Children's National Shepherd Park

"Been going to children’s for 4 years with our two kids. The care is pretty good but the service is comically bad. Like going back in time to a place before computers. Making an appointment takes hours and in my 4 years coming they have never ever ever been able to see me on time. Sometimes you will wait an hour. Doctor will come, order shots and that takes another 30 minutes. Do they anticipate in advance to have shots ready? Definitely not that’s something they are working on and will be ready in 10-20 years. It doesn’t seem like they even care nor is timeliness a metric they measure. You should not have to block out a half day for a 15 minute child’s checkup. Staff seems overworked and unhappy, a sign of poor management. Update: 1. After my last routine check up with my daughter, the nurse took her vitals. 2. Doctor came and said hmm, her height seems to be off the charts. My daughter is tall but off the charts seems impossible on a percentile chart. I get a call the next day from a nurse. Your daughters blood pressure reading was very high, it's likely a mistake so please come in and take it again. It was a mistake, and so was their original height measurement. How did this go unnoticed by the nurse and the doctor? It's likely because they don't communicate with each, they only communicate via computer. I can no longer recommend them for primary care, it's too chaotic."

"Had an appointment at 9:30am for my son's lead testing. My child wasn't seen until 10:45am. Then the nurse who saw him didn't get enough blood My child was already uncomfortable because of the wait it was past his nap time. Etc. This location needs to do better with appointment times. And train nurses better when it comes to taking blood from toddlers"

"Routinely impossible to get anyone on the phone and that is the only way to make or adjust appointments. If you call, prepare to sit on hold for a very, very long time. This has been my experience going on two years now. As a side-note, doctor's scheduling availability isn't provided very far in advance, so for example if you have an appt today and they tell you to come back in 3 months for a check-up, you can't actually make the appointment. You have to remember to do it yourself weeks or months later once availability is released, and then your only way of doing it is by calling a phone number that nobody ever picks up. My wife and I literally take turns calling on back to back days trying to get through. I often wait for over thirty minutes. That's not an exception. That's the norm. Usually after 30-45 minutes I hang up and try calling a different time the next day. Truly a terrible admin experience, and as you know, ease of communication/coordination is everything in a working relationship."

"Good luck getting a call back from their billing department. I am repeatedly told that they will call be back but they never do. I am still waiting for a call back about a billing dispute and they are slow rolling the records transfer process. We always had to wait past the appointment time (sometimes 45 minutes past)"

"The is the worst facility in their network. My skin had an appointment at 9:40 and we didn’t get out there until 2pm. We hade a residential Dr that clearly is not ready to be licensed in an facility here with kids ( she ordered 4 shots for my son and a urine test for my son never explaining to me the purpose so I requested for the Dr on call we let’s say everyone not perfect cause she fell short in a few areas too as I didn’t get my son’s updated vaccination card but I also explained this is second booster should he have a third and we are still waiting on an alternative medicine that the insurance will cover for his adhd / impulsive behavior Dr.neshkes. Also when given our resources make sure you include Dc not just md and Va. I hope some reaches out for u can further explain my terrible experience."