How Do We Choose a Pediatrician? GW Faculty Associates? Foxhall?

[ParanoidDad]

DC Urban Moms,

I kneel before your infinite wisdom. The wife and I are expecting our first child this summer and, after reading the "What to Expect" Books, "Your Pregnancy and Your Birth" book, "Pregnancy for Dummies" and every website known to man, we are now only 50% clueless. My question:

How in the world do we pick a pediatrician? Any suggestions?

I tried putting some doctors from the Cigna website in Google and looking for the usual paranoid dad things: Malpractice suits and complaints. I'm not coming up with much. So far everyone is neck and neck with being just plain old ordinary. Right now we're leaning toward two places solely because we recognize the name: Foxhall and GW Medical Faculty Associates.

My wife's ex-OBGYN is at Foxhall and they gave us a list of docs in the building when she became pregnant. She switched to Dr. Macri at GW thanks to the rave reviews on this site, but hasn't had her first visit with him yet. The doc who did my heart surgery last year practices at GW Med Fac and so we just put two and two together: Good OBGYN, Good Cardiologist...maybe (hopefully) they'll have good pediatricians.

I'd love to have something a little more concrete to go off of. Any suggestions or reviews for those two places? We live on the DC side of Chevy Chase and don't have a car so visits will be via Metro. Even if I could put the carseat in a taxi, I don't think I'd trust my newborn to the bobsledding of a DC cab.

Thanks in advance.

[Anonymous]

You may want to ask around in your neighborhood to see who people go to. When I was at GW (i delivered there twice), the L&D nurses quietly but firmly discouraged another couple from using the GW Med Fac pediatricians. I forget their exact criticisms, but they really didn't trust them, like them, or think they were very good. (And given the total bureacracy from other areas of GWMFA, I would shutter to think how a pediatrician's office could be run that way). NOT trying to scare you away from the OBS -- they are excellent. You just need to wade through the front desk a bit.

We're also in Chevy Chase DC, but we use Capitol Medical Group, which is up Connecticut a bit and totally not metro accessible. Sorry that I don't have any more concrete recommendations for you.

[Anonymous]

Talk to your friends with kids about who they use and why they like them, then arrange to interview the practices to find the best fit for your family

[Anonymous]

We live around Friendship Heights and considered Chevy Chase Pediatrics on Conn. and Brasch and Goldstein on North Park Ave.

[Anonymous]

Have you looked at the practice at Georgetown University? I don't know how it is now, but I went there until I was 18 (am in my mid 30s now) and it was great.

[Anonymous]

We love Foxhall.

I'd meet with the doctors, get a general idea for the feel of the practice, and then consider proximity, convenience, etc.

[Anonymous]

I would chose purely on the basis of convenience. pick the nearest, most accessible one.
they all have the same basic training and can right the odd prescription. if anything serious goes wrong you end up seeing specialists anyway.

[Anonymous]

GW MFA is a factory and hard to get appts. We love foxhall. go meet them.

[Anonymous]

We left GW peds. Love Chevy Chase Pediatrics, not sure if they take your insurance. They are on Connecticut, north of Politics and Prose, so way more convenient for you. They have Saturday sick hours and will even come in on Sunday. Dr. Bennett is amazing and so funny, my kids adore him. I'd also advise you to stay away from Lang's practice.

Pullman and Arizza at 2440 M might work if you took an L bus downtown.

[Anonymous]

I am one of the rave reviewers of Macri (love him!)--he actually recommended Childrens to me, specifically Dr. Hamburger. They are at 2141 K Street so just across the circle from the hospital. Sounds like finding someone maybe closer to your house for convenience might be better but I have friends who go to Dr. Hamburger and love her too. Just a thought....I hope your wife likes Macri!!

[Anonymous]

Chiming in about the awesomeness about MFA and Macri in particular. Larsen was my OB (always helpful and soothing!) but Macri did my section. Macri is fantastic -- I can't emphasize how soothing he was in the OR during an emergency c-section. I hope your wife loves him too!