Fast facts
- How long I’ve been at Rush: I completed my pediatric residency at Rush from 2011-2014, spent a little time at a private practice, and then came back to Rush and have been here ever since.
- Where I grew up: South suburbs of Chicago
- I got my medical degree from: Medical College of Wisconsin
- Why I love Rush: Rush feels like home. It is a great place for pediatric primary care, and I believe a lot of our pediatric patients and their families feel the same.
- What I like to do when I’m not working: Travel, at least before COVID-19 and caring for my 1-year old. My family and I enjoy biking outside, and I love trying new food — just not cooking it myself.
I am a primary care pediatrician. I see children, adolescents and young adults in one of Rush’s pediatric primary care offices. I do well child and adolescent visits in addition to urgent care visits at our practice. I also care for newborns and their families in our Mother Baby Unit.
I love working with children, adolescents, young adults and their families. As a pediatrician, I get to help my patients start out on the right foot and grow into healthy adults. We not only discuss a child's health, but we also get to focus on nutrition, growth, development, safety and many other important aspects of childhood that set kids up for a healthy future. It is a joy to watch children grow and thrive over the years they are in my practice and it is an honor to play a part in the lives of my patients and their families.
Connecting with kids at home
In addition to in-person care, I also provide virtual care to children and adolescents. I currently care for patients through both scheduled video visits and within Rush’s on-demand program. I enjoy taking care of pediatric patients through video visits, because it is great to interact with families while they are in the comfort of their own home. It can make patients and their families feel more at ease. I appreciate how thankful our patients’ families are when they receive convenient care, especially during the difficult past few months. It makes me proud that Rush offers this service to our patients.
Treating a wide range of conditions
You’d be surprised how much we can treat over video. In the last few months, I have spent a significant amount of time caring for children and their families through virtual care who had concerns for COVID-19. A lot of this involves counseling and education about the virus and how it spreads. This arms patients with the information they need and increases their confidence in what they can do to reduce the spread of COVID-19. I have also been able to treat patients through virtual care for depression, anxiety, ADHD, allergies, pink eye, skin conditions and even some well-child check-ups that did not require immunizations.
Same expertise, added convenience
I work full time, and I’m also a busy mom. Telemedicine is a convenient way for parents and children to get care as they juggle other responsibilities. By giving people easy access to Rush providers, they can get care even when life seems too busy to do so — or circumstances like COVID-19 make it more difficult.
I also love that telemedicine at Rush gives families confidence that their provider has experience caring for pediatric patients and has access to other specialists at Rush if needed. This reassures parents that if their child has more urgent needs or they need to be referred to a specialist, we can help them.
Learn more about Melissa Holmes, MD, and pediatric primary care at Rush.
