Welcome to our Sports Center!
This page has all of the information that your athlete will need to participate in sports this year.
Seeing your pediatrician for routine well-child visits/annual wellness checks to complete your child’s sports physical helps keep your child’s medical records and health history up to date. Our pediatricians are trained to identify and treat both medical and bone/joint problems that are commonly seen in children and adolescents who play sports. During a wellness check, our pediatricians can ensure your child is caught up on immunizations and discuss any concerns in a confidential setting in addition to completing your form needed for sports, band, camp, or other activities!
Annual Wellness Checks
An Annual Wellness Visit usually includes a complete physical examination, a review of the child’s medical history and status of chronic conditions, weight, height and body mass index measurements and percentiles. In addition, a discussion will take place regarding nutrition, sleep habits, development (physical, cognitive, and social) along with counseling regarding health and safety risks, and adolescent issues surrounding peer pressure, drugs, tobacco and alcohol. These visits are the foundation for promoting continuity of care and a long-lasting relationship for effective medical management and care.
Annual Wellness Check vs Sports Physicals
As more and more schools and urgent care clinics offer “convenient” sports physicals, it is important to explain to our patients the difference between a well child exam and a sports physical. Many families believe that a sports physical is equivalent to a well child exam, however, this is simply not true. The sports physical is designed to clear an athlete for participation in sports or other physically strenuous activities while the well child exam includes much more comprehensive care. Here are the differences…
A Sports Physical includes a physical examination and a brief discussion of the child’s medical history. During this visit, the patient will NOT receive developmental assessments, anticipatory guidance, or review of vaccine records. Compare that to an Annual Wellness Visit that usually includes a complete physical examination, a review of the child’s medical history and status of chronic conditions, weight, height and body mass index measurements and percentiles. In addition, a discussion will take place regarding nutrition, sleep habits, development (physical, cognitive, and social) along with counseling regarding health and safety risks, and adolescent issues surrounding peer pressure, drugs, tobacco and alcohol. These visits are the foundation for promoting continuity of care and a long-lasting relationship for effective medical management and care.
Sports Physicals
The form is due, what do you do? We’ve all been there. Paperwork piles up, and sports physicals sneak up on us just before our children’s sport and activity begins.
To make life easier (and what parent wouldn’t like that), we recommend asking to have your child’s sports physical completed when scheduling your child’s next routine well-child visit/annual wellness check.
Most insurance covers an Annual Wellness Check (AWC) at no cost to you, in fact many plans also provide you rewards or premium discounts if you complete an AWC. A child’s AWC encompasses the school required Sports Physical and much more, and is also usually 100% covered by insurance.
No matter the sport or organization, our providers are available to assist you and your child with just their physical for sports, band, school, girl scouts, boy scouts, camp, etc. Just bring in your form during your appointment! There is a $50 flat fee for this appointment as it is not covered by insurance.
When scheduling your physical, please ask which would be best for your child: a sports physical or annual wellness visit.
Sports Physical Form Policy
- Forms will be dated with the date of the last well child exam
- The parent section must be complete before we fill out our portion
- If a facility/school/camp has a date limitation (currently we know for sure Georgetown & Austin IDS”s require they physical be done on/after May 1st) a sports physical will need to be scheduled if the well child exam falls out of that date
- Forms take 3-5 business days to complete
- For the safety of your child, we are unable to sign off an any forms for a patient that hasn’t been seen for a well child exam in the last 365 days
- Forms can be emailed to frontdesk@treehousepedi.com and will be returned the same way, no faxing or mailing