Our Mission
At Kidwell Pediatrics, we believe that wellness starts with understanding and teamwork. That’s why we strive to bring you cutting edge, comprehensive, and timely healthcare with a focus on the impact of illness, not only on your child, but on your family.
Together, we will eliminate barriers to your child living their best life.
This includes:
A thorough medical and psychosocial assessment by your physician
Appropriate, evidence-based investigations selected by your physician and agreed to by you.
Comprehensive and understandable education about your child’s diagnosis.
Discussion about treatment options and how to ensure treatment adherence.
Ongoing follow up to monitor progress towards wellness.
Please note that Kidwell Pediatrics does not provide primary pediatric care (for example, regular sick visits, vaccinations, etc.), with NO exceptions. We see children for specific medical or developmental/behavioural issues only.
Under most circumstances, once your child is diagnosed and stabilized on a treatment plan, our pediatricians will discharge your child back to your primary care provider.
Our Team
You, The Parent
You are your child’s guardian and role model. Everything you do has an impact on your child. You are teammate #1 in ensuring your child gets the best care. We’re here to help you.
Dr. Jason McConnery, MD, FRCPC
Dr. Jason McConnery (Dr. J to his patients), is a pediatric respirologist with special expertise in preschool and severe asthma, chronic cough, and chronic lung diseases. He completed his medical training at the University of Toronto, Pediatric Medicine training at McMaster Children’s Hospital (Hamilton, ON), and a Pediatric Respirology fellowship at The Hospital for Sick Children (Toronto, ON). He currently works at Waterloo Regional Health Network taking care of children with respiratory conditions like asthma and cystic fibrosis. He has a passion for patient education and preventive medicine.
Faith Koudijs, RN, ICBLC
Faith is passionate about helping families navigate their unique breastfeeding challenges. Faith works to bring light to your questions and struggles and offer helpful insights. She will assist you in making a plan you feel confident in. Faith is an experienced neonatal nurse with a keen understanding of infant health which she brings to her role as your lactation consultant. She also has breastfed three children of her own.
Dr. Cara MacRae, MD, FRCPC
Dr. Cara MacRae is a pediatric medicine consultant with special expertise in attention-deficit and hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), newborn problems, pediatric consultation, and teen mental health. She completed her medical training at the University of Toronto, Pediatric Medicine residency training at The Hospital for Sick Children (Toronto, ON), and a Community Pediatrics fellowship at The Hospital for Sick Children (Toronto, ON). She currently works at Waterloo Regional Health Network providing care in our regional pediatric oncology clinic as well as unwell children and newborns in hospital, emergency, and NICU.
Uninsured Services
(All Prices Inclusive of HST)
Payment can be made by:
Cheque made out to your physician (in office)
Cash (in office)
Credit Card (in office, or by Square payment link if requested)
Interac e-Transfer to admin@kidwellpeds.com (please include child’s name and date of birth in the ‘message’ section)
Payment must be made before the service is rendered.
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$75/year individual child
$125/year for multiple children in same family unit (no cap)
Families have the option to pay a single block fee which covers a selection of uninsured services. Please note if NOT listed here, the uninsured service is NOT included in the block fee.
Prescription renewal without a visit (unlimited)
Forms for school/camp/daycare (unlimited)
Sick notes (unlimited)
Transmission of medical records, electronic (unlimited)
Please note the payment of a block fee is OPTIONAL and you may choose to pay for uninsured services individually. Payment of the block fee is not required to receive care at Kidwell Pediatrics. Payment of the block fee does not guarantee preferred access to insured services at Kidwell Pediatrics.
Do consider whether a block fee is in your best interest based on your anticipated usage.
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$25
Prescription refills without a visit are not insured by OHIP and are subject to a charge.
To avoid these charges, please ensure you are aware of your refill status at your regularly scheduled appointments.
A request can be made by email to admin@kidwellpeds.com, or the custom form below.
NOTE: Please do not leave requests to the last minute as your doctor may be away.
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NEW: $180
EXISTING/FOLLOW UP: $80
You must ensure your child’s health card is valid at the time of your appointment, or your physician will be unable to bill OHIP. Payment must be provided prior to seeing your physician.
