The Northwestern Children's Practice

NWCP : Chicago’s Premiere Rooftop Pediatric Practice. They’re all laughing because Cara said “I’m not going to go out any less just because I have a baby!”.

It’s almost time - we’ve got water boiling !

Hope everyone is having a nice holiday weekend. Reminder that the office is closed on Monday 5.27, so don’t come to the office because we won’t be there. Most of us are sitting at home in the rain waiting for Tuesday to come around, but some of us (specifically Dr. Blegen) are busy officiating our sister’s wedding in New England .

See you on Tuesday!

Wishing a happy birthday to Amy Manion (shown here between two random people). We asked her what the most important thing she has learned in her 28 years here, and she said this:

“The office will be closed on Monday in observance of Memorial Day. We are open on Saturday and Sunday at 10am, and Tuesday at 8am.”

Wise, profound, and true. Thank you Amy, and have a great weekend everyone else !

It’s Q&A Friday! We’ll be answering your questions in our Instagram stories today, so head there to ask (or to see what other people are asking about)!

It’s a Bomkamp Birthday Baby Bump Blue sky Bridge-raised Blue Bottle Brisk Walk with Bensko, Blegen, and the B-Team! Hope you are having as nice of a day as we are!

Unfortunately, we have to go back to work though. Gonna do a Q&A in our stories on Friday though , so keep an eye out for that !

With Mother’s Day and Teacher Appreciation Week in full swing, we don’t want to lose sight of Nurses Week! To quote Dr. King , “Is there no end to this ? Why isn’t there a day for Doctors, or fathers?”

We try not to brag, but our team of nurses is the best in Chicago. In fact, they are the best in the entire jurisdiction of the Seventh Circuit Court!

We asked them to send in pics of them having fun together and literally got almost 100 pictures. Besides caring for your children they seem to enjoy restaurants, beaches, ball games, and getting married.

Cheers to them ! We couldn’t function without this fantastic, dedicated team. Hopefully we won’t have to, because they are contractually prohibited from going on strike.

It’s National Receptionists’ Day, so if you run into any of these fine folks make sure to tip your hat to them! The are often the first to be yelled at and the last to be thanked , but their professionalism, kindness, and grace under pressure always impresses us (and is why we got cake today)!

She may frequently trip over her untied shoelaces on our lunchtime brisk walks, but Dr. Hirsh put in some strong work this weekend raising over $11k for the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network at their annual PurpleStride event ! Go Her! (or is it “Go She”? - Dr. Hirsh is also our office grammar expert).

It’s been a long time coming … apologies in advance to all the haters in the office, who are about to have a VERY long day.

📸

We are all smiles today because MyChart is working again. Please be patient with us in these initial days of it being back.

Also, we know that there are at least a few I Think You Should Leave fans out there. Because Drs. Blegen and Goldsteins wives are not among them, and also because they have literally no friends, they have 2 extra tickets for the Tim Robinson show on 4.4 at the Chicago Theater. If you’d like a chance to win one , message us with a performance of your favorite line from the show! How fun would it be to make awkward conversation with us while we wait for the show to start ??

Live from New York…

Hope everyone is gearing up for a fabulous weekend! Dr. Goldstein is hard at work this Friday, just in a different way. Sounds like we are nearing an end to the network issue that has kept us offline for the past few weeks - we again thank you for your patience, and thank our amazing staff, who has gone above and beyond in coming up with ways to get the job done.

Even though this has been a rough month, we are not really looking forward to having to learn how to type again.

Wishing a super duper Happy Birthday to Dr. Hirsh! Here’s a pic of her on the guitar and a young Dr. Unger’s son on the melodica from when they toured North America covering Sonny & Cher songs. Some little-known facts about Dr. Hirsh:
1. All songs are her favorite songs
2. All foods are foods she doesn’t like
3. She has several hobbies we think .

Even though she is a nightmare to work with , we are glad that her contract prevents her from working anywhere else , because she is a top earner !

Our gift to her is this poem that Dr. Calway wrote :

There once was a pediatrician so fine,
Whose tech skills were not in line.
With a stethoscope keen,
But a laptop unseen,
Her patients still turned out just fine!

We wish we had better news , but the Lurie network remains down, and we have no information about when it will be restored. The effect on our ability to provide the care you expect from us becomes more significant every day, and the continued lack of any helpful information or support from the hospital is disheartening to say the least. We appreciate your patience , and we will continue to do our best to care for your family. We would make a joke here, but our heart isn’t in it.

We continue to operate without a net, as the Lurie system is still down. While they have yet to update us today, we are not hopeful that it will be up anytime soon . The office will be open at 10am Saturday & Sunday for walk-in though , and we are able to test for things like strep, flu, Covid, and RSV in the office.

Sorry that we have to keep sending updateless-updates, but hopefully better news will be here soon .

It’s always sad when good people leave, not only because we have such a tight-knit group, but also because we have to change all the locks and passcodes.

Today we said goodbye to two of our nurses who have now finished their Nurse Practitioner degrees - Sam and Alison. Sam is originally from Eritrea, and started with us as a receptionist in 2008. Her mom was the florist in the Treasure Island on the 1st floor (pour one out for Treasure Island). Since then, Sam went to nursing school , became a lactation consultant , spent some time in “New” Jersey, came back, started a family, and went back to school to become a Nurse Practitioner. Alison has been with us through the dumb pandemic, and has also gotten married and completed her NP degree since starting with us. Sam and Alison are two of the calmest health care workers you will ever meet.

