Children First Pediatrics

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Dr. Ferguson and her staff are a great group of Pediatricians; we've been very happy with the care they've provided our son; from the day he was born until present, he's about to turn 2!

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I think they are pretty good.  We just see any doctor or nurse there.

Great. Dr. Porras and the rest of the crew is wonderful.

I called the office at 3:20 p.m. and asked for the next sick child appointment. They had one available at 4 p.m. We arrived and waited only 3 minutes before being called back to the examination room. A nurse took my daughter's temperature and gave her some children's Motrin. The doctor came in a few minutes later and examined my daughters ears and throat, concluding that Z did in fact have two ear infections. She sent a prescription to our pharmacy right then and there, with instructions to come back at the end of the end of the week if I did not see an improvement. We were in and and out in under 30 minutes, which meant I was able to have Z examined and medicated in one hour of deciding to make an appointment.

We saw several different doctors to get a feel for the practice.  None spent much time with us and I felt like it was too big of a practice to ever connect with any one person.   As new parents, we had lots of questions.  Every single pediatrician we saw seemed annoyed at the number of questions we had and dismissive at best.  The only person we loved there was a nurse practitioner and lactation consultant who left to join another practice.  She was the ONLY person in this practice who took our concerns seriously, spent time explaining everything she possibly could to us, and had plenty of compassion to go around.
Vaccines -- when our baby went in for vaccines, he was laid down on a table, injected, and cried for 45 minutes.  If someone had just mentioned that it would soothe him if I breastfed him while he received his vaccines, I certainly would have done that.  At our new practice, that was their first piece of advice and it worked like a charm.
When our son had his first serious health issue, we were written off and told to check back in with them in a week.  We quickly changed practices, were referred to Children's Hospital because our baby wasn't able to eat well, and our baby was finally given the medical attention he needed.  I would never recommend Children First to a friend.  Yes, they have lots of appeal on Angie's List but that wasn't our experience with them at all.

Scheduling is easy and Dr. Erica Rupar is excellent with babies.  She is very knowledgeable and she communicates clearly and efficiently.

Visit was great, practice is great.  The doctor spent as much time with us as we needed.  Came with a list of questions and she answered them all and didn't rush us out.  We selected this practice by default when our son was born a month premature - they were the only practice we had interviewed.  They have a lactation consultant on staff who was a godsend in the first month!!
They have been extremely understanding about our desire to follow a modified vaccination schedule.
The staff is all very professional and polite - we never wait more than 5 minutes in the waiting room.  I appreciate that they have evening hours two nights a week.
They have been very accommodating when we needed a sick visit.  My only area for improvement would be that when you call for a same day sick appt, the wait on the phone can be very long and sometimes the line is busy and you have to keep calling back.
Would recommend this practice.  Have not been to the Silver Spring location.

Dr Rupar is simply the best!  She takes the time to listen to all our questions and answers them all completely.  She has great bedside manner and my son loves her.  Because she really takes the time with each patient she tends to run a bit behind schedule - but worth it to get someone who really answers all your questions.  Especially for a first time parent!

The office was great. We were seen close to on time and the doctor even snuck in to see my newborn before going to her next appointment. She was able to do a quick diagnosis and send in our perscriptions. Love the doctors here. All of them are very friendly and knowledgable. Overall, timing could be better. Sometimes you do sit in a room for awhile waiting for the doctor, but do they do try to get you into a room and not in the waiting room.

I went well. Children's First was able to meet my needs for a timely completion of the required exam and form.

Although the doctor we saw (I don't rememeber the name) was not as good as our previous pediatrician, she did a good job and interacted well with my son. The waiting room(s) are open and bright, but there was nothing to keep small (all) children busy except a TV playing a movie. Thankfully we weren't in the waiting room for more than a few minutes. We were taken to the exam room where the nurse got my son's height/weight/etc. The doctor came in and did a short, but routine exam and we were done.

The experience is excellent.

The experience is excellent.

Everything was just so easy here. They responded to my appointment request via email - which was my choice and fantastic. they were on time when we arrived and the non-medical staff were really nice and helpful - usually not the case these days, for what ever reason. Dr. Dorsey was great - asked lots of questions, talked directly to my son, gave us plenty of her time for concerns. We had to have lab work and the staff was very helpful at directing us to a lab and making sure all the paperwork got to the appropriate places afterward. We were new to Silver Spring...glad we found this practice for our family.

The team at Children First has been great. Every level of the organization operates in a manner that's both professional and personable -- feel like the people there are incredibly competent and caring on a personal level.

Check-ups are efficient. Our daughter's primary pediatrician is wonderful. The pediatricians we've seen for sick visits have been great too. And the nurses are fantastic -- really good with the kids, very kind. Both doctors and nurses are very patient and thorough when explaining what they're looking for, what we should look for between visits, what might be wrong and how/why they treat things the way they do.

The office staff is also excellent -- friendly, efficient and on point.

The only category I graded 'down' to a B was punctuality -- mainly because, like most doctor's offices, appointments don't always go off on time. But even the punctuality aspect is generally still good and certainly no worse than typical.

All in all, highly recommended. We feel very fortunate to have Children First for our daughter.

During our two visits with her, we have found Dr Fishman to be an excellent doctor who speaks from her vast experience as both a doctor and a mother. During wellness visits, she takes the time to address all parental concerns and provide guidance going forward. The only down-side to this practice is that there seems to be at least a 30 min wait between arrival and seeing a doctor no matter what time of day or who you see..

Children First Pediatrics' pediatricians have all been very easy to talk to and my son felt comfortable with them. The waiting area is typical of other offices. The waiting room has a fish tank and a TV.

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We really love the practice. They have a number of excellent doctors, and so, even for a sick visit, you always get a good doctor. It’s not a matter of liking only a particular doctor in the practice. They are very responsive and the nurses are wonderful. If you call for information or with questions, they’ll take time with you and be helpful to you. We’ve actually been saved a number of visits because the nurses made suggestions that worked out, and we never had to make the sick visit. The longest I’ve ever waited in their office is around 10 or 15 minutes, which is pretty amazing for doctors around here. I have had some minor issues with the billing and administration division.

After a severe sore throat lasted a few days, we called in they got us an appt. within 24 hours. Routine, efficient exam. No strep. But we slept better knowing it was just a virus. We've been using the Children First practice for several years. Very satisfied with everything, except earlier we had some insurance/billing hassles, now resolved.

They get an A+ from me.