How far do you or would you travel for a good pediatrician

We moved almost a year ago. I loved my former pediatrician. He is about an hour away and there is no guarantee I would see him for sick visits, the other 3 doctors are not worth traveling that far.

Office 1: We never saw and MD only an NP and my DD's ENT was appauled b/c of my DD's recurring ear infections, history of tubes and asthma.

Office 2: Most dr's unfriendly to little kids, but one actually called me fat and insisted my kids go on diets b/c I must feed them garbage. I am not kidding. My kids eat an organic low fat diet and are by far not overweight at all. My youngest is in the 20th weight percentile and 25th height and my oldest was being watched a one time b/c of some weight loss that corrected itself (she had dropped from the 75th % for both weight and height to 75th for height and 25th weight), but she is not overweight. I joined WW and left that practice.

We are currently on Pediatrician #3. This one has got to go. She has made me and my 3 year old very uncomfortable, she is an OCD germ a phobe type. Too much! She is very critical, not thorough, critical. She is very odd and not at all sympathetic to toddlers. She also made a comment that was rude to my DD. I don't want to go into it, but it was mean. And my DD did undestand what she said and felt badly. So bye bye Dr. 3.

So, a good friend who has a lot of the same values as I loves her doctor. Very laid back, he's a parent himself, gets that kids aren't and should not be perfect and germs are a part of life. Not that one should sneeze and shake the hand of another, but there is reasonable and then there is quarantine your kid b/c she sucked her thumb and may pass her cuties on (I am not exaggerating, the #3 doc was appauled my 3 y.o. put her finger in her mouth and made her go wash her hands immediately, I was thinking "you really work with kids?). I got the info on my friend's doc and did mapquest and doctor is 37 minutes away from me. I'm not sure if that's a good idea, but I am out of ideas, and almost out of pediatricians near me (LOL). What to do?

Re: How far do you or would you travel for a good pediatrician

DS' ped is a 30 minute drive away. We like them, but hate the commute there. Recently my DH has been upset about the waiting time (you wait very little in the waiting room, but once you're in the room you wait like 20 minutes). DH feels that's too long.

I like that the sick visits are completely separate from well visits (2 different floors) so the sick kids never interact with the well kids.

I don't like that the offices are pretty tight and now that DS walks, he kinda has a fit waiting in the small rooms.

What we generally do now is that we take him for his well visits. At 19 months, they aren't that often. I think we go back when he turns 2.

When he's sick, we usually take him to PM Pediatrics. It's only 15 minutes from us, super clean/new, virtually no wait, etc. When he was recently diagnosed with pneumonia at the ER, we did take him to his ped for the followup.

This works for us for now. The commute there and back sucks, but we're happy with how they care for DS so it's worth it for now. Sounds like it might be worth it for you too to have a doctor that will care for your DC the way that you want!!!

Re: How far do you or would you travel for a good pediatrician

Wow. Those stories are insane. My ped is 20 minutes from my house. I wouldn't go much further than that because with traffic sometimes it's a pain in the butt.

Re: How far do you or would you travel for a good pediatrician

Ours is 15 minutes away. I don't think I'd travel further than that... but there are LOTS of pediatric groups in my area. If you like this doc, then switch. At least you'll know your kids are in good hands.

Re: How far do you or would you travel for a good pediatrician

Mine are a 35-45 min drive away WITHOUT traffic. We used to be about 15 mins from them) and just can't see going anywhere else. They are awesome. It's hard to gain my trust and they fully have it. So we plan to continue to go to them.

Message edited 10/21/2011 1:43:45 PM.

Re: How far do you or would you travel for a good pediatrician

@ LoveyQ, is PM pediatrics available during the day or is it only evening/after hours emergencies? Are the visits charged as office visit or ER visit? ER copay is much much higer. I could not imagine $150 every time somene has an ear infection at an emergency center or something vs $20 for every office visit. With 2 kids, there are times I am at the dr. for sick visits twice in a week during the winter months. If PM is an option for all sick visits I may just go back to my old dr... he had actually suggested I do that, but for some reason I had in my head PM Pediatrics was a type of emergency after hours kind of thing. Do you make appointments there? Is there a long wait?

Sorry for all the questions. I know of them but never used them.

Re: How far do you or would you travel for a good pediatrician

Our ped is about 10mins from our house, which is great for our weekend well visits.

They are about 40mins from ILs house, who watch DDs during the week so if there is a sick visit they usually end up taking them.

I have no problem traveling for a good doctor. If you feel good about this new dr, then go for it. You have to be comfortable.

Re: How far do you or would you travel for a good pediatrician

we love our ped

last time we waited 2 hours in waiting room to see our ped, one of the moms told me, she only comes to this office because she has an infant who sleeps through everything, but if she was taking her toddler she'd take him to the other office 1 hour away.

I don't know whats worse 1 hour commute or 2 hour wait

The thing I know for sure, if we had an emergency, we would be seen in 10 seconds.

Re: How far do you or would you travel for a good pediatrician

We moved over 2 yrs ago and we now travel 30 min. to get there. We've been going to him since my 1st was born and I LOVE his Ped. I can't say that I like everyone in the group but we always request our favorite doctor. It's a hike, but worth it. I don't know about an hour though. It depends on how often you go there. We don't go often since the baby is getting older.

Re: How far do you or would you travel for a good pediatrician

We are 20-30 min away. Its a bit frustrating when I need to just pick up a form or copy...but when they get older they go less often.

Re: How far do you or would you travel for a good pediatrician

I love my ped a lot, she is about a 1/2 hour away. She is the only Dr in the office and these days that is hard to find so I probably would travel if I lived a little further away. I would never go to the Dr who I felt was rude or unfriendly to my child. If I were you I'd look for someone else all together.

Re: How far do you or would you travel for a good pediatrician

Wantagh to RVC.

Wouldn't change for anything.

Re: How far do you or would you travel for a good pediatrician

Our ped is 20 mins although there are plenty right here- but he is a solo and we NEVER wait more than 5-10 minutes. I would not drive far for a long wait for a group where I only loved one dr.

Re: How far do you or would you travel for a good pediatrician

We travel an hour one way for our ped, only because I like her and no doctors in my area are accepting new patients right now and the only one that is I had a bad experinece with.

Re: How far do you or would you travel for a good pediatrician

When we were looking I decided I wanted someone in m neighborhood...no highway or travel time. Our pediatrician is @ a mile away.

Re: How far do you or would you travel for a good pediatrician

Ours is 35 min away with no traffic; about an hour with, but we have a hospital 3 minutes from our house.

For us, having access to the best peds in the region was more important than the distance they were from our house. We haven't regretted our choice.

Re: How far do you or would you travel for a good pediatrician

about 30 min.

Dr. Rubin in Mineola...she is the best

Re: How far do you or would you travel for a good pediatrician

Ours is 10 minutes away. I wouldn't pick a ped more than 15-20 minutes away. I want to be able to get there ASAP when he is sick, instead of driving that far, KWIM?

Re: How far do you or would you travel for a good pediatrician

our ped was 5-10 minutes away, we moved. Now it's about 30-40 minutes away. We're staying with our ped's office because we like most of the dr's and np's there and the local closer choices leave much to be desired.

IMO, under an hour is as far as I would drive for a good dr.