BY CATHY HALL for WEEKLY VOLCANO 5/1/26 |
“I don’t feel well.”
As a parent or guardian, you have heard that 100 times. You run through the questions:
- Does your tummy hurt?
- Do you have a headache?
- Having trouble going to the bathroom?
- Is your nose clogged up?
- Are you coughing a lot?
The usual remedies do not seem to be working: pain/fever reducer, cold cloth to the head, antacid, vaporizer. Your child still feels bad. You call their primary care provider, but the soonest you can get in is three weeks? The child feels bad now. What do you do?
Community Health Care’s Prompt Care Clinic at the Hilltop location can see your child today. There is even a pediatrician onsite to ensure your child is receiving the best care. Coming to the CHC Prompt Care is a lot faster and a lot less expensive than going to the emergency room. If your child needs medicine, there is a pharmacy right in the building, open to Community Health Care patients. You can pick up the prescription shortly after the Prompt Care visit is complete. CHC Prompt Care takes adults, too.
Remember that the next time you are feeling poorly and it is a four-week wait to see your primary care provider.
“My tooth hurts!”
Child wakes up in the morning with a sore tooth. You make an appointment with your dentist, but the wait is two weeks. You try to wait it out, but the next morning, not only is the child’s tooth sore, but their cheek is swollen and the gum surrounding the tooth is red. The usual remedies, like aspirin, do not even touch it. What do you do?
Community Health Care has five dental clinics spread across Pierce County, from Hilltop to Eastside, Lakewood, Puyallup, and Spanaway. All our dental clinics accept emergency walk-ins. The dentists are all ABCD (Access to Baby and Child Dentistry) trained. ABCD Dental is a program aimed at providing children with the best reactive and preventive dental care. And again, all Community Health Care locations boast an in-house pharmacy for easy access to appropriate medication, serving CHC-registered patients.
All of Community Health Care’s clinics, medical and dental, accept most insurance, including Medicaid (Apple Health) and Medicare. If you are uninsured, those who qualify can be billed on a sliding scale, which is calculated on income and family size. We have a team of Insurance Navigators who can work with you to see if you qualify for Apple Health or other insurance plans.
All our services, medical, dental, behavioral health, low-cost pharmacy, and more, are available to people of any age, including Prompt Care and emergency dental. Community Health Care is here for all, seniors to kids and everyone in between.
Prompt Care Hours: 8:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m., closed for lunch noon–1:00 p.m.
Dental Clinic Hours: 6:30 a.m.–5:30 p.m., closed for lunch 11:30 a.m.–12:30 p.m.
Pharmacy Hours: 8:30 a.m.–5:00 p.m., closed for lunch 12:30 p.m.–1:30 p.m.
For clinic locations, visit our website at www.commhealth.org/locations
