Is there a medical clinic onsite?

[ehsween]

I was just thinking about what we would do if, for some reason, one of my children or any of the children in our party came down with an illness on our trip to the World. We are using ME to get to our hotel and using disney transportation for the rest of the trip, so I was just wondering what our options would be if we needed to take one of them to see a doctor. Any thoughts?

 

[susislickermouse]

Although I am unsure of a medical clinic onsite, I am sure they have a first aid where you can go for minor mishaps and to be transferred to hospital. I do know that Celebration has a world class hospital, I have heard it is a phenomenal state of the art hospital and the best in central Florida. This info came from a long time resident of the Orlando area. They have many hospitals there and he says Celebration has the best, bar none. So, I would imagine if you required immediate emergency attention for something like a broken limb, or diabetic emergency or any other incident requiring hospitalization, you might find out about Celebration's hospital. You could do a google search online for it. I would call WDW guest relations to find out about any on site medical facility other than the standard first aid stations they have in the parks. I DO know that DisneyLand Hotel in California has on-call doctors. I was just there and had a bad case of e. coli (NOT from Disney!!!!!!!, from airport food prior to leaving for SOCal) and we had to call for medical help. I was VERY sick. I told my husband if I got any sicker, he should call 911, but the doctor made a housecall at 5 AM, gave me a shot of anti-nausea meds and put me on an anti-biotic, (e. coli is a nasty bacteria as we have all been seeing in the news lately!!!!) and gave me some anti nausea meds to take (so to speak, they entered from the other end!! Yikes!!!!). I was sick for 5 days, our trip was only 5 days...go figure, spent lots of time in bed!!! And at Disneyland, no less, with a room overlooking DtD,well at least we got the foreworkds each night, so I could see those from the room. Waaaaaahhhhhh. Actually it turned out okay, DH added 3 more days to our trip, and this at Christmas time and in the Disneyland Hotel so we got to have some fun. We were actually able to get the extra 3 days, reserving day by day per cancellations each day. We were there 12/22-12/29. I am sure you could probably get house call doctors at hotels in WDW as well, they cost $$$$$$. Our bill was $500.00. He said our insurance SHOULD reinburse us. Anyhow, Sorry a little off topic but that was my experience with Disney, doctors and disease!!!!!! Then when we arrived back in Colorado to a SECOND blizzard, I caught a terrible cold!!!! Just say my last name should be Murphy's (law). Hope you have a wonderful time and do not have a need for any medical attention while enjoying the parks. If you have ongoing medical issues and need the care, it is always good to know before you go, though. I think I will check that out as well, since we will be in WDW in Mayand hubby and I do have some issues since we are old and gray!! HaHaHa!!! I am going to call WDW guest relations today to see what they have on site. I will post what I find this afternoon.
sues

 

[DisneyKidds]

Each park has a first aid station where they can deal with in park medical emergencies, minor bumps, scrapes, etc. One time our son twisted his knee in the park and they did have an EMT on site who checked him out. The best they can do is provide EMT's to stabalize the situation, assess, patch you up, and recommend or ship you off for further treatment if they feel it's necessary. But there are no onsite medical clinics where you can have illness or real injury fully treated.

There are a number of walk in medical clinics that are very close to WDW property. In addition, there are several hospitals in the area where you can use the ER. We've made use of both. If you don't have a car check with your resort and they can help you with transportation options. Not sure if they can actually provide transportation, but they can help with a cab, etc.

My recommendation is to check your health insurance before you leave to see what facilities are covered under your plan. That way you can get the address for the facility before you go and know that a visit won't cost you an arm and a leg. It's easier to know this ahead of time, rather than trying to figure it out while you are there. Trust me....we know from experience.

 

[ehsween]

Each park has a first aid station where they can deal with minor bumps, scrapes, etc. One time our son twisted his knee in the park and they did have an EMT on site who checked him out. The best they can do is assess, patch you up, and recommend further treatment if they feel it's necessary. But there are no onsite medical clinics where you can have illness or real injury treated.

There are a number of walk in medical clinics that are very close to WDW property. In addition, there are several hospitals in the area where you can use the ER. We've made use of both.

My recommendation is to check your health insurance before you leave to see what facilities are covered under your plan. That way you can get the address for the facility before you go and know that a visit won't cost you an arm and a leg. It's easier to know this ahead of time, rather than trying to figure it out while you are there. Trust me....we know from experience.

