Expeience with Dr. Sacks at Columbia?

[Anonymous]

He has been recommended to me, but wanted to see if there were any positive/negative experiences with him and the practice before I make up my mind. I think he sounds great, but have read mixed reviews on Columbia.

Thanks!

[Anonymous]

I liked Dr. Sacks very much but I was closer to the Arlington office than DC. Since he is only in VA one day/week it seemed silly that he was my dr. since I never saw him (I did all my monitoring at the VA office unless it was a weekend). I switched to Dr. Susan Black in the Arlington office but she unfortunately left the practice early this summer.
From what I've read on these boards, everyone has their own opinion about which doctor and clinic is best. You need to find the one that is right for you. When Dr. Black left, I made appointments with several other clinics just to have a consultation and see what the office "felt" like before deciding on where to continue treatment. The doctor and his/her staff that you choose are going to be a big part of your life so make sure you are comfortable with everyone.

[Anonymous]

OP here: I have actually met with him and several others. Dr. Sacks was the doctor who's bedside manner I liked the best, by far, but I know that their expertise and the practice is just as important and thats what I'm a little unsure of. I just can't help but feel like my family's (or lack thereof) future hinges on a decision that I'll probably not have enough information to make!

[Anonymous]

14:05 poster here. Well, in that case, I can tell you what I didn't like about the practice. Their support staff is not the best. I had lots of issues with insurance coverage and their billing staff didn't seem to know what they were doing as far as billing and insurance goes. Unless there has been a major change in staff in the VA office, I would avoid it altogether. There were several times when I arrived at 7:30 am (that's when the office opens) for morning monitoring and no one was there and the door was locked. A nurse would eventually stroll in 15 or 20 minutes later. I also had a very bad experience with a nurse there. She nearly ruined my entire cycle based on a mistake she made. Due to her carelessness my husband and I were unduly stressed for no reason. My doctor's persistence allowed us to go on with the cycle but I am sure the extra stress didn't help. by the way, that cycle was a BFN.

One time when I had to go to the DC office for monitoring, I did not realize there is a street door and a lobby door to the lab. I sat outside in the cold for 15 minutes waiting for them to open. Several of the staff walked past me on their way in to the office and saw me waiting. No one bothered to tell me there was an inside door where I could wait comfortably until the office opened. There were other patients who knew of the inner door so when the nurses unlocked it, they went in and were signed in for monitoring before me even though I had been there longer than they were. On another occasion, having learned about the inner door, I waited there. Once the office opened I went in and signed in for my turn. Over the next 20 minutes several women walked up to the glass door, pulled on it, and then went around to the inner door. It wasn't until one of the doctors came in, saw that the door was locked, and told the nurses to unlock it that it was opened. That may seem like petty issues, but it seemed to reflect an overall lack of concern for the women that they were supposed to be caring for.

[Anonymous]

I didn't have a great experience with Dr. Sacks, although he was highly ecommended to me by my OB. I didn't care much for his manner - he was an hour late for my first appointment, and didn't apologize. Most problematic was his office, which appears to be chronically understaffed- when I had a question for a nurse or just needed to get a prescription filled, it was often impossible to get a nurse to return my calls. After three stressful, frustrating months, I switched to another practice. Trying to get pregnant is stressful enough - who needs all this hassle?

[Anonymous]

Hi, OP again.....Do you mind me asking where you switched to, and were you both happier there? Was the office staff notably better?

Thanks!

[Anonymous]

I'm currently working with Dr. Sacks in his DC office and have experienced nothing but incompetence and rudeness from his staff, making the TTC process even more stressful than it is. We'll definitely look at different practices if we end up going to IVF. Good luck with your decision, OP.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hi, OP again.....Do you mind me asking where you switched to, and were you both happier there? Was the office staff notably better?

Thanks!

I have my first appointment with Dr. James Simon (K Street in DC) this week, and would be happy to let you know how it goes. He's a solo practitioner and my OB said I could expect much better care there than Columbia Fertility. So I've got my fingers crossed.

[Anonymous]

I was treated by Dr. James Simon for over a year and I cannot say enough wonderful things about him and his staff. He actually was late for our first appointment, which upset us, but it was all uphill from there. Most of your interaction will be with the physicians' assistants, Carol and Lucy, and the RN, Ellen, who are absolutely amazing! The personalized attention they give their patients is incredible. They take such a personal interest in their patients and are always available to answer questions, give advice, etc. I conceived successfully with my first IUI cycle and then went back to see them when we tried for number two. Unfortunately, the second time we had three failed IUIs and one failed IVF, but our experience with Dr. Simon's office has been great regardless. I would recommend Dr. Simon to anyone starting fertility treatments without hesitation.

