Help needed for DC based Pediatrician - looking for feedback

[Anonymous]

yes, Dr. Marks is a really good one. He discovered a medical problem of our DD no other ped has noticed before.

[Anonymous]

HAMBURGER! HAMBURGER! HAMBURGER! HAMBURGER! Totally worth the wait and advance scheduling IMO for well visits. Plus we love the nurse who does our vaccinations (always seems to be same one - gotta get her name). She is amazingly fast, reassuring, kind, and kids never had bruises. Although sometimes they get extra Spongebob bandaids.

Nurse triage and 24 hour emergency are AMAZINGLY fast and helpful. We had everything from pink eye to febrile seizures - all handled excellently. (We got second opinons from outside the practice who confirmed this.) I was surprised to hear some other doctors don't have this capacity. Definitely check first.

Sorry to hear PP had issue with the interview charge. In my experience, the "interview" was kind of a waste of time (and money) since the real questions came when the babies were in front of the doctor for their first visit.

Hope this helps!

[Anonymous]

Hi - OP here.

Thanks everyone for the responses. We're going to try the 2141 practice. Our concern w/Dr. Lang was not wait time (as a PP said, that's hard to avoid and understandable esp given that they do same day visits). To the PP who asked why we were switching. There are 2 reasons.

1) Our son was in the emergency room fairly recently. All turned out fine, we probably just overreacted (first time parents) and it's a long story, but basically when my husband called Dr. Lang for her advice on a specific decision we were asked to make, the answering service was distrubingly not helpful (they said since we were in the emergency room already they would not pass along our message to Dr. Lang). Then when he did convince them to contact Dr. Lang, when she called back she yelled at my husband. Granted he had not followed her advice from earlier that day (which in hindsight would have made the situation much easier), but there were circumstances that she did not bother to listen to before she decided to yell. First, the yelling is not acceptable to me. Second, she should have at least had the patience to listen to "our side" of the story. I can understand she doesn't want to be bothered in off hours, but it wasn't the middle of the night (a pretty reasonable 9pm). She also did not call to follow up after the emergency room visit to see how our son was doing.

2) There are 2 new doctors at the practice. One we like a lot, but only seems to be in 1-2 days a week. The other has not impressed.

I'm sad that we feel like we need to switch and the postiives of the practice is the same day sick visits and the fact that now the staff knows our son....but, our run in with Dr. Lang has made us skeptical of how she would work with us if there was a true emergency and there is only one other doctor in the practice that we feel comfortable with. So, we'll try out 2141 and see what happens....

[Anonymous]

Don't second guess your decision to leave! We left Dr. Lang's practice after 2 years and wish we had done it sooner. I'm constantly meeting people who started there and left for various reasons, including friends who found the practice disturbingly unhelpful during an emergency with a very young infant. I can't offer much advice on the alternatives you're considering since we went with a practice that's not downtown (Capitol Medical Group, which we love). But I just wanted to reinforce that it is possible to find good, caring pediatricians who provide excellent care and treat families with respect - there's no reason to put up with anything less than that!

[Anonymous]

We have been seeing Pullman for 7 years and love her. She is very straightforward, has 3 kids of her own, and communicates really well with both children and parents. The office staff went through a horrible period when they moved offices but all the old staff like Jackie and Velma are back and its great again. The sick hours are good (every morning at 8) and they have always managed to see us in an emergency. The newest member to join the practice, Valois, seems wonderful too. She is also a mom of 2 little ones and that really makes them mnopre sympathetic in my opinion but they do not baby you.

[Anonymous]

My daughter (14) sees Dr. Jennifer Kaplan at the K St practice and we like her very much! It's true that when dd is sick we see whomever we can but that's okay -- I'd rather get in to see someone right away. However, dd had an emotional crisis last year and Dr. Kaplan handled her with a lot of sensitivity and gave us good references for a therapist. I think she is good with adolescents in particular.

We used to go to Foxhall but had to switch when we were forced to change insurance by my dh's employer. We liked Foxhall. *Loved* Mary Lou and a couple of the other nurse/nurse practitioners. We liked the docs at Foxhall too (Sweeny and Balfour) but we *love* Dr. Kaplan at the K Street practice.

[Anonymous]

I will warn you that the wait times are horrible in Hamburger's Practice on 21 and K and the staff they have seem lost and aren't too helpful. However, we really love our Doctor (Sepe) and everytime we have been seen by any other Doctors they are all very nice and seem genuinely concern. Dr. Sepe is GREAT! He is not dismissive at all and has returned calls and even faxed out referrals and gotten us in to specialists even when Children's stated they had nothing available for months. He spends a lot of time with our boys and has even stopped by to see us and discuss options and/or voice concerns he may have even when we weren't scheduled to see him. He seems to go far and beyond what is really expected of him. I only wish that he will leave the practice so that I wouldn't have to deal with the disorganized staff that they have. The nurses are also GREAT!

[Anonymous]

I recommend Dr. McKnight and Dr. Washington at Washington Hospital Center [phone]. Particulary Dr. Washington. The wait time is never long, they will always give me a same day appointment if my daughter is sick, and most importantly to me, Dr. Washington never acts as if she is in a hurry to get on to the next patient.

[Anonymous]

Yelled at you WHILE YOU WERE IN THE ER with a sick (or injured) child? That's a lack of empathy and self-control that scream either "abusive jerk" or "burnout." That's off the charts.

