Children’s National Health System

This review is for the Fetal Medicine Institute within Children’s National.
I simply can’t say enough positive things about my experience here. During what was an incredibly stressful time in my pregnancy requiring an extensive fetal neurology exam and consultation, the staff and doctors made me feel at ease knowing I was receiving quality medical care. From the moment I scheduled the appointment, to being escorted from various tests by a patient coordinator, to meeting with a genetics counselor and neurologist, I was always in the most competent and friendly hands.
The scheduling staff are very friendly and responsive, and it was easy to schedule an appointment quickly. They were so organized leading up to my appointment — sending me detailed instructions and what to expect the day of my appointment. The MRI/​radiology team was so friendly and patient with me, and the sonography technician was very thorough and kind.
Most importantly, the medical care I received during a scary and stressful time in my pregnancy was exceptional. Following multiple tests and exams in a single day, a full team of experts quickly reviewed my results and met with my husband and me for over an hour explaining everything. They went through every image (and provided them to us on a CD to take home), and took the time to answer every question we had. In a time when most medical facilities seem to rush through patients, literally everyone at the Fetal Medicine Institute was compassionate, thorough, and caring in explaining our results. I left my day at the hospital with as many answers as can possibly be provided, and a clear plan for what lies ahead for my baby’s health once he is delivered. This kind of care is rare, I’ve found, and I am so happy to have been referred here.

My toddler was transported here by ambulance for a febrile seizure and aspiration. Stood in line for 30 minutes to be checked in and told there would be a 4 hour wait. We decided to take our chance of her having another seizure en route to Holy Cross hospital after we were disgusted by cockroaches in the bathroom, rude in take staff and nurse, and gross oversight when they had given someone another patient’s form! Will never return here no matter how bad of an emergency. We were seen at Holy Cross within 30 mins after immediate intake!

I didn’t realize how great this hospital was until my daughter was hospitalized here. Now, I would never wish upon any parent to have to experience their child being hospitalized, but if the situation arises, you can’t go wrong by coming here.
It all started when my daughter was coughing, not keeping anything down, and being lethargic when normally, she is super active. Their normal clinic, where her primary care physician normally is, is open late hours, so we went there. When taking her vitals, the nurse noticed my daughter didn’t look so hot, so when she checked us into a room, she immediately got the doctors to come look at her. The doctors came by and told us that we needed to go to the emergency room because what my daughter needed, they couldn’t do in the clinic. They walked us over to the emergency room and helped get us checked in immediately, even with a fill waiting room. The nurse actually stayed with us until our daughter was physically checked into her bed. We had a myriad of doctors and nurses and techs come by while my daughter was diagnosed with pneumonia, hooked up to a fluid and antibiotic iv. Her vitals became better as time progressed. A doctor from the 7^th floor came to see whether or not mu daughter was in stable enough condition to go to the 7^th floor. She felt my daughter’s vitals had improved enough that she could go to the 7^th floor rather than the icu. My husband and I then waited for a room to become ready… which actually took about 4 hours… in those 4 hours, kids came in and out of the emergency room. Some kids were sent to Childrens national from other hospitals.
Finally, our turn came to move floors. Our room on the 7^th floor was spacious enough for the 3 of us. There was a pull out couch, a reclining chair, and a crib for the baby. We spent the next 4 days there while the doctors and nurses ran a bunch of tests on her. What makes this hospital so amazing is the nurses, the doctors, and all the other providers, but also the small things that make a person and child more comfortable in this place that no one really wants to be in. There was a library where kids could check out books, there were play rooms, teen rooms, games and scheduled performances in the lobby, there were volunteers that volunteered to look after your child if both parents wanted to go to the cafeteria to get something to eat. There was someone that came by to give us basic toiletries for families. There was free coffee and tea for parents and a microwave for us to use. All these little things really made us feel taken care of.
The providers were all very caring and knowledgable and thorough. We told them the back story of my daughter and based on that, they put in consults to all the providers that could maybe help us. So we saw a pulmonologist and immunologist along with the regular doctor. They ran blood cultures, cbc’s, tb test, etc, to try to get to the root of the problem. They answered any and all questions we had. I also can’t say enough great things about the nurses that took care of her. One medication she was taking made her throw up, so we did it in installments over a 30 minute period of time. They were willing to wait there and dance for her and distract her in between.
I am so thankful for Children’s National for saving my daughter. This is the best hospital I have ever been to, and I have a lot of experience in hospitals – I work in one! All hospitals should be like this one!

