Had it with Pediatrics of Arlington

[Anonymous]

OP here. Thanks for the recs and the commiseration. Kim was indeed who we saw yesterday. We also hate Lipschwe (do not care enough about her to get her name right) and the number of Lipschwe-discourages-breastfeeding stories I have heard is amazing. Neutral on Garrett.

We picked this practice because of the good references from so many friends. We go to Premier for ourselves and had been considering switching child #2 to there but it seems like it could so easily be more of the same, what with many docs and a busy practice. I also asked my FB friends about this and heard from one who has 5 kids and has lived around the country who thought that 2.5 of 6 docs you liked in a practice was a good ratio.

And thanks to the PP who posted about the effects of medical training. it's an interesting point. When I was in HS and considering becoming a doctor I shadowed a family friend who was a NICU doc and was shocked to see the "empathy slide" in the residents (not that I had a name for it, but they were so thoughtless you couldn't miss it--went to a meeting where the head doc had to remind them to wrap the babies back up in the fetal position after examining them and don't just leave them to flail about). Seeing how callously they treated those tiny babies really changed my life's path. I didn't want to ever be so sleep-deprived that I lost sight of the humanity of patients. I guess the same goes for busy practices.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I liked Premier Primary care when we lived in Arlington, now we are with Murphy, Staats and Daggle in Burke. There are good pediatricians out there, OP. You don't need to stay, switch now. Find a nearby one that takes your insurance and go there. If they are also terrible, then find another.

AVOID Premier Primary Care, at least for pediatrics. They missed rather severe gross motor and language delays in our first. Of course I'm not surprised they missed it given that our primary caregiver became the resident of the week, and the practice did not seem to be getting even adequate students. Further, they do a vena puncture - and a poorly done one, at that - for the first year lead test. Every visit thereafter (and there were several due to sickness), DC would break out into hives from being terrified.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Thanks for the recs and the commiseration. Kim was indeed who we saw yesterday. We also hate Lipschwe (do not care enough about her to get her name right) and the number of Lipschwe-discourages-breastfeeding stories I have heard is amazing. Neutral on Garrett.

We picked this practice because of the good references from so many friends. We go to Premier for ourselves and had been considering switching child #2 to there but it seems like it could so easily be more of the same, what with many docs and a busy practice. I also asked my FB friends about this and heard from one who has 5 kids and has lived around the country who thought that 2.5 of 6 docs you liked in a practice was a good ratio.

And thanks to the PP who posted about the effects of medical training. it's an interesting point. When I was in HS and considering becoming a doctor I shadowed a family friend who was a NICU doc and was shocked to see the "empathy slide" in the residents (not that I had a name for it, but they were so thoughtless you couldn't miss it--went to a meeting where the head doc had to remind them to wrap the babies back up in the fetal position after examining them and don't just leave them to flail about). Seeing how callously they treated those tiny babies really changed my life's path. I didn't want to ever be so sleep-deprived that I lost sight of the humanity of patients. I guess the same goes for busy practices.

For every sick appointment I ask who is there and if Kim is one of them I say I do not want to see her. If enough people do this maybe someone will get the message. I honestly don't know what I would do if just Kim was there but it hasn't happened.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't love this practice either but doubt things would be much better elsewhere. I like Pease and Goldman (I find his lectures humorous). I refuse to see Dr. Kim. Ever. I think they are fine for what they do. I trust them to assess growth and minor illnesses. Anything more significant and I'm taking my child to a specialist anyway. We have been to some amazing specialists and I think that is what is important - gastro, eye, surgeon. Maybe I'm wrong but I don't see the ped's role as that significant after the first couple of years. I do really like the nurse that answers the phone.

