Kids & Teens Medical Group

This place turns a 1 year old patient away because of their new policy of up front payment of $ 125 that I could not pay at the moment. Despite having sensational medical insurance that covers everything. Their POLICY is to turn away an established patient who needs medical treatment.
I would think again before ever brining my children here if I were you. Never ever again. I’m horrified that this place considers itself a «medical practice.» Look elsewhere. You have fair warning.

This place is a delightful travel through time and space. Outside the building, you will be at the low points of 70s construction, looking like a 70s elementary school complex. Step inside and be greeted at the desk (eventually) by a surly government worker from the former Soviet Union. Fill out forms in quadruplicate like you’re in the sci-​fi movie Brazil. And then wait. And wait, and wait, as you are in purgatory, and you will never, never see the doctor. 10 years ago, we did get to see the doctor, who was a nasty older guy. This time (because of a change in our insurance), we found ourselves back in hell, hoping to see a younger woman doctor. Finally, 40 minutes after our appointment time, the receptionist informed us that we were next in line — to be taken to an internal waiting cell, where we would further wait until the doctor saw a couple of more people before us. I looked around and saw no armed guards, and we beat a hasty retreat.

It is impossible to get your doctor on the phone — is that the kind of pediatric practice you want? My 11 month old was very sick with double ear infections and having a serious allergic reaction to his antibiotic and I called twice to try to speak to my doctor and didn’t receive a call back. When I drove from West Hollywood to the office in Pasadena I was told that I couldn’t be seen without an appointment and would have to wait over 3 hours. If they had called me back, I would have been happy to make an appointment. This practice has several offices and they use an answering service for all of the office. You can’t call your office directly. And every time I have left a message, I have failed to receive a call back. It’s horrible.

My three girls have been coming for years, they are great doctors here and the staff treat you well

Let me start of by saying that Orlando Ayala, the PA there, is great. He has been wonderful with our daughter and is super relaxed and friendly.
That being said, the wait times are ridiculous. I’ve had an appointment every time I’ve gone and it still takes 1.5−2 hours just to get into an exam room and then you still end up waiting for the doctor. There was once that it took me 2 hours to get into an exam room and then I waited another 45 minutes to see the doctor. When the doctor finally came in, she wasn’t the doctor I had made an appointment with. I was told the original doctor was too busy! What’s the point in me even having an appointment?! That was also on a day when my appointment was at their opening time. There were only three other people signed in when I got there so I have no idea why it took forever for me to be seen.
Some of the office staff aren’t great either. Two of the times we made appointments, the lady would ask if a certain time was Ok and would then write down a different time. When we got our reminder call for the appointment, the time was different again.
Unfortunately as much as we like Dr Ayala, the wait times are unacceptable. We’ve had to look elsewhere for pediatric care.

The issue with you refusing to transfer our medical records has now been referred to our lawyer.

My three kids have been patients of Dr. De Silva for 10 years! I am speechless of how an amazing job she does, and she’s an exceptional and dedicated doctor, always there for my kids. She always gives us the best care. I’m so grateful for her because she’s a lifesaver my kids have asthma and she’s always found a solution for them. She has an amazing staff including herself, Dr. Hilma Benjamin, and Dr. Benjamin Azaran. They have gave us amazing and dedicated care for 10 years. It’s the best attention and care my kids and I have ever received! There are no better doctors than them three. I appreciate them from the bottom of my heart for taking care of alisson, Elmer and Kevin. There’s no way to repay their hard work all I can say thank you! I love you guys! Exceptional Job– Peña Family

The location is great, clean and convenient Doctors & staff are courteous & articulate. They take med Cal & other insurances. This is our 3^rd year and its the same. Unfortunately their (actual) services sucks! Doctors gives too much medicine. I have to keep calling them for prescriptions & letters for my kids. The staff never calls back or leaves an update of status, Doctors rarely calls back if I request them to or have questions for them. if your kids has more needs & paper works, I suggest better off finding another one. Waiting time depends on services you render & insurance you carry (with appointment) .One time the doctor didnt see my kiddo (by appointment) cos she was busy with walk ins. We waited 1.5 hours & then left. Would be good to know where to go with complaints & grievances cos i would like to do that.

Ugh, this place sucked. My daughter appeared to have a UTI (turns out not). The regular urgent care we go to has giant lines, so I figured we’d try a new place. On this place’s website, it says «We take all insurance,» but I wasn’t willing to just trust the site, so I called them up and gave them our insurance info. It’s all good. So on a rainy Saturday night, I drag my four year old daughter up to this place. We are literally the only people there, other than the lady behind the counter, but it still takes her ten minutes to serve us. When she finally gets around to it, she spends twenty minutes checking us in, only to reveal that they don’t take our insurance. This is literally the same woman I talked to on the phone. Thirty minutes I sat in this place with my sick and exhausted toddler, only to find out that they couldn’t serve us. At least the other place only has lines. Sheesh.