there are free shuttles going between children’s and three different metro stations all throughout the day, which is so nice. one of the locations with shuttles is union station. the shuttle stop was somewhat hard to find, but i called the contact number and three different people very patiently explained to me where to find it.
the facility itself is clean and spacious. every staff member i met was friendly and professional.
the only downside is that driving into the city can be quite a hassle, but that has no bearing on the goodness of the hospital itself.

Context: Restaurants
CNMC has a fantastic cafeteria, with tons of vegan and GF options. It is reasonably priced, and along with the popular less-​than-​healthy options all hospital cafeterias seem to sell for some strange reason, they also sell nutritious and healthful foods.
I enjoyed my quinoa-​stuffed baked tomato with a side of the best roasted beets I’ve ever had. (Please don’t tell my mother I said that. Love you, Mom!) My son enjoyed a $ 4 large tray of the best prepared vegetarian sushi rolls I’ve ever had (~12 rolls), but still ate almost all of my roasted beets. I was told the sushi is prepared fresh daily.
They have a lot of great options, and they stock Just Mayo (egg-​free) in their condiments bar. No soy sauce in the sushi (I’m guessing to reduce chances of allergen cross-​contamination), but we made our own spicy mayo-​ketchup from the condiment bar and it worked well.
They even stocked matzah for Passover.
The cashiers were friendly.
Also: the facility is lovely, and I like the doctors and other providers we’ve seen there. My son loves the hot air balloons but often requests a playground. Wayfinding is easier than at most urban hospitals, and as a systems engineer I love their efficient smart elevators. Parking is unreal, but free valet is awesome and we have never had problems parking. I prefer coming here for our pediatric specialty healthcare needs. We have always had pleasant encounters at CNMC, including in the Emergency Department’s Fast Track, laboratory, and various clinics. Space feels very clean (I work on hospitals, hospitals are usually very dirty).
Minus one star because of an experience we had when my son had what was supposed to be an ambulatory surgery and ended up needing to stay overnight for observation. I can’t really remember all the details, but it involved poor communication, and I remember being quite upset over what was supposed to be a routine surgery. The nurses were nice, though didn’t know how to dress an infant with wiring/​tubing in a sleeper (I showed them how to pass the wires and tubes up through the front opening between two snaps, so he could wear his comfy PJs instead of a hospital gown). But all ended well, and the missing star does not reflect the dining experience at this fine cafeteria establishment.

We went in to the dermotology department which conducted an exam and then we were referred to the pediatric genetics program. We are very lucky to have this resource near us. The staff was particularly good. Veronique Weinstein (Genetic Counselor), Dr. Debra Regier, and the staff were professional and very sensitive to the young clientele. The telephone system is difficult, however. It is hard to get anyone on the phone, especially if you have not yet been assigned to a doctor (or, in our case, if the doctor’s name was not among the choices in the voicemail selections).

