Boulder Women’s Care

All the OB, nurses, and midwives in this office are great based on my experience! Have been there many times as I’m going through my 2^nd pregnancy now! Have seen Dr. Brenda Price more often than the others (by fluke) and she is great! Very friendly and knowledgable!
…just the waiting room wait time is usually longer here than other Dr’s offices I’ve been to but everyone is extremely helpful and friendly in this office!!!

As so many other reviews say, I would offer up 0 stars if it were an option! I have been here 3 times. The first was a follow up to an urgent care visit… The woman who answered the phone and scheduled the appointment was unbelievably rude and almost hostile towards me… When I told her the urgent care dr. Had recommended that I be seen within a week her exact response was «that literally makes no difference, you can take the appointment I offered or go somewhere else. «you can imagine how shocked I was!
My second experience was ok, although the dr. Seemed very preoccupied like she wanted to be somewhere else, and not extremely knowledgeable… She was nice and personable though.
My third visit was the nail in the coffin! I am now pregnant! Finally!!! I had a problem and needed an emergent appointment, the nurse on the phone was WONDERFUL. After explaining what I was going through she said I needed to get labs done and have an ultra sound right away! She instructed me to go to the lab first so they could be looked at while I was getting the ultra sound. I showed up an hour early to get the labs done and the lab has no record of me needing them so they ask me for the phone number to women’s care!!! What kind of hospital as a whole does not have phone numbers or extensions for other departments!!! Womens care says they don’t need labs and to send me up.
I go to the office, minutes after they got off the phone with the lab, answering questions about me, they ask who are you? I say my name a second time and tell them I have an appointment for an ultra sound. «no you don’t «is the response I got. Followed by «have you ever been here before? «yes! I was here on friday, just 3 days ago! «you don’t have an appointment today «I then had to explain why I was there and that I needed an ultra sound. She finally found my stuff, I then waited 20 mins past my appointment, no big deal but kind of annoying when I was there so early to take labs that I was told didn’t need to be taken. The ultra sound tech was nice and made me very comfortable, however I was told the dr. Would call me with results to the ultra sound and the labs (that I DID need taken) I STILL HAVE NOT HEARD FROM THE DR!!! And it is 12 hours later and 11:00 pm and here I am left WONDERING about the health and safety of my baby!!!

I am amazed after all these reviews they haven’t changed their ways! I called on the phone and had such an awful experience, I literally asked her: do you NOT want me as a patient bc you are making this very difficult! Tracey was her name and she was horrendous!
I actually sought an alternative.

