Are you leaving Capital Medical Group?

[Anonymous]

I get frustrated but can't find anywhere better that accepts our insurance.

[Anonymous]

My kids are 12 and 15 and we have gone there for 15 years. We're obviously far out of the frequent-doctor visit years, but I haven't had a single large complaint over the years. (My small complaints: how far the office is from our house, needing to schedule physicals months in advance, and the cost for forms.) Two things that I think are underappreciated about the practice, compared to doctors our friends' kids see: 1) competence and promptness of the triage nurses on the phone; and 2) how capable the doctors are at seeing kids through adolescence.

[Anonymous]

Bumping this:

We live in DC and only went to CMG because family members who live nearby recommended it when we started having kids. Seriously considering leaving the practice for a variety of issues.

My main gripe is that our kids never see their main doctors, even during annual wellness visits or more frequent (but regular) visits for our baby. We have one child who has a summer birthday and they are constantly being shunted off to a random doctor because their annual visit coincides with summer vacation time. It is atrocious to never have any consistency. We've had cancelations by CMG and then they can't fit our child in!

We had a recent issue where our child was told to come back in because they needed another blood sample for testing. It took an hour wait to take a 5 minute blood sample. Further, a random doctor pops in and starts taking our kids' vitals, doing a checkup, then asks us "Do you want me to run any other tests?" Uh, what? It felt like they were just trying to add a doctor's visit to the bill when we were there merely so they could get another test sample from our kid.

There also seems to be no communication between the doctors and the PAs/nurses about what vaccines to provide or tests to run. We've now had a few visits where our kids were getting regular vaccinations + COVID or flu vax and the nurse had no idea which vaxxes she should be providing us. When I asked "Oh where's the COVID shot?" the nurse had no idea that our kid was getting one and then needs to wait another 15-20 minutes to get authorization from the doctor.

So yeah, any recommendations for pediatric practices closer to DC where my kids can actually see the same 1-2 medical providers every visit?

CMG has seemed to adopt the One Medical model of seeing whomever is available but without actually advertising that this is the model they use.

[Anonymous]

We love Dr. Bhatt there. Followed her from another practice. Would follow her anywhere.

[Anonymous]

I don’t get it. Don’t you know who you’re scheduling with when you make the appointment, especially your annual?? When we schedule - unless it’s a sick visit - they ask if there’s a certain provider we want to see. We specific our child’s doctor, and we schedule based on that doctor’s availability. Especially for regular wellness visits, which are scheduled in advance, there should be little problem getting the doctor you want when you want.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don’t get it. Don’t you know who you’re scheduling with when you make the appointment, especially your annual?? When we schedule - unless it’s a sick visit - they ask if there’s a certain provider we want to see. We specific our child’s doctor, and we schedule based on that doctor’s availability. Especially for regular wellness visits, which are scheduled in advance, there should be little problem getting the doctor you want when you want.

+1. I don’t understand. We’ve been there for 8 years and have only not seen our doctor once, and that was for a sick visit.

[Anonymous]

I think their fall garage drive-thru flu/COVID shot, incl. for the parents in the car, is the most efficient and wonderful thing and keeps me singing their praises. I don't know any other practice that does that and it makes great sense, even after the height of the pandemic.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We've been fine there thus far. It is hard to get appts with the same doctor consistently even if you book well ahead (I think their most popular doctors are overbooked and the one I like best only works 2 days a week), but that's life.

Which doc is that?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We've been fine there thus far. It is hard to get appts with the same doctor consistently even if you book well ahead (I think their most popular doctors are overbooked and the one I like best only works 2 days a week), but that's life.

Which doc is that?

Oops, scratch that - just noticed this is an old thread. We’ve been going for 19 years. No complaints.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don’t get it. Don’t you know who you’re scheduling with when you make the appointment, especially your annual?? When we schedule - unless it’s a sick visit - they ask if there’s a certain provider we want to see. We specific our child’s doctor, and we schedule based on that doctor’s availability. Especially for regular wellness visits, which are scheduled in advance, there should be little problem getting the doctor you want when you want.

No availability with our baby's doctor 6 months out. Our baby has only seen their main doctor on their first visit back from the hospital. All other visits have been with a random doc available or NP because we can't get our main doc until 6 months later. Babies go a lot more frequently than once per year. Other kid is a summer birthday that conflicts with vacation time - docs don't have summer plans locked in a year out.

[Anonymous]

I have been going there for about six years and haven’t noticed those issues, I’ve never had an issue booking with my preferred doctor, even when my youngest was born and there were so many appointments. Of course for sick visits I always take whichever doctor can see us.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t get it. Don’t you know who you’re scheduling with when you make the appointment, especially your annual?? When we schedule - unless it’s a sick visit - they ask if there’s a certain provider we want to see. We specific our child’s doctor, and we schedule based on that doctor’s availability. Especially for regular wellness visits, which are scheduled in advance, there should be little problem getting the doctor you want when you want.

No availability with our baby's doctor 6 months out. Our baby has only seen their main doctor on their first visit back from the hospital. All other visits have been with a random doc available or NP because we can't get our main doc until 6 months later. Babies go a lot more frequently than once per year. Other kid is a summer birthday that conflicts with vacation time - docs don't have summer plans locked in a year out.

How can this be? So odd. As a mom of a young one I scheduled my child’s appts as far out as they’d let me. Can’t you plan ahead?

[Anonymous]

Can’t understand why they still push covid vaccines for perfectly healthy children.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t get it. Don’t you know who you’re scheduling with when you make the appointment, especially your annual?? When we schedule - unless it’s a sick visit - they ask if there’s a certain provider we want to see. We specific our child’s doctor, and we schedule based on that doctor’s availability. Especially for regular wellness visits, which are scheduled in advance, there should be little problem getting the doctor you want when you want.

This has not been my experience at all, even with a baby. I would find another doctor you like there to make your “main” doctor. Your main must be an exception. I suspect you’d be fine with anyone else.
No availability with our baby's doctor 6 months out. Our baby has only seen their main doctor on their first visit back from the hospital. All other visits have been with a random doc available or NP because we can't get our main doc until 6 months later. Babies go a lot more frequently than once per year. Other kid is a summer birthday that conflicts with vacation time - docs don't have summer plans locked in a year out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Can’t understand why they still push covid vaccines for perfectly healthy children.

This has not been my experience.