Looking for Referral for Development Pediatrician -- Outside of Childrens

[Anonymous]

I know you said outside Children's, but we just saw Dr. Cathy Scheiner there and were impressed - very thorough, pleasant and willing to spend as much time as needed with us. I think she's new. We even got a follow-up phone call to explain something in her report. We had seen someone else previously at Children's and were not happy, but I was willing to give it a try one more time before going the private route and I'm glad we did. And since we were already in the system and it was considered a follow-up, it was not difficult to get an appointment. Best of luck!

[Anonymous]

No to Dr. Kozma. IMO, no bedside manner whatsoever. Wrong diagnosis. Would not see her again if last doc with openings.

[Anonymous]

We saw Dr. Chuck Conlin in Bethesda, on Rockledge Drive, and he seemed good and thorough. The wait list was about 2 months for us--and price was $750 for an assessment.

[Anonymous]

in defense of dr. kozma....
we saw her back in september and i, too, found her bedside manner to be appalling. having said that, she put us on track with our then four month old, who has since been diagnosed with a terminal metabolic disease. as one of the previous posters noted, dr. kozma has expertise in genetics, and she was able to recognize our child's developmental delays as something very very concerning. the official diagnosis eventually emerged following months of extensive work up (mri, eegs, cat scans, spinal tap, muscle biopsy, blood work etc.) but kozma was the first doctor to get us started in the right direction.
this is all to say that finding the "right" developmental pediatrician depends a lot on what kind of issues your child is experiencing.
best of luck with your search.

[Anonymous]

Does anyone here have experience with Dr Robin Chernoff? She is a developmental ped in Silver Spring / Rockville.

[Anonymous]

Dr. Scribanu at Georgetown.

Now, she's not particularly warm with children, my DC did not take to her at all. Nonetheless, she identified the real issue(s) with DC and cut to the chase and wrote the prescriptions for the therapy DC needed faster than anyone else did. We had seen our regular ped (who I couldn't convince there was a problem) and a pediatric neuro (who ended up going down a trail that ultimately led nowhere - although it was nice to rule out the possibility of a seizure disorder so I can't complain too much). We also had suggestions from the counselors at school, but ultimately it was Dr. Scribanu who identified (quickly) exactly what we needed and then got it for us.

So, I don't really care about her "bedside manner" (as it were) as we really don't see her. We DO see the OT she got us into and it has made a WORLD of difference.

Good luck.

[Anonymous]

My comments
First of all Dr. Penny Glass at childrens has a real conflict of interest with Earlyintervention in DC. If you live in DC you are sent to be evaluated to qualify for EI to her. Then she writes a recommendation for little therapy and no special instruction. This is what DC EI pays her for to write the least amount of therapy and education possible. This is exactly what happened to us. We asked her to recommend special instruction to be once a week and she would not, even though the other doctors at childrens said our daughter needed it. She really is wrong in doing this. And her reports are one page of really nothing, no recommendations to speak of.

Second We see Dr. Carole Samango Sprouse in Crofton MD, only 20 min out route 50 from DC.
She is a neurodevelopmental doctor not a dev. ped. Her evaluations are $600 for a complete profile and recommendations equalling 10-12 pages and one page of recommendations. We also go to her for treatment. She is thorough and an expert in many areas.
You can google her name and find her website. She is nationally known and been doing this for 30 years

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My comments
First of all Dr. Penny Glass at childrens has a real conflict of interest with Earlyintervention in DC. If you live in DC you are sent to be evaluated to qualify for EI to her. Then she writes a recommendation for little therapy and no special instruction. This is what DC EI pays her for to write the least amount of therapy and education possible. This is exactly what happened to us. We asked her to recommend special instruction to be once a week and she would not, even though the other doctors at childrens said our daughter needed it. She really is wrong in doing this. And her reports are one page of really nothing, no recommendations to speak of.

Listen, that's a really loaded charge. I do not know Dr. Glass, nor have I ever met her, and I certainly don't have a dog in this fight.