We wish them the best in their new endeavors. We will miss them greatly. They will not be replaced, and everyone will be expected to work harder to make up for their absence.

Drs. Adhikari and Goldstein were both featured in Chicago news stories yesterday - Dr. Adhikari for supporting an Illinois bill banning some concerning food additives, and Dr. Goldstein for saying it’s probably not a huge deal if your kid eats snow.

Clearly they are both heroes committed to improving the lives of children. But who is a bigger hero? Comments appreciated.

One of these guys turns 50 today. Happy Birthday to the brains behind our social media accounts, Dr. Goldstein. He’s not making this post which is why it’s not going to be funny.

We got you a gift certificate for Dan Flashes. If you like it, then give us back the gift receipt.

He’s shoveling ! It’s a snow day Q&A Friday ! We will be answering your questions in our stories today ! Also, the office is closing at noon because it’s a mess out there and half of our doctors are sick .

Quick Holiday Hours update - the office will close at noon on Thursday, December 21. There will be no afternoon walk-in on Thursday. We will also be closed on 12.25 and 1.1. We are open for walk-in at 10am on 12.24 and 12.31.

Wishing a big Congratulations to Dr. Blegen, his wife Liz, and big sister Maia on the birth of baby Ingrid! Everyone is doing great, and we are using his absence from the office to do all of the things he can’t stand.
Those are : sitting/eating at his desk, listening to country music , housing shellfish, and singing songs from Book of Mormon (trust us - never mention that show in his presence).

Our gift to him is advice : With two kids, you have to pick a favorite early on and stick to it, no matter what happens.

The office will be closed on Thanksgiving Day. On Friday, November 24 we are closing at noon. There will be NO AFTERNOON WALK-IN on Friday. On Saturday and Sunday we will be open at 10am for walk-in.

We wish all of our NWCP families a happy and healthy holiday! But if you are not an NWCP family, you’d better watch your back. In the spirit of holiday harmony though , we offer a gift of this limerick to everyone:

Before New Years and after Halloween,
There’s a great holiday right in between!
So much food and family time,
(Though serving sweet potatoes should be a crime),
And just six months ‘til we break out the sunscreen!

Dr. Goldstein relived his Wonder Years today at Oak Park River Forest High School, where he spoke to the Health Careers class and let them know that by going to school for 12 more years and taking on a few hundred thousand dollars of debt they too could be qualified to talk about naps and coughs!

If you’ve got a school or parent group or other such thing (need Dr. Unger to play banjo?) we are always happy to come talk to you- send us a message!

If you know Dr. Adhikari, you know that she says that the one and only true mark of a good parent is having their child potty trained at a very, very early age. That’s why she hooked us up with these diaper drop boxes. They are from an organization called , which collects unused diapers and wipes and distributes them to families in need across Chicago.

So if you have any extra spares to share bring them in because it’s good karma, and karma is a guy on the Chiefs.

Always a good day when we get to visit our friends at Christopher School (a specialty school within CPS for students with disabilities). Today we helped around 40 children get ready for the Special Olympics! Their smiles (and cards) made our week!

Breaking out the PJ’s this Halloween (except for Dr. Hirsh, who is definitely giving serial killer vibes). Our hope for you this Halloween is that you don’t have to go outside. But if you do have to go out, we hope you are in Hawaii.

NWCP turns 50 this year, which means that we are having a midlife crisis, so we are getting a facelift.

Construction crews will be in the office for the next several weeks starting Monday, October 30. Because of this there may be some extra noise, longer wait times, and frequent sightings of Dr. King in overalls. We ask for, expect, and demand your patience during this time.

Peace & love,
Team NWCP

We all work hard here to teach the next generation of receptionists, nurses, nurse practitioners, and doctors , and we like to think that we are all great teachers.

But some of us are better than others, as shown by the fact that Drs. Adhikari and Goldstein received the Excellence in Teaching Award from Lurie Children’s Hospital.

This award will allow them to step back a bit and allow the other doctors to teach the medical students and residents who rotate through the office. They may not do as good of a job,

Breaking News! Per the director of the CDC, children under 5 who finished their primary Covid vaccine series with Moderna (which is 2 doses) CAN receive the updated Pfizer monovalent vaccine.

This should come as welcome news to those of you who have had difficulty finding the Moderna monovalent vaccine. Even though we are expecting a small Moderna shipment , we have ample supply of Pfizer, which your child can get at well visits or by calling to schedule an appointment (well, we guess technically you would call not your child).

Patients of the practice can also come in without an appointment for a flu, Covid, or RSV shot on Saturday, October 14 between 9-11am (assuming our supply remains sufficient).

Beyfortus (the RSV shot, not short for Beyoncé Fortus we checked) is now available. It is recommended for all babies from birth up to 8 months old. It is given as a single dose , and will be offered at well visits and by appointment. It can be given with the other vaccines that are administered at the 2,4, and 6 month checkups (although due to the volume of the injection itself, 6 month olds cannot get Beyfortus, flu, and Covid vaccines at the same time - it’s complicated folks!).

Because of Beyfortus’ significant cost , we currently have a limited supply. We will order more as we get a sense of demand , but please be patient and flexible if there are times when it is not available. We will do our best to make sure that anyone who wants this can get it before winter.

Although we anticipate that insurance companies will cover Beyfortus, it is your responsibility to be aware of your coverage.

Call , message , or comment below with questions and we will do our best to answer!