Please note that the above payment can be refunded provided a valid health card is provided within 2 weeks of the visit.
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Electronic: $30
Printed: $30 (first 20pgs + 0.25/pg thereafter)
You are entitled to your medical records, however, the cost of preparing these records for you (printing, or electronic transmission) is an uninsured service, and subject to the fees above.
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$35
Forms for school/daycare/work are not insured and subject to the above fee.
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$25
Please ensure a sick note is truly required by school or work before requesting as this is not an insured service.
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$150
The Children’s Disability Tax Credit (DTC) is a non-refundable credit that reduces your taxes payable, on average by about $3000.
For clarity, to qualify for the DTC, your child must have a significant disability which is typically defined as causing significant impairment in activities of daily living, or excessive daily/weekly hours of care requirement.
Completion of a disability tax credit for your child therefore involves review of your child’s chart including estimation of impairment across multiple abilities and activities of daily living.
The disability tax credit application process is outlined here. Essentially, the parent completes Part A, receives a reference number which must be provided to your physician, who then completes Part B.
Please note that the value of the disability tax credit is dependent on your income and taxes owed. Please also note that completion of a disability tax credit application by you and your physician does not guarantee approval.
Prescription Refills
As noted above, prescription refills without a visit are not an insurable service, but can be provided for $25, taxes in.
To avoid these charges, please ensure you are aware of your refill status at your regularly scheduled appointments.
For your convenience, you can complete the form here to indicate a need for refill. Please be precise about the pharmacy you would like the prescription sent to (e.g. Shoppers Drug Mart at 123B Pioneer Drive, Kitchener).
You may request a refill for any/all medications your pediatrician prescribes to you for the single fee.
Some important notes:
some medications are controlled and may require a visit for reassessment at your pediatrician’s discretion. If a script cannot be filled without a visit, your $25 fee will be refunded and you will be booked for an appointment as soon as possible.
your pediatrician will not provide a refill for medications they have not previously prescribed to you.
NOTE: Please do not leave requests to the last minute as your doctor may be away.
Clinic Policies
Primary Care
The pediatricians at Kidwell Pediatrics are consultants. At this time, we do not provide primary care pediatrics including things like same-day sick visits, and vaccinations. We defer to our local network of family physicians, nurse practitioners, and walk in clinics for these services. For more information on finding a primary care provider in Waterloo Region, please see here.
Check-In
From time to time, an administrative assistant may not be present to check you in. Please seat yourself and the doctor will be with you shortly. Please have your child’s health card ready for check in with the doctor.
Late or Missed Appointments
The amount of time you wait for your child’s appointment at Kidwell Pediatrics is reflective of the high demand for services. Therefore, a 48 hours notice is required to cancel appointments (so that the clinic may have time to give the appointment slot to another patient). Please note email reminders ARE sent 2 weeks before new consultations, 1 week before follow ups, and 2 days before all appointments. You are expected to confirm by clicking the ‘CONFIRM’ button in the reminder.
If you cancel your child’s appointment without 48 hours notice, this is considered a missed appointment.
If you are late bringing your child to their appointment by more than 10 minutes for a follow up, or 15 minutes for a new consultation, this will be considered a missed appointment. If circumstances allow your child to be seen in an available slot later in the clinic on the same day, the doctor will try to see you then and this will not be considered a missed appointment.
Missed appointments are subject to a fee as recommended by the Ontario Medical Association in the amount of $150 for a new consultation, and $75 for a follow up visit. If you are unable to pay the missed appointment fee, you should discuss this issue with your doctor, as extenuating circumstances will be considered on a case-by-case basis.
If more than 2 appointments are missed, you will require a re-referral from your primary care provider to be seen at Kidwell Pediatrics again.
Uninsured Services
Some services your doctor can provide take time, and are not covered by the Ontario Health Insurance Plan (OHIP). As such, Kidwell Pediatrics may charge a service fee for things like prescription refills without a visit ($25), sick notes ($25) and disability tax credit forms ($150). A full listing of fees is available on our website (see above).
