Pediatrician hospital affiliation

Does your pediatrician have to be affiliated with the hospital you give birth at?

We do not live very close to St. Catherine's, which is fine for my dr's appointments and the hospital, but we want to pick a pediatrician a little closer to where we are living now, and the one that came recommended to us by family is in West Islip, but can we still use him if he isn't affiliated with the hospital/won't come to check the baby after birth?

How does that work exactly, is there an on-call pediatrician at the hospital that will check the baby if your own isn't there?

Re: Pediatrician hospital affiliation

Mine won't be, we are delivering at Stony Brook, but live near Southampton. There is a hospital pediatrician and I am refusing the hep B shot in the hospital so that all shots can be given by the ped.

Re: Pediatrician hospital affiliation

Mine just happened to be affiliated with our hospital, but we didnt choose him based on that.

Our pediatrician didnt even see DS when we were there since he was in the NICU. At our hospital, the NICU ped would see the babies and not his regular ped. Had he been in the nursery our ped would have seen him.

Re: Pediatrician hospital affiliation

Our pediatrician isn't affiliated with the hospital I delivered at either. It's quite common. Just tell the staff at the hospital that your ped isn't affiliated and they'll have one of their peds check out your baby. But make sure that ped is covered by your insurance too!

Re: Pediatrician hospital affiliation

the pediatrician im choosing is not affiliated with Winthrop. So ill just use the in house ped when baby is born. Then ill go to my ped. i chose. The hosp ped will not be giving my child anything.