Specially for Children

The most important thing a doctor can do is listen to his patients, and the parents of young patients. Dr. Heintz never does this. He is always in a rush to get patients out of the door. My family brought our 8 year old daughter to Dr. Heintz after a referral from our pediatrician. Our daughter was suffering from a distended stomach and a very rare and complicated disease as well as cardiomyopathy. Despite a worrisome blood pressure, and history of cardiomyopathy this doctor continued to ignore my concerns and the information I shared with him in favor of some data point that in the context of her greater illness meant very little. He prescribed us different treatments and formulas that we told him we had tried previously and they had no effect. Not only were these formulas ineffective they were harmful to my daughter. His response was to keep trying them as we had no data to confirm this. I don’t know what other data is needed after telling you our daughter felt worse after taking these things, not better.
Our daughter did not have much time, and we are — and at the time were– well aware of how difficult her case might be. However this doctor was arrogant, short sighted, and the worst doctor for a case that required any kind of compassion and deeper problem solving skills.
When our daughter was in the hospital soon after, another G.I. doctor took a look at her and was shocked that no one had picked up on that fact that she did not at all have a G.I. problem but that her heart was getting much worse. He pointed to several obvious signs from the beds of her fingernails to her distended stomach and was appalled that she went through so much pain in the last month. While having an accurate diagnosis earlier may not have saved our daughters life it would have spared her and our family a lot of agony, including the agony of taking the wrong treatments.
As parents, we have forgiven Dr. Heintz. My daughter passed away, and there is nothing else we can do now, being a doctor can be difficult and we fully understand. However I deeply hope he takes the time to think about the pain he put our child through because of his complete inability to listen. Furthermore, I am writing this review not for myself, but for other parents of children with special and unique needs. While Dr. Heintz may be great for more traditional needs he is not the right doctor for any case that needs true attention, listening, and problem solving. If you are the parent of a child with a chronic illness do NOT go to this doctor– your family and your child’s life is worth more than what this man is willing to do. Please screen your doctors, and if they are unwilling to give your family the time and thought that you deserve, try another doctor.

I couldn’t give zero stars, but they certainly don’t deserve any stars in my opinion!!! My experience with this office staff has been horrible. I made an appointment back in January for my son to see Dr. Kerr. The appointment was set for today at 3:40PM. I found it odd that I did not get a call to confirm his appointment so I called them. After almost 30minutes sitting on hold I got a live person who told me that the doctor moved practices and is no longer seeing patients at this facility. She gave me a new number to call with no explanation and basically hung up.
I called the new number and again had to wait to get a live person. Then she proceeds to tell me in this transition of moving offices new patients had their appointments cancelled and I was never notified! I would have to contact the other office to find out why. I asked to speak to a manager as this is unacceptable that we waited 3 months to see this doctor and this is how we are being treated… I got transferred to a recording and hung up on. I called the other office back to get an explanation and all either office staff wanted to do was blame the other!
I am livid and extremely disappointed at the time and energy that was wasted with this office and the new office these doctors transferred to at CNCA. They came highly recommended and now we will never know because I refuse to go to a place where patients are treated in this manner!

Because my husband’s ex wife was irresponsible and couldn’t keep a couple of appointments for my stepchild a couple years ago, they have refused to ever see him again, no matter the circumstance. This is unacceptable. You don’t punish the child for the sins of the parents, especially in this medical instance and when you’re the only place in Austin for pediatric neurology. They ought to be ashamed of themselves. We will never, ever recommend this facility or its doctors to anyone.

We had our first visit today with Dr. Kayser and it couldn’t have gone better. Our 15 month old has food allergies and we were first referred to another food allergist who was arrogant, didn’t even acknowledge our daughter, and shrugged off all of our concerns which left us with many unanswered questions. We had the exact opposite experience with Dr. Kayser. She is incredibly personable and awesome with our daughter. Answered all of our questions, showed empathy, and was obviously updated with the latest food allergy information. We learned so much in our visit, got a complete action plan, and loved the staff. Thank you!