Kidwell Pediatrics offers families a block fee for uninsured services, which covers a selection of uninsured services. Please note if NOT listed here, the uninsured service is NOT included in the block fee.. The cost is $75/year individual child or $125/year for multiple children in same family unit (no cap). Services included are:
Prescription renewal without a visit (unlimited)
Forms for school/camp/daycare (unlimited)
Sick notes (unlimited)
Transmission of medical records, electronic (unlimited)
Please note the payment of a block fee is OPTIONAL and you may choose to pay for uninsured services individually. Payment of the block fee is not required to receive care at Kidwell Pediatrics. Payment of the block fee does not guarantee preferred access to insured services at Kidwell Pediatrics.
Do consider whether a block fee is in your best interest based on your anticipated usage.
Artificial Intelligence
Your pediatrician may utilize an artificial intelligence ‘scribe’ to ease the task of documenting your child’s visit. Using a scribe also makes it easier for your pediatrician to focus on you and your child during the appointment. Your pediatrician will advise you when the scribe is listening. The scribes used in office are compliant with Ontario personal healthy privacy laws (PHIPA) and use databases situated in Canada.
While safeguards are in place to protect your personal health information and comply with Ontario’s privacy laws, there are always some risks. These include possible inaccuracies in documentation, including how information is captured or processed, biases, or misuse of data despite safeguards.
Biases in AI tool outputs can result when the language model is trained on dataset which contain inherent biases (such as algorithmic or cognitive biases), or because the data used is not sufficiently diverse, representative, or to the best extent possible, free of errors.
Your personal health information is protected under Ontario’s privacy laws (PHIPA), and our clinic is committed to maintaining the security, accuracy, and confidentiality of your information. Ultimately, it is your pediatrician’s obligation to review and make any corrections to your record and patient notes. Your pediatrician is required to review and edit notes to ensure their accuracy and completeness before finalizing. If you have further questions or concerns, please speak with your pediatrician. You have the right to request that your pediatrician not use the scribe during your visit, to avoid the above risks, while accepting the loss of the above benefits for you and your doctor in your interaction.
Respect and Safety
Our clinic is committed to providing a work environment in which all patients, family members, staff members, and physicians are treated with respect and dignity. Yelling, swearing, profanity, disrespectful language, threats, and hitting is not tolerated. Any property damage to medical equipment, computers, etc. caused by your child is the caregivers’ responsibility and we will charge you for the cost of replacing damaged equipment.
Violation of the code of conduct by patients and their family members is grounds for immediate dismissal from the clinic.
We ask that you turn off your cell phones when entering the exam room.
Our office is a scent free environment. Please abstain from wearing perfumes, colognes, and other strong smells.
Teaching
Kidwell Pediatrics is a teaching site for McMaster University medical students and residents (medical learners). A medical learner may be present to observe your appointment, and in some cases, you may be seen by a medical learner initially with review and close supervision by your pediatrician. We appreciate your cooperation and patience as we train tomorrow’s doctors and pediatricians. '
Separated Parents
If only one parent has sole custody, only that parent will have access to the child’s medical records and chart and the chart will only contain the custodial parent’s contact information.
In the event of joint custody, the following policies apply:
We require custody documentation from the court on file.
Once documentation is received, contact information in the chart will be updated with both parents’ information, both parents will have access to medical care, and either parent can book an appointment for their child.
Importantly, both parents may join the same appointment together.
Our clinic is not responsible for sharing information or records after a visit. It is the parents’ responsibility to either attend the appointment together or communicate with each other to stay updated. For clarity, our clinic will not provide updates by phone or email to a parent not present at the appointment.
Email is the primary form of communication from our office, and our system only allows one primary email address on file. This will be designated at the time of registration. Changing the email requires the consent of both parents. We strongly recommend that separated parents use a common email address for registration with our clinic, such that both can parents access it. This ensures automated reminders are accessible for both parents. The decision to follow this recommendation rests only with the parents.
If medical records are needed for legal purposes, please have your lawyer send a record request directly to our office.