My regular GYN does not work at this hospital, and I wanted to give birth in Boulder (I, as well as my mom, are Boulder natives). Several of the OB’s that worked with my aunt during her pregnancy and birth of my cousin work in this office.
The nurses here are great! Every nurse I dealt with was friendly and fully answered any questions I had. During my first appointment we saw one of the nurses that didn’t seem to understand their genetic testing options, though I never saw her again.
This office has multiple OBs and a few midwives. They will schedule you with a different doctor/​midwife for each appointment so you can meet them all. When you go into labor, whoever is on call will be the one to deliver your baby. The doctors are somewhat distant on the first visit, but warm up the more you see the same one. My birth went fantastic and Dr. Jamrose that delivered my baby did a great job. They followed my birth plan and explained everything to my husband and I through the process. Jessica, one of the labor and delivery nurses, was wonderful! The first thing she said to me was ‘I read your birth plan, and see that you want to do it all natural, and I’m going to do whatever you need to accomplish that.’ She brought me aromatherapy lavender scents for the bath tub, as well as warmed blankets and towels! She was great!
The billing process, and front desk staff are mostly awful. If this the office you choose to deal with, be aware that they will set you up with a payment plan on your first visit. It is an ESTIMATE. Read the fine print. They also do not send out paper statements each month. Your insurance benefits are not explained to you for each test (i.e. the genetic testing, vaccines, ultrasounds, NSTs). Nor do they really give you a chance to find out before asking if you want the test or not. It made me feel like I’ll do anything if it’s in the best interest of the baby, whether it’s really needed or not. At each appointment, they will tell you the balance of your account and expect payment. Often times, it’s the monthly amount on your payment plan and whatever tests were not covered by insurance. Most girls at the front desk will then ask you when you are going to pay it, because they need to tell billing something. Will you call in, because it all needs to be paid by the end of the month. At one appointment, I was told my balance was around $ 700, and they expected me to pay it without warning. That is incredibly frustrating for me. Then if I didn’t want to pay it all (just the monthly amount that I was expecting to pay), they had the typical Boulder attitude of ‘What are you doing here if you can’t afford to pay?’ regardless of if I COULD pay or not. Just because I didn’t want to pay what I wasn’t expecting, certainly didn’t mean I COULDN’T pay it. Being in Boulder, you expect that. There was a younger, possibly Asian, girl at the front desk that was always very nice.
Their contracted amount for a birth with your insurance company, from what I was told, covers a natural birth with 2 days in the hospital. I just received the first statement from them since giving birth (which they had to send because I moved out of state), has an additional $ 385 charge for my birth, though we left the hospital after one day. Your payment plan does not cover any hospital charges, for any time spent in the hospital. Expect an additional bill for pediatrician visits and hospital charges. This statement also has a charge for a flu vaccine, that I thought insurance was covering. Anything to do with billing is very poorly done, or explained, at this office. It is also nearly impossible to contact anyone in their billing department with their automated system. Better off calling the front desk, if you can get through to them, and asking to be transferred.
The woman that sets appointments is nice most of the time, but can get a bit snotty. Don’t expect a reminder call for each appointment. Sometimes I would get one, sometimes I wouldn’t.
Their ultrasound techs were always really nice, and helpful. They explained everything they were seeing. Of course, liability says they can’t give their opinion on anything. Make sure you ask at your appointment what all the ultrasound numbers say. What percentile the baby is in for head, abdomen, and femur measurements, as well as amniotic fluid and what they compare to your other ultrasounds. Some doctors will share this and others won’t unless you ask.
The doctors and nurses are good at getting back to you, even if it’s the middle of the night with any concerns you have. Though I feel if they spent a little more time during the appointments explaining what to expect I wouldn’t have needed to call.
It was a little annoying that whenever I had questions about activities that were safe during pregnancy their answer was always ‘If you have any concern, it’s better to not do it.’ Obviously, they have to have that answer for liability reasons.

I started with this practice over 14 years ago and they were great! But sadly in the past 7 or so years I have seen a decline. Only one of the original five doctors remain that made it a solid practice. I have also seen overturn in the doctors since that come on board, when I get comfortable with one over a few years she will be gone the next. The office staff is uncaring and today I have had enough. I have a condition where I have pain, but it is not that often. Today was one of those days. When I looked at my prescription it had long since expired so I called them as soon as they opened to get a new one and they said a nurse would call me shortly. At 2:30p I called the doctor’s office and said I had not heard from anyone, they said the nurses were busy and told me to call the pharmacy, which I did and no prescription was there. I decided to give them some time so waited until 4:30 and called the pharmacy and back to the office and explained that I really did need this. At this point she said if it wasn’t in tonight it would be in the morning. I explained again that I really needed this and was in pain, but no sympathy from the front office. Sorry — but I am done. They are overbooked and the front staff is not friendly. I can say all the nurses I worked with there have been very kind and competent. But I have to have a full team I can rely on.

In the past, I had mostly good experiences with Boulder Women’s Care. They were kind and helpful at the front desk, and all the doctors I have visited with were wonderful.
However, I recently had an experience that would drop my rating to a 2. I had confirmed my appointment time with the front desk and wrote it on the card I received in the mail. I showed up for my appointment as scheduled, to be told I didn’t actually have an appointment. For some reason, the individual I spoke with never wrote it in, so I was forced to reschedule when I was there. When I acknowledged that a mistake must have been made, not one individual at the front desk took any responsibility, or apologized to me. I was instead asked belittling questions, such as if i was in the right place, and about appointments that were not even under my name (I have been a patient at BWC for over 10 years). That lack of compassion alone made me upset, as it was not the same level of customer service I had received on previous visits.
As a warning I would bring your appointment card in case you are asked if you are in the right place, or questioned the same way. I felt that it was very rude and unprofessional. As a person who works in the customer service industry, I would have admitted to fault and also apologized to the client. This is the first time I have ever experienced this at any doctors office i have visited, and was very disappointed.