I am sensitive to anonymous accusations and that one is defamatory and borderline libelous.

It is one thing for you to believe that she may have a conflict of interest, and another to accuse her of basically taking kickbacks from Early Intervention (which is what your essentially alleging, and which by the way accuses EI of illegal behavior as well).

I'm not trying to get you riled up here, nor am I attempting to suggest you had anything less than an extremely unsatisfactory experience with Dr. Glass (which is unfortunate because some people say great things about her). I am saying these accusations cross a line that seems ill-advised.

[Anonymous]

PP, have you had your child evaluated by Dr. Glass? Because I have and while I cannot say anything about her interest in working with DC EI on not providing services, our experience with her was quite terrible. And while our experience with Dr Kozma per se was not pleasant either, she at least was the first one who very early on was dead on with the diagnosis.

[Anonymous]

I've got to agree with 13:42. Dr. Glass may fall anywhere on the spectrum of competency, but that doesn't mean she deliberately misdiagnoses children and underprescribes treatment because it is to her financial advantage! You're accusing her of an ethical violation at best, and a crime at worst.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:PP, have you had your child evaluated by Dr. Glass? Because I have and while I cannot say anything about her interest in working with DC EI on not providing services, our experience with her was quite terrible. And while our experience with Dr Kozma per se was not pleasant either, she at least was the first one who very early on was dead on with the diagnosis.

No. When I said "I do not know Dr. Glass, nor have I ever met her, and I certainly don't have a dog in this fight" I thought I was pretty clearly ruling out her ever having evaluated my child.

And if I wasn't clear in saying that I don't - by any stretch - intend to minimize your personal concerns, then let me say so now. There's nothing more agonizing than looking for the right diagnosis and appropriate care for your child. As a parent I'm genuinely sorry you had a bad experience with any doctor, and I'm relieved for your child that you found someone from whom you got better results.

I'm just going to re-iterate that I think it's important not to cross over a line here where we're actually accusing someone of accepting kickbacks, giving kickbacks, or otherwise unethical behavior. There's a big difference between stating that you had an unsatisfactory experience and you don't have faith in their professional judgment and implying that they're committing ongoing crimes. That's all.

Best of luck to you & your DC.

BTW, that "your" in my 3rd graf above is a typo. Should have read "you're." Sorry.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:in defense of dr. kozma....
we saw her back in september and i, too, found her bedside manner to be appalling. having said that, she put us on track with our then four month old, who has since been diagnosed with a terminal metabolic disease. as one of the previous posters noted, dr. kozma has expertise in genetics, and she was able to recognize our child's developmental delays as something very very concerning. the official diagnosis eventually emerged following months of extensive work up (mri, eegs, cat scans, spinal tap, muscle biopsy, blood work etc.) but kozma was the first doctor to get us started in the right direction.
this is all to say that finding the "right" developmental pediatrician depends a lot on what kind of issues your child is experiencing.
best of luck with your search.

I am a pp. I am sorry about your news and my heart goes out to your family. A Georgetown therapist recommended her to us. Our issue was not genetic nor was there an underlying medical cause you were exactly right in you comment about "fit.".

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:in defense of dr. kozma....
we saw her back in september and i, too, found her bedside manner to be appalling. having said that, she put us on track with our then four month old, who has since been diagnosed with a terminal metabolic disease. as one of the previous posters noted, dr. kozma has expertise in genetics, and she was able to recognize our child's developmental delays as something very very concerning. the official diagnosis eventually emerged following months of extensive work up (mri, eegs, cat scans, spinal tap, muscle biopsy, blood work etc.) but kozma was the first doctor to get us started in the right direction.
this is all to say that finding the "right" developmental pediatrician depends a lot on what kind of issues your child is experiencing.
best of luck with your search.

Oh, PP. I am so sorry to read this. Of course I don't know you but how can my heart not go out to you after reading this. All the best love and peace to your family and your precious DC.

[Anonymous]

thank you.
- from the poster who wrote in defense of dr. kozma.