Coparenting

Children are sensitive and often very intuitive about tension between their parents, even from a young age.  Navigation of the turbulent emotions surrounding separation and/or divorce is difficult for everyone, but parents can help their children understand and cope with the life change.  This set of articles about the effects of divorce on children from the American Academy of Pediatrics covers a range of concerns.

Coparenting following separation/divorce can be difficult and frustrating, and we know it takes time to learn how to do it effectively.  As a pediatric office, our responsibility is to provide the best care for your child(ren) as we can.  It is not our place to enter the coparenting relationship.  

If one parent brings the child(ren) to an appointment, we expect that parent to communicate with the other on the matters discussed.  We operate under the premise that informing one parent informs both parents.  Therefore, we do not make duplicate phone calls to coparents who do not speak with one another.  We do not assume responsibility for a lack of communication between coparents.

Under Tennessee law, both parents have a right to health information of their child(ren).  If you have a ruling that states otherwise, please provide a copy of the court order for us to keep in your child(ren)'s medical chart. 

The parent who accompanies the child is responsible for payment of the co-pay at the time of service regardless of which parent is ultimately responsible for medical bills.  We expect coparents to arrange this between one another in advance.