Children's National Pediatricians & Associates Capitol Hill — Local services in Washington

I really cannot recommend this practice if you have another option. The doctors are good, but the administrative staff and nurses I have interacted with over the last 2 years have always made this practice a pain to deal with. For example, today they closed their phone line about 30 minutes early, which means they are leaving patients without care because their ‘nurse line’ for after hours care is unavailable until 5pm. The after hours person explained to me that they could not help me until 5pm, but they called the capital hills office to see if they could get through. They did and I was put in touch with a lady, I told her i’d like to speak with a nurse, and she responded ‘you can tell me your problem and I’ll see if I can help you.’ I explained my situation and asked what I should look out for in order to know if I need to take my son to the ER. She responded ‘oh you have a medical question’ and put me on hold. Then the line was disconnected.

Since I have time before being able to get access to their ‘after hours’ nurse line, because it is still the capitol hills open hours… i’m writing this review.

This is very typical behavior by their admin staff. We are moving soon, otherwise I would have switched...

I have refrained from submitting a review for years, but today I feel compelled. I want to preface this review by stating that the doctors here are great. I have never had an issue with any practitioner I have seen. I will even extend this to the nurses. We had a few issues with how a nurse was recording my child’s growth information incorrectly (we would repeatedly get the same nurse who would make errors) but all other nurses are fine.

However, the front desk is abysmal. Their attitude is so inappropriate for the front facing portion of an office that it is shocking. Further confusing because the Foggy Bottom location does not have the same issue. On more than one occasion the front desk has been rude, dismissive and combative, which is an odd adjective to even have to use at a children’s doctors office. The incident today was so abhorrent that I am considering looking elsewhere for care for my children because professionalism is lacking from the people who, in some ways, I interact with most...

It would help if they didn’t keep accepting new patients when they can’t support their existing patients. I call and leave messages that go unanswered, send messages via the portal that take weeks for a response, and conveniently no one answers the phone when they are supposed to be open in the morning, or in the evening, and they close phone service during lunch. I’ve had to on 5 occasions go across town to Urgent Care because they can’t take sick appointments either. They blame the pandemic, but every time I’ve been in there staff are meandering the hallways. The care is mediocre at best, and one doctor we saw via telemedicine was horrifically inappropriate and despite my formal complaint against her there was no recourse or even follow up. DC children deserve better than the attitudes and lack of care that office dishes out. It shouldn’t take months to fulfill an appointment request for a well visit. Those should be planned for and not brushed aside to take on...