Difficulties at Children's Hospital

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I work at Children's National and a colleague sent me a link to this discussion. I am very sorry for the troubles you all have experienced. We do have an Ombudsman's office to help parents who experience difficulties, and I wanted to post the number for you to have -- please reach out to them to assist with resolution of issues at any time. That phone number is 202-476-2625 or 202-476-2064 (ask to speak with the Ombudsman on call).

While this is good to know, it's hardly a resolution. I don't have a dog in this fight, but I think it would have be more satisfying to hear that these concerns would be brought to the attention of a supervisor or someone w the power to make changes.

+1. This isn't one disgruntled patient or parent.

[Anonymous]

I'm so glad to see this post.

My husband is a doctor and I'm a nurse and we have a VERY HIGH tolerance for health care inefficiencies. A large part of my job as an RN is calling for appointments on behalf of patients.

However, we had a brutal time getting our 5 year old a sub-specialty appointment at Children's. We called and called and called some more. We went up the chain of command. Finally my husband made physician-to-physician calls.
It's like Fort Knox at that place.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I work at Children's National and a colleague sent me a link to this discussion. I am very sorry for the troubles you all have experienced. We do have an Ombudsman's office to help parents who experience difficulties, and I wanted to post the number for you to have -- please reach out to them to assist with resolution of issues at any time. That phone number is 202-476-2625 or 202-476-2064 (ask to speak with the Ombudsman on call).

I have dealt with the Ombudsman, and she is fantastic. I agree with PPs, though, the problem needs to be dealt with at higher levels, and Ombudsman should let the high level hospital administrators know the level of patient unhappiness. Ombudsman can smooth the situation over but ultimately it's just a band-aid solution to the larger problem of gross negligence in terms of patient scheduling, organization, billling, and customer service.

[Anonymous]

Children's Hospital called me to cancel a new patient appointment I have had for several months with one of their clinics. Huge inconvenience because A. I couldn't get an appointment for several months but that's not unusual so I worked around that and B. we scheduled our vacation around this appointment. Totally unacceptable. We're going elsewhere.

[Anonymous]

I think this type of horrible service is prevalent in health care. I was working with a GI office to get my daughter her treatment. Was told it was fine last week and finally was told this week it will take them two weeks to schedule. Their attitude was clearly dismissive. They did not care my daughter's treatment is tied to a schedule. I will have to travel out of state at significant cost to accomplish this. I had to hound them today to find out they could not do it They had no regard for her health. It would be shocking but it is so commonplace, this complete lack of professionalism and compassion, that I now choose Doctors based on all the staff and will not choose offices with unkind, unprofessional staff.

And I have a decent amount of tolerance for this as well. Unfortunately, this level of incompetence veers towards cruelty when you are dealing with the truly sick.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think this type of horrible service is prevalent in health care. I was working with a GI office to get my daughter her treatment. Was told it was fine last week and finally was told this week it will take them two weeks to schedule. Their attitude was clearly dismissive. They did not care my daughter's treatment is tied to a schedule. I will have to travel out of state at significant cost to accomplish this. I had to hound them today to find out they could not do it They had no regard for her health. It would be shocking but it is so commonplace, this complete lack of professionalism and compassion, that I now choose Doctors based on all the staff and will not choose offices with unkind, unprofessional staff.

And I have a decent amount of tolerance for this as well. Unfortunately, this level of incompetence veers towards cruelty when you are dealing with the truly sick.

I bet you're referring to a GI practice we used when we couldn't get in with Childrens. Another truly hellish experience for us. Dr wouldn't give us test results or return emergency calls. Had to go directly to the hospital to request results/reports.

[Anonymous]

What can we do as parents to make it a better system?

[Anonymous]

I for one don't donate even though it is a seemingly great local charity.

[Anonymous]

We've been jerked around by the orthopedics department. I just avoid the place if at all possible. I get occasional mailings for donations -- they can shove those up their teddy-bear logo asses.

[Anonymous]

I had similarly bad experiences. My child was diagnosed with microcephaly at birth and had to have brain scan at Children's, among other things. My sister flew in from out of state to accompany me to the appointment. Got there early in the morning with a tiny little premature baby, in the freezing cold winter. And when I got to the front desk to check in they told me that they had to cancel the appointment and needed to reschedule it. To their credit, after I had a meltdown, they were able to get us in later that day. But oh my goodness, the incompetence and the cavalier way they behaved. I had lots of other frustrations with the nephrology and GI groups, but nothing was worse than this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Childrens is the WORST. Ugh. Have had so many issues with them. Especially with their medical coding/billing. Several time s I have been assured by both Childrens and our insurance that a doctor is 'in network' but the Childrens bills the visit with a code that
the insurance doesn't cover and then its just back and forth. . . . It was ridiculous. Ugh. I hate Childrens!

Same experience here. The Drs. themselves are great - our daughter's surgery was trouble-free.

But they coded the procedure FOR AN ADULT - and BCBC refused to pay as a result. Um, hello! Its "CHILDREN'S" hospital!!? WTF do they have coders so incompetent?? Plus, it took so long to resolve that is went to collections.

Flash forward to spouse's cancer treatment; not Childrens precisely but same complex and same types of problems:

-the cancer treatment success was partly dependent on an iodine-free diet (they botched that completely)

-had to shower every 30 minutes; they botched that too and the room had NO hot, or even warm water in the shower!

While the M.D.s seem OK there, the entire support system - from nurses to coders to administrative staff - seem completely incompetent.