Pediatrics Northwest PS

This is a wonderful practice for your children. I took my first set of children and I had a surprise in my older age and brought my bundle back!
Dr Gary Tart is my favorite Doctor ! He saw my first set of children and he now sees my new bundle! Dr Tart is very friendly to his young patients and families. He will discuss any concerns parents have.
Matthew works at the front desk and he is great. He is very friendly.

My children have been coming here for years from my teenagers to my newborn now.

I tried another provider at this clinic since they had so many I asked for a change. We went to Dr. Mendoza who also got us in with their Asthma specialist (At the Baker center). My son was finally allergy tested and regulated on medicines. He got his tonsils removed (he had a +4 tonsil they touched the uvula and went over them on one side!) He is much better off now and we haven’t needed an ER in MONTHS! MONTHS is such a vast improvement it is beyond dizzying! I began taking my 2 daughters here as well who all get excellent care by Dr. Mendoza. I think I didn’t hit it off with Dr. Goldsmith and the nurse practitioner but a few of the doctors here are exceptionally good with kids and listening to concerns. So now we don’t need to go all the way to the IHS providers, which is sad, but we save a lot on gas in the long run.

My pediatrician in another state sent my child’s records 3 times and their office lost each transmittal. This resulted in multiple, unnecessary and expensive visits to properly immunize my child.
Dr. Lichter (the only physician we were allowed to see since we were new patients) wasn’t very assertive or helpful. My son wasn’t very cooperativd (he’s 2) and she just kind of stared at him. She (nor any other staff member who had direct patient contact) washed their hands when beginning an exam. Disgusting, especially during flu season. She literally walked in, pretended to touch the bottle of hand sanitizer and began the exam without even rubbing her hands together. Seriously?
So, we’re out a few hundred bucks because they lose paperwork and the search for a competent pediatrician continues.

Decent peds staff but the wait times for check in are WAY too long.

Pediatrics, Northwest … ah. Well, I DID give them six years to get their acts together. But it’s officially over now. — and, yes, it WAS them.
The doctors are good — pretty standard. I did go exclusively to Dr. Clapper for 2 years. He was a great doctor (I agree with the last reviewer). My problem with him is that he’s so dang popular, even with appointments, the average well-​baby checkup took over an hour. That’s to say I had about 5 – 10 minutes in actual face-​to-​face interaction with him. The rest of the time was waiting…
My problem was with the administrative side of things. I have always had a problem making appointments. Not only has it been difficult to schedule an appointment, but I have been MIS-​scheduled many times. I’ve arrived to find the receptionist scheduled me for the wrong location, wrong doctor, etc., etc. So, as I’ve encountered these problems, I’ve had to RESCHEDULE the appointments … and the cycle repeats. A few times, in the midst of this cycle as well, I’ve been misbilled — along with my insurance. Which REALLY ticks me off. (Whatever’s going on, somebody is obviously entering the wrong information into their little computer.)
This group was not so bad at first, but the past 4 years have been bad. … And I have 4 kids, so we are familiar with our doctors.
Because there are so many doctors, you can get in with a sick kid — but don’t expect anybody to care…

We’ve been seeing Dr. Clapper for many, many years now, and through 4 children now through normal checkups and issues, including hospitalization. He is the best pediatrician I’ve met – great with the kids, thorough, explains things when there are questions, provides great info, and supports parents. My wife isn’t as high on other docs, but unless urgent, we never see others.