You should know, however, that Dr. Simon does his IVF treatments at Columbia Fertility, so in the event you get to the IVF stage, you will need to have some interaction with that office. Also, if your embryo retrieval falls on a weekend day that Dr. Simon is not available, then I believe Dr. Sacks is his backup (he studied under Dr. Simon). You may want to discuss this with Dr. Simon.

BTW, I had a similar annoying experience with Columbia Fertility when we did our IVF cycle. They were supposed to call my doctor's office to let him know how many viable embryos we had and they didn't return my doc office's calls for 2 days. So we had to wait a while to find out, which added anxiety to an already stressful situation. So I agree that the staff there is not very responsive. On the flip side, we thought the nurses and anesthesiologist were very nice. Good luck to you!

[Anonymous]

I highly recommend Dr. Sacks--he was able to diagnose our fertility problem (which Shady Grove did not) and I am now 6 months PG, after second IVF. I am surprised by prior posts about the office staff--they were generally pleasant and certainly some of the nurses were very helpful with getting meds covered by insurance. There are a few gruff staffers who work the front desk (on weekends) but since I was hyped up on hormones, I think I "outgruffed" them Having used both SG and Columbia, I had a much better experience at Columbia (though I have the most wonderful son thanks to an IUI at SG). The smaller office makes you feel less like a piece of meat and I liked the fact that I always saw the same MD--not the case at SG, where it is whoever is on duty. Dr. Sacks does all his appointments, procedures, etc. Overall, I found him to be a better doctor than Osborne or Widra at SG--he wasn't willing to just label our issue unexplained or advanced female age. Moreover, he is one of the most pleasant doctors you will ever meet, and very reassuring, confidence-inspiring, IMHO.

In short, I wouldn't let the complaints about the office staff scare you away. I could make the same complaints about SG--in fact, SG tried to bill me twice for my IUI--their billing rep couldn't even read their own statements!

Whatever you choose, good luck.

[Anonymous]

PP here. In rereading some of the negative Columbia posts, I just wanted to say that in my experience at both SG and Columbia, you really can't blindly rely on the office staff--you have to be proactive and understand your medical protocol so that if an instruction they give seems odd, you catch it (if something (like an increase in meds) doesn't make sense, question them on it, have them go back to the doctor, etc.) I caught mistakes (minor) at both places simply by being on top of my own medical treatment. Also, unlike SG, I found Dr. Sacks would sort of personalize protocols (at least in my case, we skipped some meds because of specific med issues of mine) but the nurses weren't really in the loop on that--they just knew I was on the lupron flare protocol (for example).

[Anonymous]

Dr. Sacks is very nice. And the following comment has nothing to do with his capability as a doctor... what is with the turtlenecks all the time?

Sorry... you can't lose your sense of humor when ttc or you'll lose your mind!

[Anonymous]

I was a patient of Columbia's for 10 months.....7 months in the Arlington office and after way too many frustrating moments with both the nursing staff and my doc, I switched to the Dc office with Dr. Sacks. I really loved Dr. Sacks' bedside manner...it was nice to actually laugh when I saw the doc and he genuinely seemed to care about what my husband and I were going through.

But, even with that, the staff, although better than the Arlington office, was still a mess. Things just slipped through the cracks all the time...relatively small things, but things that caused me stress and also made me wonder what else they were missing. We have been doing iui cycles, but knew that there was no way we'd trust Columbia with an IVF so decided to switch to another office preemptively.

I have been with the Muasher Center in Fairfax (I live in the city so I was hesitant at first) and couldn't be happier so far. Its just EASY. I never thought I'd say that about a clinic, but it is. Its small, only 1 doc there and he and the staff knew my name after my first visit...you don't even have to sign in, just show your face and they have your chart ready to go. Dr. Muasher actually does my blood work most days. I pick up all my meds from a specialty pharmacy across the street....they're ready in minutes and extremely nice there as well. I'm still having treatments and will hopefully be successful, but this office has hugely reduced my stress levels if nothing else.

[Anonymous]

I absolutely adore Dr. Sacks. He was very proactive with my treatment and I really felt like he LISTENED to me. I got pregnant on my 1st round of Clomid with him. I had had an earlier loss 2 months before and I was devastated ... he told me at the time that he would do everything he could to make sure that did not happen again and he really followed through on that. This pregnancy looked like it was heading the same way at the beginning ... horrible bleeding, cramps, etc., but he continued to check my betas (they doubled every 48 hours but barely) and prescribe more progesterone for me and my little guy stuck. Due in January

I really liked his office staff and didn't have too many problems with them. He did have one nurse who I found a little bizarre, and who would either be really receptive to your concerns or would blow you off completely. But I would go back to his practice in a heartbeat.

[Anonymous]

12:15 here again, forgot to say that whenever I called with anything that could be remotely considered a problem Dr. Sacks' office would have me in there within an hour. Very impressive for a doctor's office. I loved that.