I specifically called this hospital before my sons appointment to ask where I could park my full size wheelchair van. The lady told me it could fit in the parking garage. I asked her several times if she was sure and she said yes. Imagine my stress when arriving that the van couldn’t fit in their garage!!! To top it off, there was no parking attendant in the booth to help me figure out what to do. I ended up parking where shuttle busses drop off and l pick up. I saw a number for security on the wall so called the number explaining my situation. I told her I wanted to make sure my van wouldn’t get towed, gave her the plate and vehicle info and she told me I could leave it there.
Security woman in the building was impersonal, unfriendly, and had a bad attitude. Not sure that’s the best first experience to provide someone on their visit. I will never elect to bring my child back to this hospital again. I will change doctors before that happens.
Visit arrival 10÷28÷15, 4:30 am.
Handicap accessible door activators didn’t work in the Center for Surgical Care. Are you serious? A children’s hospital that deals with kids in wheelchairs all the time? What is wrong with this picture? Plenty I say, plenty.

Do not do inpatient infusions here unless you want to waste your time. I recommend finding an outpatient infusion center.

this pains me to write this review.
I had always heard great reviews about this hospital but I experienced first hand what it was like to be a patient here.
my niece went in today because she had broken her arm, they got there, waited for about 3 hours, checked in, went back and still had to wait another hour before anyone attended to her.
once someone checked in with her, they had said that she needed an x-​ray and to go from there. more time has passed before she could get her x-​ray and their reasoning was because «you guys came in when this unit just opened. I’m not sure what’s going on with x-​ray…
once she got her x-​ray done it was then sent up to the doctor, about 20 minutes later he checks in with us. discuss’ what needs to be done and takes a look at my nieces arm (which was wrapped and in a sling up until this point). He undoes the sling, the wrap and the support that was holding my nieces together, takes a look, receives a phone call and told us he needed to take this call.
…he never came back. my niece didn’t have any pain meds and was left hanging, literally. thank god he wasn’t the one who operated on her. it wasn’t until my nieces cries then alerted the ER tech which helped us up until she was sent up for surgery. she then started and IV, the nurse came in and gave her some morphine and all was good again. surgery went well, we were informed that the doctor will come out and let us know how things went and that a nurse would come out to let us know when we could go back so we could be there with her once she woke up and it wasn’t until my sister knocked on the door and inquired about her daughter that we were informed that she was awake… 30 mins had passed and NO ONE came to get us which isn’t really fair to have a child who is already scared to wake up alone. all the other parents had someone come out to get them.
as we were about to check out, the out patient nurse was very rude to us, as if she were trying to kick as out. to top it off my brother in law went to the side of the bed to pick my niece up so that her affected arm would be away from his body but the nurse said that it wasn’t a good idea and made him pick her up with her affected arm learning against his body. why… how does this make sense? my poor baby. I should probably mention that the operating doctor and anesthesiologist were quite pleasant.
7 hours later and all is said and done. could have been chance that we were treated this way, but I’m still very disappointed.

Nurses and doctors are generally good. However their social workers are awful! Lauren Obidi was the social worker who suppose to help our family. Not only didn’t she follow up on things, she also lacks sympathy! When a family is going through major stress and needs support, a social worker should not just sit down and trying to have a conversation with them as if they were in a bar, and that is what she exactly did! It was really untactful and a disgrace for someone to be in that profession! The worst part is, I complained about that in the hope that they will put some changes in place to help other parents in the future! Unfortunately, they never followed up on this, and that’s a shame!

This is the BEST Hospital for kids! My son has been coming here since he was 2 with seizures and the Entire Staff is always so nice and friendly and willing to go out of their way to help you.
No bad attitudes or negative looks or anything! I recommend this hospital because they not only are nice and friendly but they get to the bottom of what your issue is. My son had a primary care Dr and I was always feeling helpless with her because she always dismissed my concerns. Children’s Outpatient clinic was my last option for a good Dr and the 1^st time we went (he was 8) they asked if it was ok to test him for ADD and ADHD and gave me an appt for the following day!
The specialist who saw him was great and Diagnosed my son properly and that opened so many doors for me! I love this Hospital and I bet you will too!

