About Spruce

Spruce is a HIPAA compliant healthcare messaging app that allows families to communicate directly with your KP doctor for urgent medical questions — instead of a third party nurse line, call center, or insurance service that doesn’t know your child or your family.

Why We Use Spruce

While we’re always happy to see your child in the office, not every concern needs a visit or a trip to urgent care, and concerns inevitably come up when the office is closed. Spruce allows us to support families between visits and after business hours by answering questions and helping to guide next steps to ensure your child gets appropriate care quickly.

How it Works and Response Expectations

• Message directly with your child's KP pediatrician — you can send text, photos, and videos securely

• Within about two hours, you'll hear back with guidance or next steps. If a concern requires a visit or phone call, we'll let you know.

Spruce is separate from your family portal which is used for non-urgent needs. The family portal messages are checked during business hours and typically get a reply within 48 hours.

Hours & Availability

Texting is available 9:00 AM – 9:00 PM, seven days a week, including weekends/holidays. Outside of texting hours, families can call 24/7 for emergency medical issues.

***Spruce is not for life-threatening emergencies. If you believe your child is having a life-threatening emergency, please call 911 or go to the nearest emergency room.***

Cost

Spruce is a monthly subscription service

• $35/mo for your first child and $10/mo for each additional child

• Cancellable at anytime

The fee helps cover the costs of the app and physician time responding to messages. We also believe all families in our clinic should have access to high-quality care — so each membership helps support families who may not be able to afford the service.

For families enrolled in Spruce, we waive the annual administrative fee ($50/year for one child and $100/year for two or more kids) for items such as portal messages, emergency phone calls, and school forms.

Signing Up

To sign up, text or call our office at 404-738-6850. We’ll send you instructions and you can begin messaging soon after. If you have questions about Spruce or whether it’s right for your family, please let us know.