Are there no other pediatric specialists in the Austin area? Does Specially for Children have a monopoly on children’s specialists that they can afford to screw kids and their parents over without consequence??? And can Specially for Children not expand to provide additional doctors? While we were waiting to see the appropriate specialists, my daughter’s conditioned worstened to the point that it became critical. I should have just taken her to the ER in the first place. Unfortunately, I’m not a f*%$ing doctor. I’m just a parent, who stupidly waited patiently for one. I learned my lesson. I will drive to Houston to find medical care next time, rather than wait weeks to months for a doctor here. This is ridiculous.

Typically exceptional doctors. With the exception of Neurology, our experience with the doctors and related medical support staff has been outstanding. We recently saw Joshua Smith (endocrinology) and he is extraordinary.
Office staff is horrible. Dante forgot the 10^th level of Hell, which is dealing with Specialty for Children office staff. Getting an appointment is a nightmare — lose referral paperwork, mis-​key insurance information, ARGUE with BCBS rep on the phone regarding the insurance information. Nearly 2 hours of hold times and recalls to get 1 appointment. Left complaint for office manager to call me back. After nearly a month, I think that ain’t gonna happen.
They haven’t always been the best to deal with, but over the 16 years I’ve had to take my kiddos there, the office staff has gone from mediocre to horrific over the last couple of years.
They’ d better get it together because Scott and White has been expanding their pediatric services and S4C will get their lunch eaten.

It makes me feel somewhat better, as unfortunate as it is, to see that I’m not the only parent that feels this way about this office. My children see Dr Goldsmith & Dr Smith (Pediatric Endocrinologists) at the Round Rock offices. They are both knowledgeable, personable, and great. Most of the nurses are also great. The only one that has been rude to us is the newest one. Since she was rude to us, I told her that I did not want to speak to her anymore and wanted to speak to someone else. She kept trying to talk and I continued to tell her that I did not want to speak to her anymore. The office seemed shocked that I would say that to a nurse. The front office person even told me that in her opinion I was rude to the nurse. They obviously don’t hear themselves speak. If I’m being spoken to repeatedly by someone who doesn’t know what they’re saying and is still speaking even though I’ve told them that I no longer want to speak with them, that is not being rude. It’s not my fault that they take something like that personally. The only thing I care about is getting the best care for my child and getting accurate information. I don’t want the «I’m sorry for your frustration» speech. I want results and I want facts. If the person I’m speaking to can’t provide that for me, then let me speak to someone who can. This person at the front desk at the Round Rock office has always come off as very unprofessional and rude. If I was looking for someone to handle my front office, I would never put someone like her in that position. All of my clients would suffer. I wish there were other pediatric endocrinology offices in the Austin/​Round Rock area because I’d definitely switch my children to another office. It takes weeks of calling back and forth to get a prescription to go through. Their appointment scheduling is so unorganized. They continuously book us at different times and at different locations and when we get to their office at the time we were told they act surprised that we’re there. We’ve always gone to the RR office and this last time we were told by a new nurse that the appointment would be at their main office. So we get to their office and are told we’re at the wrong location. How are we supposed to know that this is not the main office when it’s the only one we’ve ever been to?!? They should have told us the address and location of their main office. They refused to see us when we stated we would drive to the main office even though we were not told where that was. It was 2:50 pm on a Friday and they don’t close until 5:00 pm but they told us that all of the providers were already gone. If they’re already gone who would we have seen if we had made it to that location then?!? They speak to us like we’re idiots and as if we’re below them. Now we’ve had to reschedule yet again and everyone will have to take time off of work and school in order to make this next appointment. This is not the first time that they screw up our children’s appointments. Their billing is a mess. We have corrected them several times because they have a wrong number or letter from our insurance ID card and they bill it that way and it never goes through correctly. The doctors and most of the nurses are amazing and the office would be the best in Austin for children if they would hire knowledgeable, professional staff that treated everyone with respect and knew what they were actually doing.

finally decided to follow through and write a BAD review and feel so much better after reading the other reviews echoing my sentiments. my kids see both dr. karnik and dr. ghodsi in the far west office. i have no complaints about the doctors. however, THE OFFICE/​RECEPTIONIST STAFF IS THE WORST I HAVE EVER DEALT WITH. when i tried to return a phone call to dr karnik’s assistant, she gave me her actual extension — i was thrilled i didnt have to deal with the «you’re #9 in queue». well that extension rang and rang with no answer and no way to leave a message. so, i get to call back and wait in queue… after waiting 30 minutes on hold, i told the receptionist my problem — that the extension just rang and rang. guess what she did. she transferred me to that same extension! so frustrating. i hang up and call back and get the message, «THE OFFICE IS NOW CLOSED’. seriously?
i would like to see the practice manager actually read these reviews and do something about it.

