Accessibility

We have five medical home locations across Northern Virginia (Ashburn, Falls Church, Herndon, Oakton/Vienna, and Sleepy Hollow). Our 6th location in Vienna is for specialty services.  

Our 5 primary locations are open 7 days a week, with the exception of major holidays New Year’s Day, Memorial Day, July 4, Labor Day, Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Day.  We are open Monday - Thursday 8:30am - 8:30pm and Friday 8:30am - 5pm.  We are also open on Saturdays and Sundays 9-12:30 at select locations.

We want you to have access to scheduling the care you need.  Our website appointments page allows you to schedule or request most appointment types. As a Capital Area Pediatrics patient, you can visit any location that is convenient for you and your schedule.  We encourage you to schedule well visits, chronic issues or follow ups with the same provider to better serve your child. 

Once you are an established patient:

• Our online self-scheduling for well visits is open for 1 year.
• Our online self-scheduling for “express sick” visits is open for 24-48 hours. We invite you  to schedule an express sick visit at any location and time that is convenient for you. These express sick visits are meant for patients with a single symptom less than 3 weeks or for mild symptoms requiring clearance for daycare/ school.  Examples include fever, ear pain, cough, diarrhea, sore throat and acute injury.
• For other visits such as medication follow ups, asthma check ups, developmental/ behavioral or mental health evaluations, multi-symptom illnesses, or chronic complaints more than 3 weeks, please use the pink “existing patient request” button to be scheduled in an appointment that will give your child sufficient time to be evaluated by your provider.

Telemedicine visits are offered on a limited availability. Telemedicine can only be performed if the patient is in the state of Virginia due to licensure and medical coverage limitations.  Telemedicine is ideally used for mental health follow ups and behavioral evaluations.  Most sick visits (fever, rash, vomiting, pink eye, cough, etc) are best served by an in person office visit as a physical exam can be crucial to providing your child the most appropriate care.  We cannot do well visits via telemedicine.

Please call the office if you have an urgent medical issue that may need to be seen quickly or possibly referred to the emergency room. We offer nurse triage advice during weekday daytime hours as staffing allows.  Please call the office if you are having trouble with self-scheduling or requesting an appointment, or if you need to cancel an appointment and are unable to do so on the portal.  Our patient portal can be used extensively for non-urgent matters, refills, referrals and form submissions (please see below under “Portal Use”).

After Hours

For urgent but non life-threatening emergencies, Capital Area Pediatrics is pleased to offer after hours nurse triage advice when our offices are closed.

If you have a life-threatening emergency, please call 911. Some examples of life threatening conditions include loss of consciousness, severe bleeding, and seizure.

If you have a suicide risk or similar mental health crisis, please call 988.

If you have a poisoning emergency, please call Poison Control at 1-800-222-1222.

If your child is sick when our offices are closed, please call 703-359-5100, ext 6 to speak to the on call nurse. The nurse will return your call within 30 minutes. Services provided after normal operating hours may incur a standard $27 charge. This will not be billed to insurance and will be considered a patient responsibility. 

If you have non-urgent questions (for example: infant care, feeding, medication refills), please send these via patient portal to be handled for no fee. Patient portal messages are answered within 2 business days.

In House Services

Besides routine pediatric care, we also offer additional services at all of our locations.  We offer visits with the following:

• Lactation Consultants.  All locations have lactation consults available.  Our team also offers a free class, Breastfeeding 101, via Zoom.
• Mental Health Services and Therapy.  Meet the therapists on our Care Team!
• Specialty Services. As of 2025, constipation, headache, and weight management will be offered at our Vienna site.
• Our providers all offer developmental, behavioral and academic screening, guidance, referral and treatment when indicated.
• Labs that can be performed in house:  hemoglobin, lead, cholesterol, glucose, urinalysis, rapid flu, rapid COVID, rapid strep, rapid RSV, rapid monospot.

Portal Use

We are proud to use the patient portal to help with communication with our patients and families.  With that in mind, we would like to remind you that patient portals are designed for convenient access to your health information and communication with us, not for urgent medical issues

• Keep it simple.
  • Limit portal use to basic tasks like sending school forms, requesting refills or asking simple questions. Short and concise messages are appreciated.
• Direct your message appropriately.
  • Please make sure the message is in the chart of the correct child.  If your message is in regards to a recent visit, message that provider directly.  Otherwise, most messages should be directed to the provider that did your last well visit.  Please do not message multiple providers with the same question.  Please make sure you use the drop down “carrot” to select the right family member for your message.
• Portal doesn’t replace in-person visits.
  • The portal should not be used to replace necessary in-person or telehealth visits. Prescription medications, lab orders, and imaging studies will not be ordered without a visit.  The exception is refills of previously prescribed medications with appropriate med checks.
• Use the portal for non-urgent matters only.
  • Use the portal for routine inquiries, follow-up questions, or to update your care team on non-emergent issues. Providers may take 48 business hours to respond.  Examples of urgent things you should call rather than use portal for include but are not limited to:  a fall or injury, an allergic reaction, mental health emergencies.

Additional tips on how to use our patient portal are available under CAP Patient Basics.

Vaccine Policy

Capital Area Pediatrics requires all patients to be on the vaccine schedule recommended by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices and the American Academy of Pediatrics. (Vaccine Statement)

Vaccines are a safe and effective way to prevent serious illness and save lives. We recommend reviewing our Vaccine Schedule and the Vaccine Information Sheets (www.immunize.org/vis) for your child’s upcoming immunizations before coming to the office. Your provider will be happy to answer any questions you may have concerning the vaccines. 

Scheduling Newborns

Newborn visits are intended for the first visit after birth and discharge from the hospital.  All Capital Area Pediatrics locations are accepting newborns. No pre-registration with the practice is required.  Please call 703-359-5100 or use the  appointments page (blue “Newborn: First Visit”)  to schedule your newborn's first appointment. Babies generally should be seen within 1-2 days after discharge from the hospital. Please bring any hospital discharge paperwork with you to your first visit. We look forward to meeting your growing family!

Transferring as a New Patient to CAP

New patients (whether 1-2 month old transferring from another practice or a teen moving into our area) need to submit a vaccine record for review before we will book your first well visit.  Please see our appointments page (blue “New Patient Appointment Request”) for more information.

Other Policies

All patients need to be up to date with their well visits for us to complete forms, provide medication refills, give health advice and referrals, or authorize other health services. 

Forms: All forms that need completion by our office are $15 each.  Examples of forms include, but are not limited to, those for school, daycare, camp, sports, allergy or asthma action plans, and medication authorizations. Turnaround time is typically 5-7 days. Tips for form completion here.

Cancellations and no shows: A $50 fee will be charged for missed appointments or cancellations made less than 24 hours in advance, except for same-day sick visits. Patients who consistently arrive late may also be subject to the $50 fee upon review.

Late policy:  If a patient arrives past 15 minutes of their appointment time, it is the provider's discretion whether the child can still be seen or if the appointment needs to be rescheduled.