Looking for a competent fertility clinic
![[Post New]](/jforum/templates/default/images/icon_minipost_new.gif){kind=icon}
Anonymous
|
I acknowledge this might be a big ask since fertility treatments are lucrative for doctors and thus they have an incentive to overbook. But please tell me there's something better out there than Columbia Fertility. The incompetence is astounding. While it's obviously not entirely their fault that nothing has worked so far, I do think the sheer stress I'm under every time I have to deal with that office is contributing. I've had issues with billing, received the wrong instructions (meant for someone else) and twice was not contacted with pregnancy test results.
Therefore, is there any place in the DC area where you are not just a number but an actual patient where someone cares? I would switch all our stuff to Shady Grove, but I don't think that's going to help the 'you're a number, not a name' feeling I get at Columbia. At this point, we're on the verge of giving up on trying to have a baby because I cannot mentally deal with Columbia Fertility anymore. |
Anonymous
| You can switch, but I never met a competent fertility clinic. You have to be on top of all of them (billing, nurses, etc). Some are better than others but they all require hand holding. |
Anonymous
| I used to be a huge advocate for Dominion Fertility, where I switched pre-COVID after a horrible experience at GW MFA. However, I went back to Dominion for an IVF cycle this year and it has changed significantly, all for the worse (similar kinds of things to what you've described with Columbia, and then some-I posted about it here a few months back). We switched to CCRM. It's not perfect but it has been a vast improvement over what I experienced at Dominion earlier this year. |
Anonymous
Just curious - what was negative about your experience at GW? |
Anonymous
|
I've been with Shady Grove for several years (we are in the process of trying for #2 now) and I've never really felt like I was just a number to them. Sure, their billing office isn't always on top of things but that's a fact of life in the entire medical industry (and other industries). They've always fixed things promptly when needed. Once I accidentally overpaid for something and they proactively refunded me the money before I realized it. My doctor has been GREAT throughout the process - truly, she is a rock, she has taken so many calls especially from DH who has really struggled with this - we haven't been a very easy case. I've also found most of the nurses and techs to be very supportive and caring.
For all that SG is a big practice that also means that overall they have their procedures and processes pretty well down. In my experience, FWIW, it has all always gone pretty smoothly. It hasn't been at all like some of these stories you hear on DCUM. So, I'd recommend considering it as a new clinic as you look around. |
Anonymous
We did our workup with Dr. Comstock, she diagnosed us with unexplained infertility, and then we immediately managed to conceive naturally in two back to back cycles while waiting for our new insurance to take effect. The first was a chemical pregnancy, and the message my nurse left after the 2nd beta confirmed it was a chemical literally said, "You are not pregnant. Dr. Comstock said you have a plan, so continue following the plan." I had to send a portal message in order for Dr. Comstock to call me to explain what had just happened, and since that had been my 2nd chemical pregnancy, I had to ask if I could try progesterone in future attempts to conceive. Then a few weeks later, *poof* we were pregnant again for the 3rd time (2nd time since beginning to work with Dr. Comstock). My beta was not rising as expected, and again, the nurse was not helpful. One day she said it was "not where we want to see it", so I asked what they wanted it to be at that point, and she LAUGHED at my question. We went away for the Christmas holiday having had 4 betas that were kind of all over the place, with our first ultrasound scheduled for the first business day back in the new year. The OB ultrasound was done during morning monitoring (which is absolutely ridiculous when there's a waiting room full of other patients who want to get in and out as fast as possible to get on with their day). Dr. Comstock happened to be on call that day, so at least it was my own doctor who did it. Even though I was more than 6 weeks at that point, she started the ultrasound by saying that we may not see a fetal pole with heartbeat yet based on my beta levels from two weeks prior. That was a very bizarre thing for her to say, as I knew when we conceived. Anyway, the ultrasound didn't show what it should have shown, she began acting really weird, and said "Let's see what today's beta is." The nurse called hours later to say that my beta of ~2000 at six weeks pregnant was a "good numerical rise" since my last one >2 weeks prior that was in the 600s, and to come back in a week. I was left reeling, truly not understanding what was going on. I emailed Dr. Comstock directly, got a reply from her 2 business days later, and I insisted that I get another beta before going into the weekend. That beta confirmed I was going to miscarry. Dr. Comstock called to tell me this bad news, and then told me to stop taking the progesterone and let it pass naturally. She briefly mentioned that there was a drug that could move it along, as well as an in-office procedure, then told me that I should not do either of those things. She failed to properly educate me on my options and took away my choice.