I went to the office of Dr. Paul Fliess because I liked his philosophy in pediatric medicine. But after a few months and a lot of changes when he passed away I realized that this new practice was NOTHING that Dr. Fliess had intended. I imagine his kids sold his practice without a care in the world to follow his legacy of what he intended it to be. Sad… BUT I did find his assistant Dr. Greenberg in Pasadena. Haven’t seen her yet but am happy to hear she’s still practicing in pediatrics.

Interesting… I posted a bad review for this business under its other alias (Children’s Clinic Pasadena) for its front end staff’s incompetence and now they blocked my phone number… Is that even legal??? How do I know they blocked my number… I tried calling both numbers they listed for this business many times now and it automatically disconnects before even ringing. I thought it was weird so I tried using my wife’s phone (which is not on their record) and just like magic, it rings and someone picks up… I hung up of course. No further need to talk to anyone from here. I don’t plan on taking my child to a business where if they don’t like you, they just block your number so you can’t call in. Just plain childish!

I love coming here from the very beginning they were so nice it’s great that they’re also open after hours for urgent care the nurses are so nice and helpful my son is yet to cry at his check ups haha

1 out of 5 because apparently you can’t rate lower than 1.
This is a great place if you feel that your time with your sick child is best spent in the waiting room. We waited for over 90 MINUTES for a doctor to see our 2-​year-​old (who had a fever of over 103). And that was WITH AN APPOINTMENT that we showed up 10 minutes early for. Absolutely unacceptable. I partly blame myself for not just leaving.
Like others, we followed from Dr. Fleiss’s office after he passed away and even before they moved to Pasadena the service was terrible (45 – 60 minute wait times WITH AN APPOINTMENT), save for the one great nurse who weighs, measures, and vaccinates the children. I’m really sorry that I can’t remember her name because she is truly wonderful.
I’ve only ever written 2 other reviews (both 5 star) but I felt extremely compelled to write this so that others can avoid this place like the plague (pun not intended).

I would prefer to give –5 stars. Do yourselves a favor parents– avoid at all costs!!!
We followed the staff of Dr Fleiss when they shut down the Los Feliz office. (Honestly I stayed for one amazing nurse.)
Since the new practice took over, they have messed up our vaccination records in their system twice, extended the wait time to over an hour, and now denied seeing my 4wk old unless we pay out of pocket while his insurance is processing. (We have 3 other children all on the same insurance that had been going to this practice. Are you kidding me???)
Today’s visit was the last straw. It was the second time I’ve trekked here in the 90+ degree heat with a newborn. (The first time I was locked out while they were at lunch. Once we were let in, we waited an hour to see a doctor though we were assured we had the first appointment. Newborn who just got out of NICU + germ exposure for one hour= very pissed mama.)
No one called me today to say there was an issue with our insurance. I could have dealt with it ahead of time! Insurance confirmed they were still processing his registration because we just received his social security number last week and promptly sent it in. Oh and all of this just for a weigh in. They wouldn’t even put him on the scale when I refused to pay up front.
Never going back to this practice again!

I find it fascinating the business will blame my insurance being problem, yet does not address the level of incompetence for the first THREE appointments that were mishandled. Insurance was never brought up, nor even checked. It was the final straw considering it was never mentioned in any of the previous visits we were turned away. Had insurance been the core of the problems I have with this business, then there would be no negative review to begin with. The review would have been with the insurance company. It is the way the front office has fouled up three appointments in a row, a lack of communication regarding what is and is not provided on «open clinic» times, and now a complete lack of accountability. Reading the other single-​star reviews shows this is not an isolated situation.
No owning up to mistakes made by the front office. No owning up to a lack of communication on their end. «Its not our fault. It’s your insurance… even though we never checked it the first three times we screwed up your appointments which is the real reason you have a negative review»
I find the deflection of blame an insult to my myself and to the readers of the review who can read between the lines.

