Which emergency room/ urgent care do you use?

[Anonymous]

Suburban. Hands down.

[Anonymous]

PM Pediatrics. I prefer the one in Rockville because the Columbia Heights one doesn't have convenient parking.

I avoid the ER unless it's absolutely necessary. I am good friends with an ER doc at Children's and he said they're understaffed and seeing record numbers. I would like to let them focus on true emergencies when possible.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Suburban. Hands down.

Why?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Suburban. Hands down.

Why?

NP but have always had good, fast care at suburban er.

[Anonymous]

I have gone to Sibley for stitches

Georgetown ONLY if it is the absolute closest and you need medical attention immediately. We have sat for hours with a toddler who had Nursemaids elbow. [arrived at 8:30 PM - did not get seen until after midnight] - they were dealing with a gunshot victim and the ER was chaotic that night but you don't know that until after you are there.

We now go to Suburban - it had not been on our radar as I always thought downtown as that was where we previously lived. But Suburban is a lot calmer and quicker for items. Of course if your Dr is telling you to got to Childrens - go to Childrens

[Anonymous]

I think for something like croup, PM Pediatrics is fine. They were the ones who hooked me up with a nebulizer for my then 1.5 year old and we were able to keep it. Every time he got a bad cough and struggled to breathe after that, we could just request the albuterol refills from his regular pediatrician.

[Anonymous]

Virginia Hospital Center in Arlington was absolutely amazing with my 18 month old’s croup. We barely had to wait at any point and the doctors and nurses were incredibly kind and understanding. My toddler was terrified and they were just so good with her.

[Anonymous]

Forgot to add - Virginia Hospital Center WILL call you the following day to be sure you are following the discharge instructions and that you have made a follow up appointment with the pediatrician. So make sure you have your ducks in a row when you get back home so you are prepared when they call.

[Anonymous]

Howard general hospital is pretty good, usually no long waits for the pediatric side.

[Anonymous]

PM Pediatrics is great because your child is seen by an actual pediatrician. Most urgent cares these days are staffed by physician’s assistants and/or nurse practitioners (not to mention that they don’t specialize in pediatrics). So many people aren’t aware they’re not being seen by an actual medical doctor when they go to urgent care. Our pediatrician recommends PM Pediatrics for after hours urgent matters.

[Anonymous]

Avoid childrens at all costs. Truly a nightmare ER.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Suburban. Hands down.

+1 for us, but also bc it's a short drive which matters too. Sibley is closer but doesn't have a Peds Dept. I am sure they could figure out a 911 level emergency, but I wouldn't choose to go there. Suburban has a Peds ER and the waits have been short.

Children's the waits can be hours long which is brutal. Suburban can't admit kids overnight - ours was transferred to Children's when he had to be admitted, via ambulance. So it's definitely not equipped for everything (don't have the range of specialists in-house etc) but they coordinate with others as needed.

I think Georgetown is another option.

[Anonymous]

I’ve had mixed outcomes at Children’s. I’ve waited there for hours and I’ve also been seen quickly. The time I waited for hours I ended up going to PM Pediatrics in Columbia Heights. DS was 5mo and got his arm stuck in between the crib bars and rolled over. He was screaming in pain and wouldn’t settle. We thought he might’ve dislocated his shoulder. Went to Children’s at 8:30am because PM wasn’t open, sat unseen until 11am, left, walked into PM and was seen immediately.

We have been to PM about 5 times now and they are great. They can do everything but an MRI on site. Most recently DS was having breathing problems, they were able to give a first dose of an oral steroid and a nebulizer treatment. He was doing much better by the time we left.

Unless it was something clearly needing hospital-level care I would opt for PM.

FWIW my pediatrician, CNPA, recommended PM of Children’s to us when the arm injury happened.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’ve had mixed outcomes at Children’s. I’ve waited there for hours and I’ve also been seen quickly. The time I waited for hours I ended up going to PM Pediatrics in Columbia Heights. DS was 5mo and got his arm stuck in between the crib bars and rolled over. He was screaming in pain and wouldn’t settle. We thought he might’ve dislocated his shoulder. Went to Children’s at 8:30am because PM wasn’t open, sat unseen until 11am, left, walked into PM and was seen immediately.

We have been to PM about 5 times now and they are great. They can do everything but an MRI on site. Most recently DS was having breathing problems, they were able to give a first dose of an oral steroid and a nebulizer treatment. He was doing much better by the time we left.

Unless it was something clearly needing hospital-level care I would opt for PM.

FWIW my pediatrician, CNPA, recommended PM of Children’s to us when the arm injury happened.

How terrifying for the baby. Thank you for sharing. We go to CNPA and they said PM was good for when our son is older, but otherwise go to Children's. He's almost a year now so maybe we'd be ok heading to PM. I was a bit worried about parking given that Columbia Heights can get hectic in the evening.

[Anonymous]

At Holy Cross, they were going to let my child sit there unable to breathe. They didn't have room. Seven hour wait.

At times, I think it might be best to arrive in an ambulance.

When they found out kid was not an adult, then they said there wasn't a wait for pediatrics and they treated her pretty quickly. If she'd been an adult, she would have been stuck waiting 7-8 hours more. As it was, it took six hours.