My child sees several doctors here — Dr Perkins with Neurology is excellent – 5 stars and is incredibly thorough. The office staff though… good luck getting anyone to return a phone call and the wait to speak with someone for appointments can be 30+ minutes. Super frustrating!!!
Dr Zweiner with gastro is excellent and thorough as well. gastro’s office staff is easier to get along with and they seem to return calls faster
Dr Mignacca with blood and cancer is also excellent and his nurse and nurse practitioner are a moms dream!!! They are so responsive to special needs and return calls usually within same day. That’s unheard of with other departments!!!

Didn’t realize till just now that I’m not alone after looking at all the Unilocal reviews. As much as I like Dr. Kayser (she’s very personable) as a pediatric allergist for my son, it is IMPOSSIBLE to get an appt and get seen her in a timely manner. We have had 3 appointments with Dr. Kayser. The first appointment we had to wait 1 hour and 35 minutes just to see her. Second appointment was 1 hour and 30 minutes. Just so you know, this is not an easy task when you have a 5 year old waiting with you. Not only that, but they are missing school and I am missing work time. When I said something, she suggested I get on her schedule as her first appointment of the day… I guess she gets backed up easily?! So, that is what we did. Our third appointment which we had to schedule like 2 months out, we found ourselves waiting again. After an hour of waiting, I had enough. We were FIRST on her roster, yet, still waited an hour. SORRY, no good.
After speaking to the office manager, apparently they get emergency appointments in as early as they can. So, after making an appointment 2 months out and waiting for 1 hour, we still get pushed back? Shouldn’t emergencies go to the emergency room? We left and hopefully she was able to «catch-​up» after doing so. I think they need to come to grips with not seeing anymore patients or new patients.
Best solution for us was to find another good doctor in town that also had the respect to see her patients on time.
Good luck Specially for Children – Dr. Kayser.

This review has been a long time coming. Our child has been seeing an Endocrinologist at Specially for Children for 6 years. Our experience with Dr. Nunez is absolutely fine, we have no complaints. The wait time is pretty typical for a pediatric office. However, their office staff are HORRIBLE. They answer the phone like they’re the front desk of a shabby motel, not interested in helping, they are rude rude rude. They don’t even try to pretend they have polite customer service skills. I’ve actually had them answer with, «yeah?» before. Really? Also, we’ve had appointments that were scheduled wrong or wouldn’t cancel. Currently, I have been on hold for 7 minutes, AFTER having called their ofc number to hear, «we’re currently closed» even thought it was 45 minutes after they should be open. I went through the main number to be routed to them and was caller # 1, when the woman picked up, she was talking to someone else, I said, «Hello… hello?» And she kept talking and then hung up on me. Now I am caller #5… worst. office. staff.