I'm not as worried about injuries as much as illnesses (although injuries could happen too). I just got thinking about it yesterday because I got a call from my children's school that I needed to come pick my 7 year old DS up because he wasn't feeling well. When I got there, he was laying on the cot and crying because he felt so terrible. I took him right to the doctor and he had an ear and throat infection.

Anyway, it got me thinking about what would happen if this should happen to one of the kids in our group. Since we don't have transportation, what would we do?

I started this thread in Theme Park Attractions and Strategies as well because I had gotten no replies for a while and they had some interesting replies as well. There is apparently a service where a doctor comes directly to your hotel. I'm sure it costs a lot of money, but it's a nice thing to consider. Here is the link: http://www.themedicalconcierge.com/concierge.htm Someone mentioned $250.00 just to make the visit.

Someone else mentioned a shuttle service that picked people up and took them to a clinic just outside of downtown disney, but that the wait when you get there is a very long wait (one person waited 3 hours).

That same person said they took a different option on a different trip and on a 10 minute drive to a clinic and only had to wait 20 minutes and then went across the street and filled the prescription. They mentioned it might be worth a taxi trip to wait less time.

I just wanted to pass all of this onto everyone in case it might be helpful.

And, DisneyKidds, you're right. It might be worth a phone call to my insurance company to know things ahead of time.

 

[Mouse House Mama]

We have first hand experience with this. Yes you can get to a walk in clinic. They have a place called Centra Care. Call the front desk and they will give you the number. Centra Care even sends a shuttle to pick you up and take you back to your resort. They also have a pharmacy attatched to the clinic so you can get meds. We made no less than 5 trips there when we went in August. 2 of our kids had ear infections and also needed nebulizer treatments and our other child needed meds and nebulizer treatments as well. They were very good and they take insurance. The in room doctor does not come out after I believe 8pm. As a parent you know that kids tend to get really sick late at night so that's no help. They also do not take any insurance. While I would have paid anything to help my kids, our first need for a doctor occured at 11pm. The Centra Care that we went to actually used to be part of Disney's Hospital many years ago. I would highly reccomend them.


Just wanted to add that there was not a long wait at all.

 

[ehsween]

We have first hand experience with this. Yes you can get to a walk in clinic. They have a place called Centra Care. Call the front desk and they will give you the number. Centra Care even sends a shuttle to pick you up and take you back to your resort. They also have a pharmacy attatched to the clinic so you can get meds. We made no less than 5 trips there when we went in August. 2 of our kids had ear infections and also needed nebulizer treatments and our other child needed meds and nebulizer treatments as well. They were very good and they take insurance. The in room doctor does not come out after I believe 8pm. As a parent you know that kids tend to get really sick late at night so that's no help. They also do not take any insurance. While I would have paid anything to help my kids, our first need for a doctor occured at 11pm. The Centra Care that we went to actually used to be part of Disney's Hospital many years ago. I would highly reccomend them.


Just wanted to add that there was not a long wait at all.

Mouse House Mama, did you wait an extremely long time at Centra Care? I suppose it might depend on what time of day it is. Night time wouldn't be as bad I would guess.

And the Medical Concierge is available 24 hours from what I read. But again, I believe we're talking a lot of money. And I know I don't have a ton of money to spare. But it's just nice to know there are options and what those options exactly are.

 

[DisneyKidds]

Centra Care is the walk in clinic we used. We didn't have to worry about transportation since we had a car, but it's nice to know they have a shuttle to pick you up. We didn't wait long there (maybe 20 minutes at about 9 am), they accepted our insurance, and filled our prescription right at the clinic. Of course your wait will be determined by how many other people are there.

We did use another clinic once, I forget the name, and we waited close to an hour. We used Sand Lake Hospital once during the last big influenza scare (and our son had all the symptoms but thankfully it was only bronchitis) and we were there for four hours. ER's are tough because if they get a trauma or heart attack or something the illnesses are pushed to the bottom of the list.

 

[lindsey]

My DH ended up with a stomach virus on our trip in 2004. We were at FT Wilderness. The resort had two paramedics check him out first. They called Centra Care to pick him up. I had to stay onsite with three boys. He said the wait was not very long. The Doctor was not really sure if it was a virus or possible gall bladder attack, so they took him to Celebration Hospital for more tests. Fortunately, it was only a virus. At the hospital, he was given the number for Centra Care and they picked him up at hospital and brought him back to Ft Wilderness. The van driver told him Centra Care had a contract with Disney regarding transportation. etc. Centra Care and Celebration Hospital took our insurance info and did not charge us for anything up front. A representative from Disney came by our campsite later to make sure everything was ok.