[/u] In the weeks that followed, she wanted me to come back to morning monitoring to get serial betas drawn to ensure it went back to zero. I had to explain that getting to monitoring between 7:00-7:45am from where I live required me to leave the house by 6am, so why couldn't I just do it at labcorp? That's what I did in the end. In follow-up consult, she recommended recurrent pregnancy loss testing and continuing to try again on our own. By then we were approaching a year of trying on our own. I asked if I should schedule another consult to discuss once the recurrent loss testing was complete. She literally said, "No, I'll call or email you with the results." And she did exactly that and only that. By early March, all the results came back normal, and she let me know by email. She never indicated that she was available to answer questions, to let her know how things were going, or to schedule another consult to discuss a path forward. Her job was to help us make a plan to get pregnant, and she utterly failed us in that, and caused me tremendous trauma in how poorly she handled my miscarriage. There was no sensitivity toward me as a patient from my doctor or the nurses, and communication was poor, at best. I never met Dr. F., and the GW clinic has turned over all its doctors since him since the time this happened to me. I cannot speculate on what it might be like there now. |
Anonymous
| I have been happy with Dominion. Yes, I have to double check my billing (most errors were actually in my favor), but I agree with the other poster-this is endemic to the healthcare industry. I went for two cycles during COVID and never had a problem with communicating with my nurse or appointments. I am currently back for an FET and going to their Bethesda location this time. It seems to have lower volume than their Arlington office and I do feel like the nurses and coordinator are a lot faster to respond and actually remember me. |
Anonymous
| I went from Columbia to CCRM in CO. It is such a well oiled impressive machine! It really was easy and only took 3 trips. Weighing that against the hundred or so visits and lots of failures in dc, I only wished I had gone sooner. Good luck |
Anonymous
ugh I found the same at CFA-- currently pregnant thanks to them but was very much looking elsewhere by the end. I did a consult at SGF but honestly was hesitant to go there as I liked that at CFA I saw my dr. at each appointment (every ultrasound, every procedure, etc). and would never see them at SGF. I have read about all the clinics on the infertility facebook group and it seems like they all have shitty parts-- I had to learn to hard core adovcate for myself at CFA, which is not my norm... I didn't like it, ended up scheduling therapy to be honest as I was so stressed by the office |
Anonymous
I agree with all of this and we’re also in process trying for our second. |
Anonymous
| I was at Dominion pre-Covid and a few doctors ago, and I found it to be pretty competent. There were some hiccups, but I felt largely in capable hands. But from what I'm seeing on the boards, that may not be the case any more - and my main doctor and some others have since left. |
Anonymous
|
Shady Grove currently has a scheduling system where you schedule with the receptionist or whoever then message your nurse to put in the orders. Twice when I had to do weekend monitoring at K street they did not see my orders and I essentially had to explain to them why I was there. I think their imaging is good and I do like Dr. Malik at Arlington.
Dominion in 2021 did not have any scheduling issues and I liked that their monitoring was a period of their monitoring hours and not a set time like Shady Grove. Minus one nurse (Erin Sams) they were empathic. |
Anonymous
|
ugh I found the same at CFA-- currently pregnant thanks to them but was very much looking elsewhere by the end. I did a consult at SGF but honestly was hesitant to go there as I liked that at CFA I saw my dr. at each appointment (every ultrasound, every procedure, etc). and would never see them at SGF. I have read about all the clinics on the infertility facebook group and it seems like they all have shitty parts-- I had to learn to hard core adovcate for myself at CFA, which is not my norm... I didn't like it, ended up scheduling therapy to be honest as I was so stressed by the office OP here. Thank you so much for validating my experience. I'm actually really good at self advocating but am completely exhausted by CFA. I think all of the responses here actually confirm what we already knew: it's just time to stop. |
Anonymous
To this PP - just curious. We are with CCRM and have overall had a good experience thus far except until recently when we’ve had sooo much trouble getting in touch with a nurse for very time sensitive instructions and questions, the lack of which may have actually just resulted in a missed cycle😔. How has your experience been with nurse communications? We are so disappointed because it was so good up until now. |
Anonymous
I'm the PP who is now at CCRM. There have been a few times I've sent in a question and never received a response, but those were not due to very time sensitive issues. If you're on facebook, there are several CCRM support groups with members from clinics across the country, and there have definitely been posts from CCRM NoVA patients in the past few weeks that sound similar to what you're describing. I hope things work out for you. Definitely do whatever you can to advocate for yourself and also provide the feedback to the office about the communication breakdowns. |