Amber Forster

Review of Primary Children's Medical Cen...

Our family has been to PCMC many times over the la...

Our family has been to PCMC many times over the last four years for multiple specialties. I am very conflicted as to what rating to give because some departments are run well while others are extremely unorganized. I chose a one star rating because depending on what specialty your child needs, you may or may not get high blood pressure from the stress of dealing with reps who have no idea what they are doing and will cause endless problems with scheduling appointments and tests. Oh, and if your child's need is urgent, even high priority can leave you waiting months for anything, depending what specialty you're looking at. If you're okay with leaving your child in pain for months then not getting treatment, come here.
The ER has always been very quick to see both of our children and thorough. We have always appreciated the ER doctors taking time to answer all of our questions and make sure we are comfortable going home with everything from stomach flu symptoms to what to watch for after a seizure. The outpatient labs have always been amazing with drawing blood from a newborn or toddler. The one visit we have had to the Cardiology department left both my spouse and I impressed. This department seems to be run very well. Dermatology seems to be run with precision as well.
I wish all the departments were run as well as cardiology and dermatology. We have had multiple appointments with gastroenterology and neurology for one child. The neurology receptionists were so overwhelmed by scheduling tests, checking patients in for appointments and scheduling follow up appointments that nothing was done correctly. The neurologist was extremely knowledgeable, kind, patient and explained our options very well. Although the physician was great, dealing with his office was a nightmare.This was extremely stressful in addition to the actual medical condition we were there to treat.
In gastroenterology, I have seen many changes through the last three years as the clinic has moved from inside the hospital to the outpatient clinic. The wait time has remained consistent at about three months for new or established patients. This is unacceptable. The number parents call to schedule an appointment is a call center off campus. I feel this removes any responsibility from the reps who deal with parents of chronically ill children. This system has caused endless frustration for my family as we have had to deal with endless incompetence from the call center reps. On my last appointment, after waiting months to be seen while my child was in pain and losing weight, we arrived to find somehow we had been rescheduled and instead of being ten minutes early, we were hours late. No doctor in the GI practice could see us and we were told to reschedule and wait an additional two months. After telling the receptionist I was about to walk out and take our business elsewhere after all of the incompetence, lack of urgency, apathy and lack of medical treatment, she talked repeatedly with the physicians and we were seen. I had hope our daughter would finally get the medical treatment needed only to find physicians pointing fingers at each other, again, as no one knows what is wrong or what to do. Meanwhile, we are left with a child with chronic GI issues and other chronic health issues that we feel we do most of the treatment for.
For years now I have attempted to seek medical treatment here locally for my child while getting told no treatment is available for most of her medical diagnoses and feeling left on our own trying to manage her care. We are now going to go out of state for her medical care to medical professionals who will at least try treatment for her complex diagnoses.