Adolescent and Transition Medicine

Teen Health Center

New-patient appointments are scheduled by calling 513-636-4681 and pressing 1 or scheduling online via our website. You will be asked to provide basic demographic and insurance information.

If a community healthcare provider refers your teenager to the Teen Health Center, an authorization from the teen’s health insurance may be needed. The referring healthcare provider most often requests that authorization from the health insurance. The teen’s parent or guardian calls the Teen Health Center to make an appointment and the referral is faxed to the Teen Health Center, 513-636-4681, from the referring provider.

Appointments can be scheduled through our central phone number, 513-636-4681 or online via our website. If calling, please ask for an appointment at one of the outpatient service locations.

It’s important to understand that the healthcare providers at the satellites only provide consultative services and not primary healthcare.

Specialists in Adolescent Medicine are experts in treating the medically and psychosocially complex health issues of teens beyond what is typically provided by a primary care provider. Consultative services are often requested for teens who have:

• Complex medical or mental health conditions requiring coordination of care
• Dermatologic conditions such as acne
• Diagnostic dilemmas and second opinions
• Eating disorders
• Menstrual concerns
• Mental health (depression, anxiety) and behavioral concerns: evaluation and treatment or referral
• Persistent fatigue or chronic pain issues
• Pubertal concerns
• School performance and/or attentional issues: evaluation and treatment or referral
• Sexual and reproductive health issues including contraception or testing and treatment for sexually transmitted infections
• Substance use disorders
• Transgender health issues and gender identity concerns
• Transition to adult healthcare

After consultations, teens return to their community primary care providers for routine healthcare. The Teen Health Center staff collaborates with primary care providers until the consultative issue is resolved.

Primary healthcare is also known as general healthcare. All teens need to have a primary care provider who takes care of annual or sports physicals, helps out if the teen gets an acute illness, makes sure that immunizations are up to date, and provides health promotion and support to the teen and family regarding the normal developmental milestones of adolescence. The professionals at the Teen Health Center provide primary healthcare at the Cincinnati Children’s Burnet Campus.

School difficulties are not uncommon during the teenage years. There are often increasing academic demands at school as well as pressure from peers to spend more time away from home and homework and engaged in social activities. Sorting out whether a decline in school performance is due to poor time management or a specific learning disorder can be challenging.

The Teen Health Center providers can help to determine the cause of school performance problems. The first goal is to make sure there are not any health-related problems that are interfering with the teen’s ability to learn. Health-related problems include substance use, depression, family conflicts and somatic complaints such as headaches, stomach aches, chest pain and fatigue. Once these issues are better understood, the healthcare team might refer the teenager for a comprehensive educational evaluation.

We recommend that families contact their teenagers’ school district to request a comprehensive evaluation. Often that request needs to be in writing. Follow up with the school if you do not receive a response in a reasonable time.

Teenagers may also be referred to a psychologist or an educational specialist at Cincinnati Children’s or in the community for cognitive and academic achievement testing. These tests will assist in determining if the teenager has a learning disability or ADHD or global learning difficulties that interfere with academic performance.