I am so grateful that my child is able to be taken care off here. The doctors and nurses of the cardiology department are kind, humble, and dedicated to taking care of the patients. The CICU is set up well and the nurses only have two patients to attended to each. I would highly recommend Children’s for any medical care for pediatrics.

If this is the best of the best, I would hate to see the worst. Can’t speak for all specialties so maybe this is isolated to one or two areas. Not the best experience for my family and would hesitate to return. My daughter appears no better after in patient for 11 days. I wish there were other reviews to get an idea of how the er and other specialists compare.

Hate this hospital very rude and disrespectful people

This review is of the hospital facility, not the doctors (all of whom were great for us):
We were at children’s for outpatient surgery for our toddler. First off, let me say that the nurses and staff were all amazing, patient and so caring. If I was just reviewing the inter-​personal experience, it would be 10 stars.
Check in was quicker than expected. We were told to arrive two hours early. They called us up to start processing paperwork within 10 minutes of arrival and with 30 minutes they were walking us back to the pre-​op rooms. The fast processing is crucial when you have a child in toe who has been fasting because of anesthesia.
The patient rooms were nice. Not great, not bad. Just, ok. The TV didn’t work in our pre-​op room which meant our toddler got a little antsy after an hour or so, but the nurses bent over backwards to try and make us comfortable.
We ate at the cafeteria on the second floor. Lots of options and very reasonably priced for what we got. They had PB&J and other kid friendly foods as well.
There is free coffee in the surgical waiting room!
My only real negative was with the parking arrangement. There is valet, but the valets leave after 5, leaving us confused, cranky and without a car after a very long day.
I hope we never have to go back, but if you have a choice in hospitals, this place lives up to it’s solid reputation.

about a BURN CLINIC
I took my son to this hospital after being refereed for a follow up by my pediatrician. A 1 year old had a second degree burn (hot water) on left hand and we needed some medical instructions on how to take care of the injury.
First of all: we never got to see an actual doctor for an evaluation.
Second: they PULLED burned skin off my kid’s hand (every single finger) with no pain management. He ended up passing out from pain.
Third: They placed a permanent padding around the wound that needed to be changed at the second appointment. For a week my child was constantly crying and refusing food and at the next appointment we found out why: the padding was placed so awfully, that if was digging into one of the fingers and it was still bleeding a week after the accident!!!
Needless to say that i refused to put my kid thru that kind of care ever again. I ended up daily cleaning the burn at home by myself. Kid went back to normal in matter of days, but as a mother i feel horrible that i let some people in this hospital torture a helpless child.
If you end up going here, QUESTION EVERYTHING THEY DO! and good luck.

I came her as a child, now my son & daughter come here also. It’s overall a pretty good hospital. The doctors are always friendly, depending on department the staff is ok, some can be very rude! Overall 4 stars

One of the nicest, most organized, friendliest hospitals I’ve been to. I was blown away by just the appearance of the lobby — bright, clean, and beyond welcoming. The staff and security guards were extremely friendly in guiding me to the right direction in finding the right department. The residents and attendings were professional and well trained. I was so impressed with my short week here externing. Hope to return in the future with an actual hospital card!
Some tips:
Remember to bring an ID to sign in for temp visitor sticker! — They prefer state or gov issued ID.
Try out the cafeteria upstairs — lots of options and food was well priced. My fellow extern and I were well fed :)!
Free shuttles down by visitor drop off/​parking lot — not sure if it’s only for hospital workers but they take u back and forth between various subway stations!

I was very pleased with the quality of service that my son received when he was admitted to this hospital. He was in for a minor surgery and thanks to Dr. Sparks and his surgical team, everything went perfectly!
The post and pre surgical staff were also very helpful. Natasha, who assisted me when my son came out of service, was also very helpful. She answered all of my questions. I would certainly recommend Dr, Sparks!