Zero stars. I’ve been going to BWC for years, and the good doctors and nurses have moved on to better practices. The front office staff are rude, unprofessional, and lazy. Today I gave Kerry Shea one last chance, and for the third time she gouged me so hard I’ve been bleeding profusely ever since. I’ve never had this problem with any other doctor. I dared ask her a non-​GYN medical question and she referred me to talk to a GP about it… So she’s not only terrible at the main thing she’s supposed to do, but she wants only to stick to that one thing. As other’s before me have said, I wouldn’t even refer my enemies to BWC. It’s a terrible experience, and you’ll be better off anywhere else.

I have nothing but nice things to say about Dr shimoda and Dr jamroz, and also the midwives are good, but I dont like the others very much, particularly Dr Price and the front desk people. The attitudes generally suck. If I’m ever pregnant again I’m going somewhere else since I cant choose Dr Jamroz or the midwives exclusively. Meanwhile I’m venturing back to my previous obgyn. Read my previous review of this place to get more details.

Several different aspects of my experience with this practice were unacceptable.
1. I echo what many have already shared about the front desk. They are completely lacking in the kindness, compassion and empathy department. Once they even cancelled one of my appointments and rescheduled me for a different time and a different provider without informing me. No one ever apologized. Tough luck buttercup!
2. One of the providers I met with for a prenatal was extremely jarring. I left my appointment fearing I had pre-​eclampsia, and diabetes, and that a c-​section was inevitable. Thankfully none of these things turned out to be true, but I will never forget the utter helplessness and fear I felt that day when I left their office with gallon containers to collect every drop of urine for the next 24 hours, and a prescription for a blood glucose monitor to pick my finger with 5 times a day. As soon as I reached the elevator I burst into tears. A savvy provider would have had more tact about it all.
3. I saved the worst for last. I had over $ 500 in out of pocket bills for Boulder Womens Care after my delivery. That is in addition to my hospital bills at BCH and pediatrician bills from BMC. Both BMC and BCH have been great in arranging payment plans. When I tried to do the same with Boulder Womens Care, they insisted I write a letter explaining my financial hardship and mail it to them. Although they took a $ 50 payment, they wouldn’t take another $ 50 payment a month later and insisted on the written letter. I intended on sending them one, but with the new baby did not do it right away. Less than a month from when they requested the letter and refused my payment had gone by when I got a certified letter from them saying they would no longer provide medical care to me and that my bill had been sent to collections.
Insane! How can they call themselves Women’s Care?! How undignified is it to have to spell out your financial hardship in writing. Aren’t they used to serving people who all of the sudden have thousands of dollars in medical bills and need to make payment arrangements? How quickly they rush to ruin your credit by sending you to collections. I wonder if that is even legal since I had made a payment and had attempted to make a second one less than a month before they sent me to collections. All they seem to care about is making money.

I’m new to the area and looking for an OB/​GYN and after only one call with their front desk person, I’ve decided this is not the practice for me. Extremely rude and unprofessional.
It’s too bad because I’ve heard great things about their nurses but when the front desk person is unfriendly it just set a very bad tone for what should be a great experience and relationship.

My wife and I signed up with Boulder Nurse Midwives (a subsidiary of Boulder Women’s Care) to deliver our first baby. Unfortunately we they informed us in September that they were shutting down before our baby is due, apparently because the Nurse Midwives were unhappy with how much they were being paid! We are very upset about having been left in the lurch like this, with the baby’s due date imminent.
I would not recommend using Boulder Nurse Midwives, Boulder Women’s Care, or any of the midwives from that practice (Merrilynn Artman, Kala Kluender, Sarit Schneider, Nicole Lassiter, Susan Mitchell, Erin Crawley, Lindsey Rudolph), or any birth center that would hire them.
To top it all off, they are now refusing to refund us the money that we prepaid for the delivery of our baby.

I was a patient here for several years. I watched the office go down hill. The front office is a mess, the scheduling is ridiculous, and overall the treatment from nurses and docs is sub par at best.
The straw that broke my back was when I was urged to have unnecessary surgery that vitally changed my body forever. Doctors should refer you to specialists when they don’t know the best avenue for treatment. They didn’t and I paid the price.
I’ve met several ladies who’ve shared their nightmare stories with me, and I can’t believe that still so many people go there.
Not many people know of the other Ob/​gyn practice in Foothills that’s located on the second floor. They are amazing and caring and careful – I highly recommend them over this unorganized and unprofessional office.

