Visiting Cincinnati Children's

Whenever your child has an urgent medical problem, you should try to call your child's primary care physician first. Staff at our urgent care centers cannot answer medical questions or advise you about your child's health over the phone. You and your child's doctor know your child best and together can decide on the most appropriate care for your child.

If you do not have a primary care physician, you can call the Pediatrician Referral Service at 513-636-4724 for help finding a physician in your area.

As a parent with a sick or injured child, it may be difficult to decide if you need to take your child to the emergency room or if your child could be treated at a nearby urgent care center. To help make the decision, you should call your child's doctor who will be able to assist you in determining the best place to take your child.

These problems cannot be adequately addressed at urgent care:

• Migraine headaches
• Head injuries involving loss of consciousness
• Suspected child abuse
• Reproductive problems (for example, suspected pregnancy or sexually transmitted diseases)

Children with serious or life-threatening injuries or illnesses should be taken immediately to the Emergency Department at Cincinnati Children's Main Campus (the entrance to the Emergency Department is located on Erkenbrecher Avenue) or to the Emergency Department at Cincinnati Children's Liberty Campus.

Our doctors and nurses are trained in pediatrics and are the same experts who treat patients at the Emergency Department at our main hospital.

Most insurance companies do cover urgent care visits, but we recommend you consult your insurance company for more information. Some companies ask that you get a referral from your physician before the visit. And many insurance companies require co-pays, which should be listed on your insurance card. If your co-pay is not listed, our urgent care staff will not collect a payment, and you'll receive a bill from Cincinnati Children's for any outstanding balances. If you have billing questions, please contact Billing Customer Service.

We do not take appointments during urgent care hours. Patients are seen on a first-come, first-served basis, and depending on the severity of the illness or injury. Please understand the number of patients coming to an urgent care center at any particular time varies and you may have to wait. We will do our best to get you in as soon as possible.

We realize all children in the urgent care center are ill, injured or in need of some type of care. Some children are brought to an urgent care center with more serious problems and may need to be seen immediately for treatment before being transferred to the Emergency Department. And some children in the waiting room are there for lab tests or X-rays and are not there to see the urgent care physician.

Cincinnati Children's offers an Urgent Care Information Hotline during urgent care hours in the evenings and on the weekends. You may call 513-636-4848 to hear about wait times at all our urgent care locations. Information on the hotline is updated hourly during urgent care hours.

We do not complete routine school, camp or athletic physicals at our urgent care centers. Contact your child's primary care physician to make an appointment.

If your child's urgent care physician orders lab or radiology tests, our pediatric technicians will perform the tests while you wait. Pediatric radiologists from Cincinnati Children's will review all X-rays before you leave. Your child's urgent care physician will give you the results before you leave, and the results will be given to your child's primary care physician.

If your child's primary care doctor has written an order or a prescription for an X-ray or lab work, and you don't need to see an urgent care physician, you can go to one of our neighborhood locations to get these tests completed.

X-ray and Lab Hours

Cincinnati Children's Liberty Campus
Laboratory services - Available 24 hours a day. No appointment necessary.
Radiology services - Available 24 hours a day. No appointment necessary for routine X-rays. Some Radiology testing is available by appointment only, please call ahead.

Cincinnati Children's Anderson and Cincinnati Children's Fairfield
Monday-Friday: 8 am-11 pm  |  Saturday: 8 am-7 pm  |  Sunday 11 am-7 pm

Cincinnati Children's Mason Campus
Monday-Friday: 7:30 am-11 pm  |  Saturday: 8 am-7 pm  |  Sunday 11 am-7 pm

If your child's injury is serious and our physician thinks your child needs to see a specialist right away, such as an orthopaedic or plastic surgeon, you will be sent to the Emergency Department at our main hospital.

We are able to stitch most cuts at our urgent care centers. Occasionally a plastic surgeon is needed, and you and the urgent care physician can make that decision. 

We do not have orthopaedists available during urgent care hours, but we can diagnose and splint most fractures. Simple fractures usually are splinted until the swelling goes down. When the swelling decreases, your child will need to see one of our orthopaedic surgeons for a cast. Our staff will give you the number to our Call Center, 513-636-3200, so you can schedule a follow-up appointment with one of our orthopaedic surgeons.

If your child's break is serious and the urgent care physician thinks your child needs to see an orthopaedist right away, you will be sent to the Emergency Department at our main hospital.

We do not have a dentist available during urgent care hours. If your child has tooth pain or a tooth injury, you will need to go to the Emergency Department at our main hospital where a pediatric dentist is available.

For a list of the pharmacies in your area and their hours, please ask the nurse before you leave the urgent care center.

Our urgent care centers are not 24-hour facilities. If you are unable to get to an urgent care center before we close, please take your child to the Emergency Department at either Cincinnati Children's Main Campus or Cincinnati Children's Liberty Campus.

The Emergency Department can be reached any time by calling 513-636-4293.