[Anonymous]

I have to step up and defend Dr. Lang here - one month ago, my infant ended up in the emergency room and she was extremely helpful and worked with the ER staff to make sure that they had all of the information that they needed, and scheduled a follow-up visit within 24 hours of discharge.

Also, my daughter had a pneumonia right around the New Year. After our office visit, Dr. Lang called me at home, TWICE, to make sure that she was responding to the medication and that she was recovering appropriately. It wasn't her office who called me, but Dr. Lang, personally.

From these postings, it's pretty clear that like or dislike of a pediatrician is largely based on personal taste and that before you choose a pediatrician you ought to interview him or her.

I did not like Dr. Pullman - I found her brusque, and felt like she manhandled my child. Others really like her.

[Anonymous]

Wow - this last post really scared me. I am sitting in the 2141 offices as I type and find them to be a bit chaotic and messy. Have been waiting for an hour for this "interview". I hear great things about the doctors, but how does this compare with Foxhall? Thanks!

[Anonymous]

Wow - this last post really scared me. I am sitting in the 2141 offices as I type and find them to be a bit chaotic and messy. Have been waiting for an hour for this "interview". I hear great things about the doctors, but how does this compare with Foxhall? Thanks!

[Anonymous]

have been very happy at Ped Village with Dr. Edmonds.

[Anonymous]

I have posted this before but wanted to add my disdain for 2141 k, CP&A , DR Wagner, etc. because there are some re-curring problems with their office.

Unfortunately, I have some real life advice that is not so glowing. Dr Wagner was highly recommended and we really liked her, the problem is the office...it is a complete baby factory. The front desk staff are presumptious and rude if you dont call AT LEAST two months in advance. If you dont believe me, call 202 833 4543 and ask for the earliest appt with Dr Wagner. I just called and it is May...after waiting on hold for five minutes.

I am sorry to be the voice of reason, but the breaking point was when our six month old had a bad fall and hit her head. We received no assistance at Children's hospital and CP&A was completely unwilling to get her an urgent appt and said she could see an RN in a week. I asked, " so we are on our own" the woman at the desk said "Yes". we still have not had a follow up with Dr Wagner...that is just POOR CARE. That was the last straw after quite a few bad encounters.

If you are willing to be treated like a second class citizen and willing to book your appts two months in advance...then I do highly recommend Wagner...she is a great DR if and when you are able to see her....but the office is a mess and our experience half the time was that we were passed off to one of their younger doctors any way.

We are now still looking for a dr that can give predictable, dependable care to our daughter and is available when true emergencies occur...wish us luck!

[Anonymous]

I'm so sorry dragonfly. I had a similar experience but my son was nowhere near as sick. We recently had to switch insurance and the K st practice came highly recommended. At the time my sons were 2 and 15 months. Because, silly me I rescheduled their wellbaby visit due to me being way to sick to drive a half hour in DC traffic on top of dealing with shots, we didn't get to see a doctor until they were 5 and 18 months. Two weeks or so before they were scheduled to come in, my son had developed a really bad diaper rash after never having more than a few bumps that would clear up with a day of serious desitin application. On top of that he developed what looked like a boil. It took me about 30 minutes on hold to get ahold of a nurse, who told me that they couldnt see him for 5 days. He didn't have a fever and was in good spirits otherwise so I said fine. My husband's an electrician and met me so that I wouldnt be stuck managing 2 unruly kids by myself. Our appt was for 2:45 and he parked in a spot that he had to be out of by 4:30 thinking that we'd be out in plenty of time. By the time we filled out the new patient paperwork and were actually put back into an exam room, he had to go move the van 10 minutes later. It took another 30 to 40 minutes before we saw Dr Schnoover (I'm probably spelling her name wrong). She at least had the decency to apologize for the long wait, calling it unusual, and was wonderful with the boys.

Then its time for the well checkups and vaccinations. This time I was on my own and between having to do everything up to and including lassoing my children, wrasslin their coats on, and dragging them kicking and screaming out to the car, DC traffic, and waiting forever for a valet, we rolled into the lobby about a minute or two before our scheduled appointment. Only to have to wait forever for an elevator. By the time we got upstairs we were a little under 10 minutes late. I signed in, settled the stroller in the corner, stripped off the coats and let my oldest son loose on the toys. Twenty minutes later, one of the office staff called me and informed me that because I was late I'd have to reschedule. I apologized, explained about the elevator being out of order or whatever, and asked if I couldnt be fit in if I waited. I was met with a wall of attitude and indifference. While I stepped over to the rescheduling desk I heard one of the other girls say that there WAS something wrong with the elevators because blah blah blah. I was finally told they couldn't see us for another month.

To the PP who is looking for a new practice, we're with Dr Ziad Idriss who's in a practice with his daughter Nadine. I wish his manner were a bit less brusque, but he's very knowledgeable. Dr Nadine is wonderful and very warm. When I called to set up an appointment, we got in three days later. We've only been a few times but the office staff remembers us already. And wonder of wonders they have Saturday hours!

Before we had to switch we were at Brasch and Goldstein except I think that now they're called Friendship Pediatrics. Even though we mainly saw Dr Douglass, we had seen all of the doctors and liked them all. Its another small practice, with staff that remembers you, early call in hours, and very short wait times. They also have off street parking.