We've seen Dr Kim once and that was enough. She recommended to me to give pancakes and 2 eggs omelette to my 4 y. o. for breakfast! The following year, Dr Goldman lectured on eating cereal with fruits.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't love this practice either but doubt things would be much better elsewhere. I like Pease and Goldman (I find his lectures humorous). I refuse to see Dr. Kim. Ever. I think they are fine for what they do. I trust them to assess growth and minor illnesses. Anything more significant and I'm taking my child to a specialist anyway. We have been to some amazing specialists and I think that is what is important - gastro, eye, surgeon. Maybe I'm wrong but I don't see the ped's role as that significant after the first couple of years. I do really like the nurse that answers the phone.

We've seen Dr Kim once and that was enough. She recommended to me to give pancakes and 2 eggs omelette to my 4 y. o. for breakfast! The following year, Dr Goldman lectured on eating cereal with fruits.

Wait, what am I missing? What's wrong with pancakes and a 2-egg omelette?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This conversation reminds me of an article on KevinMD the other day. The first comment on the article makes me think of what you are talking about. She believes that the competitive training at top institutions leaves you with doctors who are intolerant and lack empathy.

"I guess the question is this: does that level of intensity and competitiveness throughout training make for a good doctor? I am sure those trainees turn into physicians who know a lot. But do they also turn into physicians who have internalized an unusual amount of aggression that later in their practice becomes redirected towards their patients in the form of unconsciously dismissive attitudes towards patient complaints and concerns?

I think that there is a possibility that our training, by setting expectations that we be heroically tough, causes us to expect the same of our patients, without our even realizing it. Perhaps this is a factor in the well-documented "empathy slide" that we know medical students and residents experience during their training.

In an even bigger context, does this focus in our training also tend to turn us into people who are somewhat difficult to deal with in the larger world, because we are judgmental, critical and don't know how to play nicely with others? I wondered about that a few years ago while reading in the media about a CHOP fellow who became involved in an altercation in her home with an exterminator, with tragic results."

http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2015/09/how-call-rooms-reflect-the-personality-of-residency-programs.html

we have used pediatricians with degrees from no-name medical schools. They are nice but dumb.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't love this practice either but doubt things would be much better elsewhere. I like Pease and Goldman (I find his lectures humorous). I refuse to see Dr. Kim. Ever. I think they are fine for what they do. I trust them to assess growth and minor illnesses. Anything more significant and I'm taking my child to a specialist anyway. We have been to some amazing specialists and I think that is what is important - gastro, eye, surgeon. Maybe I'm wrong but I don't see the ped's role as that significant after the first couple of years. I do really like the nurse that answers the phone.

We've seen Dr Kim once and that was enough. She recommended to me to give pancakes and 2 eggs omelette to my 4 y. o. for breakfast! The following year, Dr Goldman lectured on eating cereal with fruits.

Wait, what am I missing? What's wrong with pancakes and a 2-egg omelette?

Todo much cholesterol for a young child. Fruits, cereal and yoghurt is a good mix of fiber and protein.

[Anonymous]

I remembered this thread from last year, and I'm bumping it because I too have reached my absolute limit with Pediatrics of Arlington. It's been 4 years of bad wait times and poor organization, but today they kept my infant waiting for nearly *2 hours* while offering nothing but lame excuses. If he had not been due for vaccinations, I would have just left and never returned.

I also realized that, while Dr. Pease is amazing, it's virtually impossible to get in to see her or Dr. Goldman anyways. The other doctors are just plain bad, in my opinion. Kim gave me the worst breastfeeding advice I've ever received, Casey stares at her watch and can't remember any patient specifics despite multiple visits, Lischwe seems totally uninterested in her job, and my experience with the new doctor - Hesselman - was worse than all of the rest combined.

Looking back over our experiences, I'm not sure why I've stayed so long and now I am frustrated and angry that we will have to beg our way into another pediatric practice since my children are no longer newborns.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I remembered this thread from last year, and I'm bumping it because I too have reached my absolute limit with Pediatrics of Arlington. It's been 4 years of bad wait times and poor organization, but today they kept my infant waiting for nearly *2 hours* while offering nothing but lame excuses. If he had not been due for vaccinations, I would have just left and never returned.

