20-year career in pediatrics. She does understand parents’ discomfort with their child getting injections and understands what people see and hear on the internet may make them uncomfortable and doubtful. She wants to build a relationship of trust and help parents feel comfortable. We are happy to share that she has done so with several families in the practice who are catching their children up on the recommended vaccine schedule.
However, we do not delay vaccines or recommend increasing the number and timing of injections when there is no medical benefit and doing so increases a child’s painful procedures and window of risk. Infants are at the greatest risk of vaccine-preventable disease and their complications. Vaccines/ immunizations are the best way to provide this education to the immune system without much of the unwanted risk of a disease and its potential consequences. Whether you join the practice or not, if you have questions and would like to discuss vaccines she does offer an educational question/answer telehealth visit for this purpose.
Dr. Jeansonne is licensed in the states of Tennessee and Virginia. Jordan Havyar is certified to practice in Tennessee.