We’ve been here twice. The first time our daughter was not yet one and was covered suddenly in purplish hives moving around her little body. Triage, registration, and care were all pretty quick though it was busy and full and we did have to wait a little bit. The other day we were in and out in less than an hour. Our daughter’s arm bones popped out of joint and she couldn’t move them and cried and said that it hurt whenever she moved her arm. We were less panicked than with the hives, and expected that with a non-​threatening condition we might have to wait awhile. I guess part of triage is that they take care of what they can take care of quickly and move those folks along. The doctors we saw were super friendly and responsive and the doctor popped our daughter’s arm back in without her noticing. (They have free books to take home in the ER waiting area and he handed my husband «Horton Hears a Who» to read while making the adjustment). The doctor even emailed us a video teaching us how to pop her arm bones back in should it occur again!

I was recently there at the ER and they did great. I don’t do very good when I am sick and they not only put up with it and was sympathetic, they got me warm blankets and sent me home as soon as they could. I had problems with the pain medicine and so they searched for ones that would’nt give me problems. I had. wonderful nurse names Jeanelle that took spectacular cars of me. Thanks to this great hospital I got better!

Excellent service!!! Through out the years I’ve been taking my kids to different medical facilities. But, I have never been impress about the service of one. The Children’s Hospital in DC surpassed my expectations. We were first thing in the morning today, the service we received from the registrar was extremely pleasant, polite, and friendly. This great service started since I made the appointment four weeks ago. The person on the phone was very friendly and pleasant. I received an email notification then and another one last week to remind me that we had an appointment. They also mailed me a reminder with directions on how to get there by car, Metro train, walking etc, medical records to bring, and a forms to prefill for my kid’s chart.
In the past I have gone to the Children’s Outpatient in Fairfax, but the DC location service was the best I’ve ever experience.

Excellent hospital. They’ve been taking wonderful care of me for the past 10 years. The quality of care from the medical staff is beyond words. Had most my run ins with Orthopedics and Neurosurgery. The ER wait can be painfully long but what I appreciate the most is that even while waiting to see the doctor in the ER if you are in pain (or bleeding, etc) the nurses will see you too immediately, doing whatever they can to make you comfortable.
On another note the people that deal with billing are not very nice and a couple of them look like they just got out of jail (lol) Also getting your records is a pain.
But dealing with those people are totally worth it for such great medical care.

my family has been coming here for 41yrs. my sister was one of the first open heart surgery patients. drs bader and keuhl didnt think she’d make it to age 20. ive been bringing my children and now grandchildren here. the drs are top notch and the nursing staff (especially in radiology/​ent (both main hosp and upper marlboro office) and blood donor staff are great. the food here isn’t bad as far as hospital food goes. parking can be a hassle sometimes because they are so packed.

We’ve visited here about a dozen times and always had a positive experience.

Definitely one of the best hospitals I’ve been to. Love the fact that everyone seems to treat you with dignity and respect. It’s listed on their patient bill of rights that I saw posted on one of the walls. Absolutely agree. The doctors and assistants followed up with us to make sure everything was okay.

Every time I walk the halls of this place I am grateful how relatively well off my daughter is despite her having a pretty rare disorder that requires regular visits to this mecca of childrens’ health care. In five minutes I can have my heart broken five times just by glancing at the extremely ill kids I pass in the hall, and this is coming from someone who was born without a heart.
Every doctor my little girl has ever seen has been unbelievable. Not only in their expertise in their very specialized fields, but their way with children. I have been working in various school systems for over a decade, and I’ve never seen anyone (not even the best kindergarten teacher) who is able to so instantly capture a child’s interest and confidence and make them feel completely at ease.
American health care may be a complete hellhole that makes me wish my father’s ancestors never left Canada, but at least in this hospital they are doing amazing things all day, everyday.

Wonderful care and an overall terrific experience. Thanks to all the caregivers in the ER. I thought the wait would be too long, but it was perfect. My daughter and I were in and out in a matter of a few hours and she had a great time. If you can call going to the ER a «great time». Love the staff…