Carolina Kids Pediatrics — Local services in Raleigh

My daughter has been a patient of Dr. Jeff Tanaka since December of 2011. We've had pleasant experiences with the office in that time. We haven't been there very much past well visits. A few month's ago we had a visit (our first for 2014) and at the end of the visit I was met with two very rude staff members at the front. I was informed that I would have to supply them with my Social Security Number or pay in full for the visit every single time we came through that door.

So as anyone knows supplying anyone with your social security number is just asking for identity theft and this happens very often in doctor offices. So I declined politely and someone, who was not introduced to me, was fetched and came over very rudely and explained all of this in a very rude manner.

I didn't want to risk the event that a sitter or grandparent needed to bring my child in for a visit and be unable to pay in full for the appointment on the spot, so I allowed myself to be bullied into supplying my social security number.

I left the appointment disappointed and furious. I was angry with the staff and I was incredibly angry with myself that I allowed some staff member to push me into something that was ridiculously risky for my entire future financial status.

Since that appointment in April I had been looking into other offices. My daughter came down with a cold this past week and I brought her in. At the end of my visit I was checking out and the staff member, who was friendly, let me know that we had a balance on our account. I had not received a bill as of yet so I politely responded with 'I don't have my HSA checkbook on me, but once we get the bill in the mail I'll make sure to send it in'. I barely had finished the sentence when the same incredibly rude employee from the last encounter suddenly joined the conversation. She very pushingly started telling me to call in when I got home and give the office my HSA debit card number.

Today, about 4 days after visit 2 we received a bill in the mail for the visit from 4/8/2014 and the visit on 5/16/2014.

I have relayed all of the information to everyone I had recommended the office to. I have relayed all of the information to my husband who also agrees with me.

So sadly, unless the office changes their entire billing policy our family will be leaving the practice. I hope the practice isn't suffering financially, but given this sudden change and pushy employee my guess is that they are and this is how they are attempting to make up their losses, but it's just alienating...

Unprofessional. I waited 2 months to get my records sent over from Duke’s medical records in hopes of transferring care. They never called Duke’s to see what the problems were. After two weeks I called and fixed the problem. Then we were waiting on growth charts that weren’t sent from Duke’s. No one followed up or notified me of options. They knew I was trying to change services and I printed out my kids’ records myself with their heights and weights in gave it to them in person, but they needed the same information on a chart. I couldn’t get my kids’ an appointment that they needed because they wanted the same information in a chart form. And they stood behind their policy of waiting for all medical records until making an appointment. Duke’s is also responsible for not sending records in a timely manner. But they said they knew about that problem with Duke but seemed to not to not follow up with them. They said they try to take care of this stuff so we (parents) don’t have to. I don’t see the action behind your statement. Really it is just unprofessional and inefficient to not keep calling medical records at Duke like I was. I followed up countless times wi the this office and Duke Medical Records, and had some progress but only thanks to me. I waited about 2-3 weeks to find out it wasn’t even faxed properly to this office. Then I took it upon myself to followup. Only to find out at this point we are still waiting on charts. This office did nothing but state their policy to me that they can’t make an appointment until all records are sent. I have been a nurse for over 13 years working in varied fields including an office as well. And I never get angry with fellow healthcare workers, I did this time. Clearly they are not taught how to obtain and follow up on obtaining records. They need to be properly trained that is all. I know because I used to do what they do. It’s not that they don’t care, but they need to take responsibility for their part. l highly recommend not going here. Nothing is upgraded, no apps for efficient communication, faxing is old fashioned (not eFax) which makes it harder on other offices to send information. You can find good doctors anywhere, but how an office is run is more important so you have less headaches.

Also, found another pediatrician office and drove over there with the copies of records I do have in hand and they accepted my kids. Made an appointment for the same month. Got that taken care of in less than an hour versus 2...

I had a issue with this dr office a couple of months ago...prior to now. I wrote a review and of course someone reached out to me, to speak about the matter, which we did and at the end of our conversation I was asked to remove my post (so basically that's why I got a phone call) not because they had concerns of the patient well being but for the look of the office. I spoke to my child's father about the matter and he suggested I give them another try..so I did. Well here we are again, my child had been coughing on and off for 2 weeks so I decided it was time to take him in. I called at 5pm (which they close at 6) to see if they could see my child because at this point the coughing starting back, eyes red, stuffy nose etc. Told them I'd be there at 5:30, the nurse called back and stated that if my child was breathing ok then I just needed to make an appt the next day, I wasn't comfortable with that because I know what my child looked like and could tell the symptoms were getting worse, so after being transferred back up front to make the appt, I refused because I was close by, I was then put back on the phone with the nurse (getting passed around at this point) she stated that they "typically let kids cough for up to 3 weeks before bringing them in" well that was a lie, in the previous appt the dr's have told me if it persist for 2 weeks then come back (who in the heck let's their child cough for 3 weeks????????) she then said... "well are closing soon" even though I told her I would be there at 5:30, that was the last time I would ever call this md office for anything, I then realized they don't care about the well being of a child. So I ended up at the mini clinic and it turns out my child had pink eye and bad sinus infection. I am happy to say we have a new dr's office that I can tell actually cares about the well-being of their patients and not just clocking in and clocking out. The new dr office even tried to squeeze us in 30 mins before their closing time which let me know that I made the right decision in making sure my child's health is...