We followed a wonderful pediatrician to this practice and while we always appreciated her quality of care this office runs so much more efficiently than the office she was in prior. In fact, I adore her so much I’m hesitant to say her name for fear she might get over booked.
SOME OBSERVATIONS:
— Parking is easy and free (hey it’s the little things).
— They accept most insurances, for a full list check their site here:
(nice that they list the accepted insurances upfront so you don’t have to call to ask)
— The office is in a well maintained older building and upon entering I appreciated the spaciousness of the lobby and the warm feeling. I did not see a separate sick area but it did not apply to us so I could have missed it. I could not help but wonder how they have an urgent care with cloth couches and chairs in the waiting area. (perhaps I’m germaphobic)
— The nurses and front office staff were very warm and did a great job communicating with me as well as my daughter.
— Booking appointments is a breeze and there aren’t long waits. I was able to book a full physical with the pediatrician of my choice the same week, I was able to get an appointment with a specialist within a week.
— I was not charged insane fees for a very detailed camp health form.
— When you call it is easy to get a human on the phone. I called tonight after 7PM thinking I would get a nurse line or page the doctor but my call was answered right away and problem solved right there on the spot.
— What a BONUS that they offer Urgent Care with my child’s records right there in the office!!!
AREAS OF POSSIBLE IMPROVEMENT:
— I have been to two different offices and the Pasadena office feels significantly nicer (and more spacious) than the Northridge location.
— Also while we LOVE my daughter’s pediatrician in the Pasadena office the allergist at Kids & Teens (in Northridge) where I was referred left much to be desired.
OVERALL:
Healthcare and insurance has changed and there will be speed bumps along the way. Kids and Teens accepting so many different insurances makes me feel more confident that I will be able to have continuity in my child’s health care.
Kids and Teens operates more similar in feel to Kaiser than to a small holistic pediatric practice which has many pros but also some cons especially (judging by the reviews) for those coming from Dr. Fleiss’s office. I feel our pediatrician cares about my daughter’s well being just as much as other holistic doctors I have seen in the past and has a huge support network in place to keep her healthy a thriving.

We are very happy with the service and the staff. We have been taking our little since he was a newborn. The nurse are very gentle with him and it makes us parent at peace. The doctors are very thorough with his checkup. As a new parent we have a lot of questions to ask and they were very nice about it. They answered all our questions and didn’t rush us.
Scheduling an appointment is flexible and convenient. They will called you a day ahead to remind you.
One of the downside is that they don’t open on weekend for regular visit. It is only urgent care and the copay is too expensive.

I was a loyal Dr. Paul Fleiss mother. Both of my children have been with him since they were born. To our sad dismay he passed away and his office was scooped up by the Kids and Teens Medical Group.
The saddest part of this scoop up is that it has been a very impersonal experience. There are several doctors with this practice so depending on the day and time you will get any of 3 or 4 different doctors.
Also it’s a large group which means you are now on an «assembly line». Today I went to our usual office expecting to see the doctor; when I found the office empty and a for sale sign on the lawn. I called the usual number and the VM said they still existed in Los Feliz. Not the case, they moved to Pasadena. No phone call or email stating they were moving despite the fact that they have my phone number and email in their big computer data base now.
So I went to their Pasadena office. The restroom was so small I could hardly fit myself and my 1 year old in the same space.
I was 40 mins early on accident and I waited all of those 40 mins before anyone said anything to me (Dr. Fliess’s office would have got me in sooner) secondly the actual space itself could use an upgrade considering how large the practice is. The furniture and offices are really kind of substandard and could use a renovation.
This visit with the Dr. De silva was fine: although she said at one point she had a «gut instinct» about my sons ear infection. I’m not sure that «gut instincts» are part of normal doctoral procedures. Irregardless I didn’t disagree with anything else she said.
After we saw the doctor I waited at the front desk for nearly 15 mins while the girl tried to fix something on the computer so she could run my credit card. I didn’t want to wait anymore so I asked if I could just run over to the drug store and come right back. (It’s across the street) I said I would leave my credit card so she could run it when the computer was fixed. I came back 15 mins later to find the office completely locked with no one in sight and the lights off. What??? The office closes for 1 hour for lunch with my credit card trapped inside. Great!!! Stuck in pasadena for 1 hour with a sick child in my car. It’s was kinda surprising that she let me walk over to the pharmacy knowing I would not be able to get my credit card back for another hour. No phone call. No mention about it.
After the hour I came back pretty distraught. The girl looked like she had no idea that there was any problem and had the audacity to infer that she was there the whole time and would have come to the door if she saw me. (She was definitely not there when I came). She also could have left a note to knock or something.
Go here if you don’t mind being a number in a large group of patients. I’m moving on from Kids and Teens Medical Group.

I’m very pleased with the services provided so far. I like that the availability and hours of Urgent Care and regular appointments are schedule within the same day.
We’ve been here a few times and so far we’re very satisfied. Dr. De Silva is very patient and dedicated. My daughter feels very comfortable with the friendly staff. Overall, I’d recommend this place.
I really appreciate all your hard work.

I have 3 kids, 8, 4, 2 they are all under the care of Dr. De Silva and her staff. I could not be happier with the Pasadena office. My kids get sick a lot and they always get me in right away. They are helpful and very informative. They take their time when examining my children and that’s very reassuring as a parent to see someone care just as much as I do.
Being that I work long hours my children are no strangers to the Pasadena urgent care. The nurses are phenomenal with my kids. they are quick to get us in and out. It’s awesome because after 12 hour days that last thing I want to do is sit for hours in the urgent care :)
The Pasadena office is nothing short of excellent. Its Doctors offices like this that truly care and have the well being of our children at heart.
Thank you!!!