My review is that of the appointment process and the office staff in the neurology department. Not of the doctors or nurses. In my opinion, I think that anytime you deal with a family that has so much to deal with because they have a child that has extra needs, whatever level that may be, you would think that a doctors office would be more open, accepting and thoughtful to these families. In this case, this office has some staff members that are clearly not. To get into Specially For Children you need a referral, in most cases at least. If the office doesn’t have it in their file, then you don’t get to make an appointment. Even if you have the referral number and all the information that they could possibly want, it wouldn’t matter. If you want to call for any reason, you have to go through a «wait in line» process over the phone, where you will hear an automated voice tell you where you fall on that list, even if you are #2 in line, it could be another 20 minutes. If you have to call them back, you get back in line. If you are in need of immediate help, get in line. If you have to go to work, have a child that needs your attention, just prepare to wait in line. Once you get a human, be ready to give them exactly what they need or you will feel the pressure on their end. If they call you and say they have a sooner appointment and you frantically call them back and leave messages, say for 3 days straight, just accept that since you missed your one phone call, you lost your chance, get back in the appointment line. If you call back and forget the name of the person you are trying to reach and only have their department and position, be prepared to call them back and wait in line, they will not be happy or try to assist you in finding who called you. Then the best part: No matter how bad your special needs child needs help, you WILL WAIT MONTHS TO BE SEEN. THEY DON’T CARE.
Now on to our much anticipated appointment that we waited over 2+ months for to be seen by a nurse practitioner, not Dr.K. If you think you are special because your child is special, you’re not, if you want to see Dr. K, you’ll wait 6+ months at a minimum. Now I was told that they send him the notes from the appointment but only they truly know that, I have no clue but to hope that my son gets help. This appointment was important for us because he had no doctor to refill or change his medication. We were less than 10 minutes late but no more. Again, this is when you would think an office would have a more compassionate side and understand that it isn’t easy. When we arrived I was told that my referral that was supposed to have a name change to a different provider not Dr. K was not received and they would not see me. Oh and I had a $ 45 co-​pay which was not true and they insisted it was. Listen, we are active duty military, I have had 2 kids and an emergency surgery in a civilian hospital, never did I pay a dime and I wasn’t going to start today. Thats the price I pay when my husband sat in Iraq for 2 years and continues to serve. My point, why do they not know what to charge people? Active duty Tricare Prime/​Value Options don’t have a co-​pay. I had to beg to be seen, in front of the entire office, explain that my son is running out of his meds, something he can’t go without, that his pediatrician has reluctantly been refilling them just to get to this appointment. I was telling them all our private info in front of everyone, talk about HIPAA violation, you think they would have tried to respect our rights and clearly see I was becoming more upset. The receptionists didn’t want to deal with my complicated insurance and so rescheduling was the easier path they wanted. All while feeling totally unwelcome, I had my pediatrician on the phone who I know sent in the revised referral. After I had been waiting for them to get the office manager while keeping my busy pediatrician on the phone, they took me back to a room and said they did not want to see us that day and would reschedule. The manager called me out and said I was over 20 minutes late, a total lie and unprofessional accusation by the receptionists. By then, I was already on the phone with the pediatrician and I had the phone time stamp to prove it. SFC has an automated fax system, if they don’t receive it, its automatically your fault, not theirs. After begging, pleading and even crying after they threatened to reschedule us, they finally got us in as if it were a favor on their part and a mistake on our end. Never mind the incompetence of SFC’s office staff and the lying. After 3 hours of waiting, we finally got in and left after 4 hours. My son was so worn out and now has more anxiety and hatred for going to appointments. What a terrible way to treat people, especially make a child suffer and his baby sister too. If this is the best that Austin has to offer, I cringe, there has to be a better way. If anyone there reads this, can they understand that this is unethical?

The endocrinology department is so difficult to schedule appointments. They will only make appointments in the middle of the day so my daughter has to miss school. For her last dr appointment they called 3 months in advance and said we can do 10:30. There were no other options! For my daughters quarterly injections they will do afternoon appointment because we only see the nurse. However today our appointment today was at 3:30 and the injection wasn’t given until 4:10. The nurse is great and she apologized but still that is an unacceptable wait time for a simple injection! We see Dr. Tacquard and she is great and so is her nurse Alicia. But the front desk staff and appointment setters could sure use some training! And the waiting room times are too long!