I also realized that, while Dr. Pease is amazing, it's virtually impossible to get in to see her or Dr. Goldman anyways. The other doctors are just plain bad, in my opinion. Kim gave me the worst breastfeeding advice I've ever received, Casey stares at her watch and can't remember any patient specifics despite multiple visits, Lischwe seems totally uninterested in her job, and my experience with the new doctor - Hesselman - was worse than all of the rest combined.

Looking back over our experiences, I'm not sure why I've stayed so long and now I am frustrated and angry that we will have to beg our way into another pediatric practice since my children are no longer newborns.

Weird. I've been going there for 3 years with two kids and have never had more than 10-minute wait for a well appointment. I've been for sick appointments and those are the long waits (I once had to wait an hour). I've seen all of the doctors and never had a problem, either.

[Anonymous]

Argh, we've also gotten the lecture on 2% and obesity and, setting aside that the medical evidence on whole v. 2% is completely mixed even on a population level, our 2 year old DD is ~90th%ile for height and ~50th%ile for weight, so I am not really that concerned that she is going to become obese anytime soon. Meanwhile, they are so busy lecturing on that topic, that they are ignoring our actual questions/concerns.

(We were down to one pre-bed bottle -- teeth brushed afterwards -- at our DD's 18 month visit and just lied b/c of the lecture on bottles we got at 15 months (when she was still having 2/day). OMG. She doesn't use a pacifier or suck her thumb, she finds the bottle comforting as part of her wind down and STTN... No, I am not going to yank all bottles at once and provoke meltdowns/screaming/no sleep... nor do I think my then-current "predicament" is a "total disaster" or "complete failure. Unsurprisingly, bottles were long gone by 2 (last one was fully kicked at 21 months) and the dentist thought her teeth looked great at her 2 year visit.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I remembered this thread from last year, and I'm bumping it because I too have reached my absolute limit with Pediatrics of Arlington. It's been 4 years of bad wait times and poor organization, but today they kept my infant waiting for nearly *2 hours* while offering nothing but lame excuses. If he had not been due for vaccinations, I would have just left and never returned.

I also realized that, while Dr. Pease is amazing, it's virtually impossible to get in to see her or Dr. Goldman anyways. The other doctors are just plain bad, in my opinion. Kim gave me the worst breastfeeding advice I've ever received, Casey stares at her watch and can't remember any patient specifics despite multiple visits, Lischwe seems totally uninterested in her job, and my experience with the new doctor - Hesselman - was worse than all of the rest combined.

Looking back over our experiences, I'm not sure why I've stayed so long and now I am frustrated and angry that we will have to beg our way into another pediatric practice since my children are no longer newborns.

Weird. I've been going there for 3 years with two kids and have never had more than 10-minute wait for a well appointment. I've been for sick appointments and those are the long waits (I once had to wait an hour). I've seen all of the doctors and never had a problem, either.

I dunno, maybe you got lucky. While I had a soft spot for crazy Dr Kim speaking a mile a minute, our experience was much more like PP's. We finally left and are much happier at Capital Area Pediatrics.

[Anonymous]

I have had pretty good experiences there for the past 1+ year. Puzzled at the dislike of Dr. Hessleman- she's who we usually see and is great!

[Anonymous]

Cap sleepy hollow is wonderful.

[Anonymous]

We just left and are so much happier

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I've mentioned this practice in other threads: Virginia Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine on Lee Highway. We see Dr. Rhue, but have seen the other doctors and like them as well. Front desk answers the phone quickly, never had a problem making a same day sick visit, making well visits, nurses are great, parking is free and easy.

If you don't like your practice, definitely look into others. Especially with a new baby, you know you'll be there a ton in the next couple years and you should feel like your kids' doctor is on your side.

A hidden gem.