A few updates– the front desk service keeps getting worse but I still love every nurse, practitioner, and doctor there. I have nothing bad to say about them and they seem to care about a patient’s general health and well being, at least from my perspective and experience.
Examples of recent bad said receptionist service: I had to call the office to schedule a semi-​annual check-​up and they said 2.5 months out was too soon, which surprised me because I’ve booked stuff that far out before. It took 11 minutes on hold to find that out. So fast forward a few months later and now I am actually overdue on my check-​up (my fault), so I call and am placed immediately on hold and as I am timing the call it reaches 9 minutes and still waiting. I’ve gotten through to airlines and travel websites faster. The office left me a voicemail the other day asking for my updated insurance information and I am cringing at the thought of having to call them back. If the wait times weren’t so ridiculous I wouldn’t think twice about it. I have contemplated calling off hours so I can just leave a message with the updates and get through faster and not have to use half a lunch break to do so.
But the best and worst example of the front desk service can be summed up with this situation: this past summer I had an appointment with them; I checked in and signed the mandatory sign-​in sheet, sat in the waiting room area and the receptionist must have been so focused on going home for the day (it was close to closing) that she closed down the office with a coworker and left, never alerted the nurse or doctor that someone was sitting in the waiting room. At that hour of the day it probably wasn’t the smartest to assume that I was not a patient. I was not hiding in the waiting room and I was the only name not crossed off on the sign-​in sheet. After ten minutes of quiet and no more receptionist I wandered through the back halls until I found someone, and they were shocked and concerned. The Doctor was kind and apologized countlessly for what had happened. I got over it and accepted the sincere apology especially since a few workers stayed late on their work day and were just as inconvenienced by the mistake/​oversight. I was super grateful. But after the two last times I was placed immediately on hold for an average of ten minutes, and both incidents being months apart– it is starting to taint the whole experience. I don’t consider that four star treatment. There was one other experience in early 2013 where I was in Boulder, once again visiting from out of town and had booked an appointment with the front desk weeks before. They forgot to mark it down; I was not able to be seen that day for a serious visit. Since I was visiting and expressed this they thankfully filled me in for an emergency slot later on that week given the situation.
The bottom line– I want to remain an optimistic attitude and the staff in the background are always trying to make the blunders right, which I appreciate. There is something impersonal and not at all good about the way the business is being run on the front end. It seems destructive. Either I live with it or at some point it is going to be even too much for the most loyal of customers.

My experiences with BWC have made it certain that I will not return. I started my first pregnancy here and ultimately ended up miscarrying early on. When I first expressed concern that something was wrong, and that my pregnancy didn’t feel right, I was told, «oh you’re fine, you’ve just never been through a pregnancy before.» When I had a beta HCG drawn to check levels, they came back very low. I had to push for an ultrasound appointment to double check everything. The second blood draw I had confirmed that I was indeed miscarrying. It took almost 2 weeks for it to finally happen, and toward the end of this time I was finally brought in for 2 ultrasounds and to talk to the doctor since I hadn’t started bleeding. For the second one, the nurses didn’t feel I would be «comfortable» in the front room when I checked in, so they took me to a back room in the practice. Which normally wouldn’t have been that bad (since I was in tears anyway), had they not placed me and my husband RIGHT next door to an ultrasound room where a 3^rd trimester lady was hearing her baby’s heart beat on what seemed to be a megaphone speaker (we could seriously hear it walking down the hallway to our «room.»). I cried even harder. When I finally did start miscarrying, it was the most painful thing I have ever experienced. My doctors told me to take motrin. I feel like the staff and the doctors were quite flippant in their management of my situation, which made everything that much harder. To add insult to injury, imagine my surprise when I got a bill stating I had been charged TWICE on the days I came in for one appointment; one full charge for speaking to the doctor, and one full charge to see the ultrasound tech per day. I am now pregnant again, but I am currently searching to find a different practice to deliver my baby.

