Thursday, October 1, 2026
Families in Franklin Square now have another option when their children need medical care after regular pediatric office hours.
An existing pediatric practice on Dogwood Avenue has expanded its services to include pediatric urgent care from 4 p.m. to midnight on weekdays and from noon to midnight on weekends. The service is intended to give families an alternative to the emergency room for illnesses and minor injuries that can be treated outside of a hospital.
The Franklin Square office, at 380 Dogwood Ave., is one of the first two Allied Physicians Group locations to introduce the new pediatric urgent care model. The first location opened in Medford on Sept. 14, followed by Franklin Square on Sept. 17. Allied plans to bring the service to additional locations, including Riverhead and Staten Island.
Shannon E. O’Malley, MD, Allied’s medical director of urgent care, has more than 20 years of experience in pediatric emergency medicine and more than 15 years in urgent care on Long Island.
“You don’t want people to sit in the ER for things that don’t need to go to the ER,” O’Malley said. “I think we’re going to be really filling a need for parents after hours.”
During the day, the Franklin Square office continues to operate as a pediatric practice. In the evening, it transitions into an urgent care center focused on children. The service is open to all families, including those who are not existing Allied patients.
The office can treat common childhood illnesses and respiratory conditions, as well as allergies, asthma, sports injuries, lacerations, abrasions and other minor injuries.
The idea for the new service came from conversations within Allied, where many providers are also parents and had experienced the difficulty of finding pediatric care outside regular office hours.
Dr. Kerry Fierstein, CEO of Allied Physicians Group, said the model was created with families’ needs in mind.
“Families want healthcare that is accessible, affordable, and tailored to the unique needs of their children,” Fierstein said.
For Dr. Daniel Camilleri, MD, FAAP, the expansion also means extending the relationship his practice has built with Franklin Square families over the past 26 years.
Camilleri said he was excited about the collaboration and the opportunity to continue caring for children and their families later into the evening.
“For me, the medical home, the community is the key thing,” Camilleri said. “We love taking care of children, their health, but most of all, the family. We’re talking about the families.”
The expansion has also brought changes to the existing office. Alex Kinder, who helped coordinate the construction and updates, said the project involved everything from new doors to improvements throughout the space.
“This office has come such a long way,” Kinder said.
Kinder said additional work is still planned, including lighting for the urgent care area.
Another part of the model is its approach to cost. According to Allied, visits are billed as regular pediatric office visits, allowing families to pay their regular office copay rather than a higher urgent care copay, depending on their insurance coverage.
For O’Malley, the new service brings together the fast-paced nature of urgent care with the pediatric focus she has built her career around.
The expanded hours mean families in Franklin Square can seek pediatric care later in the evening and on weekends without necessarily having to wait until the next morning for their pediatrician or turn to a hospital emergency department for a non-life-threatening illness or injury.
