anyone with Columbia Fertility?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I was at Columbia Fertility for 10 months and wasn't altogether happy. I started with Dr. Abbasi in the Arlington office and thought Abbassi was ok (not great and always late and rushed...she's also a little cold for my taste) and the Arlington office was pretty awful. We later switched to Dr. Sacks in the DC office, which ran much more efficiently and really liked Dr. Sacks...very warm and cares. He also switched up my protocol up right away when things didn't work where Dr. Abbasi kept trying the same thing month after month.

We ultimately ended up switching and not feeling trusting enough of the nurses and support staff at CF to handle IVF. They just constantly had trouble getting my prescriptions filled on time, made mistakes in running the wrong bloodwork, one time misreading the results back to be and went form looks like you may be pregnant, to oh, there's a decimal there. well, think positive. what?! We felt if they were messing these things up, how could we trust them w/more involved procedures.

We switched to Dr. Muasher's office in Fairfax and it was another world. They called back w/in an hour max of a call, I never had to explain what I needed 2ce, blood work results were called in by 1pm, so no waiting by the phone after office hours, prescriptions were available for pickup w/in minutes of the order being placed. They took the stress out of the things that should never be stressful in the 1st place (but always were at CF). Basically, I trusted them, which makes a huge difference to me. Dr. Muasher isn't warm, but he is very good.

I had the same experience at CFA. Sloppy nurses, lots of mistakes, impossible to reach anyone if you had a question or problem. My favorite part was the voice mail box for the nurses that no one ever checked or answered. When I told Dr. Sacks aboyt this, his solution was to disable the voice mail so that when you called, it just rang and rang and rang. sMy advice: stay away from CFA. I left after three months and am so happy to be free from that added stress in my life.

[Anonymous]

I have been to both SG and Columbia and gotten pregnant at both places (IUI at SG, IVF Col.). I prefer Dr. Sacks at Columbia--he is wonderful and excellent at what he does--will change protocol if things aren't working. Found that SG just does the same thing over and over. We also liked the more personal feel at Columbia.

Agree that Pat Hagen shouldn't draw blood--I am a very easy draw (large veins) and she even butchered me.

Good luck

[Anonymous]

i've had no problem with phones/reaching the nurses at CFA WHEN DOING IVF. IUIs -- upstaris is another story -- that's where i encountered the voice mail box system from hell. Downstairs, dealing with the IVF team has been totally fine so far and Emily is VERY accessible. Pat came to my home to administer the trigger at night and was great but i've not had her do a blood draw before...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:i've had no problem with phones/reaching the nurses at CFA WHEN DOING IVF. IUIs -- upstaris is another story -- that's where i encountered the voice mail box system from hell. Downstairs, dealing with the IVF team has been totally fine so far and Emily is VERY accessible. Pat came to my home to administer the trigger at night and was great but i've not had her do a blood draw before...

Completely agree -the attentiveness to IVF patients is much better. I was pleasantly surprised when I moved on from IUI to IVF.