Vaccination Policy

Our office policies are in-place in order to care for patients in the best way possible. We adhere to evidence-based medicine and encourage a culture of mutual respect between our patients/families and our staff/providers.

As medical professionals, we feel very strongly that vaccinating children on schedule with currently-available vaccines is absolutely the right thing to do for all children and young adults. We are making you aware of these facts not to scare you or coerce you but to emphasize the importance of vaccinating your child. We are more than willing to discuss any questions you may have about vaccines and provide information about the vaccines, but do require all new patients to our practice to adhere to the vaccination schedule endorsed by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) unless medically contraindicated.

• We believe in the effectiveness of vaccines to prevent serious illness and to save lives.
• We believe in the safety of vaccines.
• We believe that all children and young adults should receive all of the recommended vaccines according to the schedule published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP).
• We believe, based on all available literature, evidence, and current studies, that vaccines do not cause autism or other developmental disabilities.
• We believe that vaccinating children and young adults may be the single most important health promoting intervention we perform as health care providers, and that you can support as parents/caregivers.

The recommended vaccines and the schedule of administration are the results of years and years of scientific study and data-gathering on millions of children by thousands of our brightest scientists and physicians.

As a pediatric office, we will not uncommonly have patients or family members who are immunosuppressed or unable for medical reasons to receive certain vaccinations. It is our job to take the best care of all of our patients, and for this reason, we ask that patients who can receive vaccinations do so to protect those around them. For these reasons, we require our patients to commit to receiving the recommended vaccinations and, if needed, schedule catch-up vaccinations. We will work to create a schedule to bring your child up-to-date within 6 months. In this case, we can utilize vaccine-only visits which, depending on your child's insurance, could incur additional copays. 

As a practice, we will not sign vaccine exemption forms for personal or philosophical reasons. The state of Washington requires all children who are 4 years or older entering into daycare/preschool to be up to date with the MMR vaccine.