My 24-​year-​old daughter scheduled an appointment from New York to see her Doctor when she came home for Thanksgiving. She arrived for a 9:00 am appointment at 9:03 and was turned away by a very rude receptionist stating that they were busy and couldn’t see her. I’ve never heard of a Doctor’s office being so rude. I could understand if someone were 10 or 15 minutes late – but 3 minutes! C’mon! I would find somewhere else to go.

Awful. Horrible. I saw them for about a year for basic stuff. i always felt they were dismissive about my concerns but they were close to home. I had 3 conditions I kept going in for which they never treated correctly. Dr. Shea even told me the bladder pain I was feeling was psychological. It wasn’t until a friend told me to drink baking soda did the pain go away, apparently recommended by an acupuncturist, to cool the bladder when it has been irritated by successive rounds of antibiotics that they administered. Dr. Shimoda also dismissed my history of recurrent miscarriages by making an offhanded comment «well if we could wave a magic wand to make them stick we would» while not even looking at me and breezing out of the room.
When I got pregnant, that was the last straw. They were extremely dismissive, unorganized and frazzled. I’ve seen Dr. Shimoda, Dr. Shea, Dr. Price and Dr. Monks. I was not pleased with any of them. I would have to bring in research to try to get adequate care. They were not familiar with any of it. I found them all to be dismissive, even burned out and overworked. They would see me without even reading my chart or reading over what I had just told the nurse. I would have to repeat myself every time. They would come in and start our appointment with no knowledge of what was in my chart from previous visits. It was so negligent. My partner and I felt extremely uncomfortable trusting them with handling my pregnancy and delivery. I felt like they were so overworked that they weren’t even paying attention. They also pitched ALL of the prenatal tests, $$$$$$. My new OB goes through what is necessary for me and what isn’t.
I switched back to Rocky Mountain OB GYN and I’m HAPPY to drive to Denver for a knowledgeable, competent, present OB.

It’s hard to rate a doctor’s office; it’s not the kind of thing you look forward to. When I did my Unilocal check-​in, I was already wishing I was somewhere else.
With that said, I’ve spent a lot of time here — I’ve been a patient for a couple of years and Dr Price and Dr Shea at BWC delivered one of my kids. All of the doctors are professional, patient, and kind, and a couple of them are even downright funny. After my c-​section they put me back together just right, so I guess I can’t complain!
There are a few of areas where they can certainly stand to improve:
–some of the nurses are super-​helpful while others seem to be grumpy all the time. they could really stand to lose the grumps.
–I’m not a huge fan of their nurse practitioner and I didn’t like the fact that she was part of the prenatal appointment rotation. I would have liked more time to get to know the doctors since one of them was going to be delivering my baby.
–the wait times are sometimes ridiculous even though they want you there 15 min early.
–I saw the last time I was at their office that they now have a location in Broomfield but I don’t see it on their webpage anywhere. Their website seems to be rather out-​of-​date.

If I could give a negative review, I would. I now know 10, YES — TEN women who have left Boulder Women’s Care or Boulder Nurse Midwives for very similar reasons — some even more severe, like a botched C-​section. Do yourself, your body and your baby a favor — go elsewhere!

I’ve had nothing but bad experiences with Boulder Women’s Care. From dealing with them on the phone to visiting in the office, each encounter has been frustrating to infuriating. I’m glad someone else had a good experience with Catherine Fries but when I saw her I found her to be patronizing and dismissive of my concerns and uninformed about recent studies.
My choice to visit BWC was largely based on location, convenience, and that I prefer my lady parts to be attended to by lady doctors, but I will happily drive to Denver for appointments now rather than return to BWC.

When it’s that time of the year to put your legs up, I have found that the ladies at Boulder Women’s Care are top notch. Their entire staff takes great care of you whether you are there for a routine annual exam or to handle your pregnancy.
I was referred by another doctor to see Mako Shimoda for a procedure and she was fantastic. Since then I’ve had nearly all of my appointments with Catherine Fries who is very relaxed and easy to talk to.
They are located just off of Foothills Pkwy & Arapahoe so it’s convenient to get to whether you live in Boulder or the northwest Denver suburbs.
Keep in mind that if you are more than 15 mins late for your appointment you have to reschedule :)