Pediatrician/Hospital Recommendations?

I know there are several threads about pediatricians but many are 3-4 years old and I am looking for more recent recommendations. I was wondering if anyone has any recommendations for the area pediatricians?

If possible, please respond as to why you love/tolerate/dislike a particular practice.

Also, does anyone have any thoughts on the preference of Loudoun vs. Reston hospital for children? I have to admit that I am anti-Loudoun for adults (several incidents have killed my confidence in Loudoun) but I am open to taking my child there since it's so close (and hopefully better for children than adults) -- or do people prefer Reston?

Thank you in advance!

 

For pediatric ER visits at Loudoun we've had mixed results, but more toward the bad side. The really bad experience was improper treatment of a fractured finger...resulting in our child needing a couple of incredibly painful re-settings with a "real" orthopedist (who flat out told us the ER docs made a major mistake). The fairly bad experience was with an 8-week old infant being overtreated for a fever. The good experience was with a toddler who swallowed an inappropriate object.

Of the three listed above, though, I could have handled the good experience just as well at home. The reason you go to a hospital is to receive "expert" treatment for emergencies you cannot handle at home.

Had one pediatric experience at Reston with a 4 month old who required a multi-day stay due to respiratory issues. I think the care we received there was quite good.

Regarding adults at Loudoun...I've experienced some really atrocious care there. I wouln't be surprised if Loudoun Hospital's docs routinely cause the direct deaths of patients due to mistakes.

 

After some not so great experiences and misdiagnosises with our infant son at Ashburn Peds, we moved to Reston Town Center peds 7 years ago and are thrilled with our care. One of the doctors even allows us to make the kind of parental decisions we should be allowed to make (i.e. vax scheduling, diet, etc).

We've had ok experiences with Loudoun but if there was something significant/severe, we'd be driving into Fairfax. We did that one time when our son could have had stitches on his eyelid. But when kids had croup and needed breathing treatments at 3am, we went to Loudoun.

HTH!

 

Thanks for the input about peds and hospital preferences! I actually have Reston Town Center Peds on my list of places to look so thanks for the recommendation there -- I just figured everyone stays more local for peds so I'm glad someone else ventures outside of Loudoun!

 

I know you're not asking about adult care here, but my experience could be applicable to pediatric patients as well. I had major neck/spine surgery (planned, not emergency) at Reston Hospital, and the care I received in the post-surgical unit was devastating. It was the day after my surgery and when I was getting back into my hospital bed, the nurse tech didn't put the head of the bed back in the upright position. I did not know or see this as I was concentrating so hard on holding onto my IV pole before I got into bed. Without the head of the bed to support my head and neck, my upper torso flew backward and my head was violently flung all the way back, so I had, in effect, an extreme whiplash injury (worse than in a car collision, and on top of it, it was the day after neck surgery, of all things). I was screaming in pain and asking for a nurse (not a nurse tech), but no one came except different nurse techs. I called the nurse and the director of nursing (who wrote their cell #s on the board in my room). I got the director's voice mail (she didn't come until maybe an hour later, and I knew she was on the floor and available). The nurse I called said very leisurely, "I can't come now--I'm giving pain meds to someone else." There were no other nurses available, which was amazing to me given that it was a post-surgical unit. It was maybe not until 20 minutes later that a nurse arrived. This type of injury after neck surgery was an emergency. And of course, this incident was not noted in my hospital medical records. In Virginia, as far as I know, it's not required to include hospital "accidents" in the records, so while it may appear that a hospital is excellent from polls and ratings, negligence can happen there like anywhere else, you just won't hear about it. Here it is, a year later, and I have permanent painful nerve damage from my neck down to my arm, and I lost my job as a result of the 24/7 blinding migraines and dizziness I had for many months afterwards, and not being able to work. On the other hand, I've had good experiences at Loudoun/Lansdowne, both in the ER and while admitted to the hospital overnight.

 

I have lots of friends who go to RTC Peds from Loudoun so you are not alone. 10 minutes down the toll road is worth it for the best care for my kids.

Keep in mind that over the years, they have only accepted new patients as newborns; you can move siblings over when there's a newborn. But only way you'll find out current status is by calling them and asking.

The practice is also very reputable with specialists and they've been able to get my kids in within 24 hours - ortho, ENT, GI.