We use the Endocrine, Neurology AND Allergy/​Asthma doctors of this group. My biggest complaint is making an appointment. I’ve never had such bad service/​extreme hold times. I am finally getting around to writing a review about this for the first time. Every single time I call, I get so mad that I mean to write a review. I’m finally doing it. When you call into any of the Specially For Children doctor’s offices, I’m pretty certain you are calling the same group of ladies who make appointments, no matter which specialty group you need to make an appointment with. I have been on hold now for 35 minutes. When I called in (35 minutes ago) I was only caller #2! I’ve called before and been caller #9 (I just give up when it’s that bad). After 19 minutes, I was caller #1. Still waiting! This is insane.
Last time I was at the endocrinologist (and went to pay) I was asked to call in to make a follow-​up appointment. WHAT?!! I don’t know why I couldn’t make it right then and there with the girls behind the desk. Well, I did just that and only had to hold for 10 minutes. That’s a good day on hold with this group!
On a positive note, if you are calling in to speak with a nurse (and not make an appointment) the nurses are very responsive! I give them 5 stars. They have been fabulous! Special shout out to Kris with Endocrine. She is fantastic and extremely responsive and on top of things! I have a lot of experience with the Neurology and Endocrinology nurses. They are both great. Can’t speak to Allergy since we don’t call in for nurse questions.
Lastly, I see a lot of bad reviews for Endocrinology. In their defense, I learned that this is a very difficult field of medicine and there just aren’t a lot of pediatric Endocrinologists out there. We need more in Austin, TX! We are a growing city. And some older/​more experienced ones at that. My experience with one, when my son was diagnosed with Growth Hormone Deficiency, really couldn’t give me a lot of detail. She said it was only about growth (cosmetic). SOOOOO not true. I have learned SO much on my own. I almost didn’t treat him because she led me to believe GH treatment will likely only help him get an extra inch of growth in the end (and that’s the only positive). I have seen TREMENDOUS changes since he started. Thank goodness I decided to go for it anyway.
Update: I am still on hold at 47 minutes! SFC: FIX THIS PROBLEM! You are running a business.

I had a wonderful experience with Dr. Kayser at the allergy & asthma clinic. She is a wonderfully personable physician, and is great in explaining care plans to both adults and kids. I think she deserves all five stars for the time and attention she provided us today. Appointment scheduling was good also.

I loathe the Endocrine clinic at this hospital. You call, leave messages, nobody calls you back. You try to make follow up appointments, nobody calls you back. Once you do get an appointment after 6 months of trying and expect to see an actual DR. they send you to a nurse practitioner who has no clue about your kids illness. You FIRE THEM for unethical behavior and a year later they call CPS on you saying you are neglecting your child for not bringing her in for that year because THEY failed to update her patient information. Their excuse for their own medical neglect, failure to update records, failure to communicate with parents and for ripping a family apart based on false information «OOPS, our bad!». Stay away from SFC’s endocrine unit at ll costs, it will cost you your sanity and possibly your family.

I just called to schedule a Pediatric Dermatology appointment for my daughter. It is September and the earliest available appointment was in April 2015. I cannot believe there is not a single open appointment time in the next 8 months. It’s a shame — the doctors have great credentials, but we cannot get in to see them. Called another pediatric dermatologist in Austin that is also highly regarded and could get in tomorrow morning. The receptionist was very pleasant, however, I feel they should ask if an appointment so far out is acceptable before taking patient info, contact info, and insurance details as it wasted quite a bit of time.

My daughter has a rare genetic disease. Since it is 4^th generation we knew it was possible and are very familiar with all the intricacies and hoops needed to jump through to get knowledgeable treatment.
I was SO pleased with the Endocrinology department at Specially for Children because even with the shortage of endocrinologists in Austin, they were able to fit us in at the needed intervals for monitoring without adding in unneeded extras, stayed on top of the most recent research studies in the field, and genuinely cared and connected with my usually shy girl.
Overall, I couldn’t be happier with the entire staff, follow-​ups, knowledge base, attitudes, I’m glad they have it together.

Our last hospital for the kids was the Mayo Clinic. That’s a full 5 stars, this is more like «As good as it gets HERE.»
Have to say the healthcare in Austin isn’t quite what we’re used to, and still looking for a great primary doc, but we needed a pediatric cardiologist, and this is where the pediatrician sent us.
The doctor had a good manner, and he was very thorough, both in testing and explaining what he found. I couldn’t have asked for anything more (though the Mayo Clinic pediatric cardiologist had a man playing a grand piano in the lobby… just saying…).

I had the misfortune of having my daughter come down with a condition called ITP earlier this year. Dr. Shaffer and the rest of the staff here are very kind and they treated my daughter very well. I like that they have people there who specialize in distracting your children with toys and activities while they are getting poked with needles. No child should have to experience this @#$@.
I am grateful that my baby was released and I’m grateful for the kind of attention she was given. My only complaint is that we always had to wait for such a long time to be seen. Other than that, I’d refer anyone to this place. It’s a child oncology and hematology center.