Dublin Close To Home Center on Venture Dr

Initially we went to Nationwide’s ENT after our Pediatrician recommended that my 16 month old son get ear tubes. (I should say, we have been to the Dublin Close to Home Urgent Care Center a lot and really like that service of Children’s!)
We saw Dr. Merz for Jake’s tubes. We were skeptical about the need for tubes because he had only a few ear infections, but had chronic fluid build up. Now we are 200% glad we got them, his temperament and language development has more than significantly improved, however at the time we were skeptical because of studies that have shown little difference in development with the tubes over an extended period of time. Dr. Merz was not terribly helpful in discussing our skepticism and just kept stating his language skills will improve and then sent us out to a hearing test. A hearing test on a 16 month old is like voodoo science and really not that convincing, but we decided to get the tubes after another serious round of ear and strep infections.
When my husband took Jake to the downtown Children’s hospital for the surgery, they were backed up about 3 hours because they did not have enough cribs for the post OR kids. The surgery was as traumatic as you would expect and my son was very unhappy, but after some holding and a cow balloon, he seemed okay. I did not go with him because the nurse on the phone said only one adult should go and when my husband went he said there were all sorts of full families there, which was frustrating.
So everything seemed okay, they said he would be well enough to go back to day care the next day. The next day rolled around and he was too sick to go anywhere, and it just got worse and worse. Two days after his surgery he had copious amounts of ear drainage, which was a mix of wax and blood. Also, we had been giving him tylenol, since moltrin thins the blood and the dr recommended not to use it. By day 2 the tylenol wasn’t cutting it, so we gave him moltrin also. I called the ENT advice line, since he had a change in drainage and that was something to watch out for. When the dr (not Merz, but a resident) got back to me, he said the drainage was a result of the moltrin (yeah right! Just then Jake pulled out a ball of blood wax ¹⁄₃^rd of an inch in diameter!). He didn’t say anything about the fever or irritability he also had. I asked the Dr if I should take him to his ped, and he said no. I did anyway. Jake had a double ear infection and upper respiratory one as well. She recommended I make a follow up appt (earlier than the 6 mo one) with Dr. Merz. Merz saw him again and just looked in his ears and confirmed he had an infections and the tubes were still there. She also gave us drops.
So flash forward to the 6 month check up. My son was not feeling 100% the day of the appt, but we brought him thinking she would help us to know what was up. Merz walked in, looked in his ears, said everything was fine, and left. Jake was then sent to get a hearing test. After having results not much better than before the tubes, the audiologist looked in his ears and said to go back to Merz because he had an ear infection! So then Merz did not even look in his ears again and just said, ‘oh yeah one of them were cloudy’, here have some drops. So not only did she (or her PA) not do a general check over of my son upon entering the clinic, she didn’t even do her job of checking out his ears! We are not going back to her in 6 months. My friend has a reference for someone on campus… I think I am going to check them out!
UPDATE: I have had to sick with Children’s because of my insurance options, and have yet another bad experience. After getting no reminders of my son’s 6 month check up, I called and made an appointment for 2:30 on a Tuesday. Like everyone in the waiting room that day I had to wait two hours (with a 2 year old!) for the doctor to look in his ears for less than 5 minutes and give him a script for drops. I am not going to go back, all the future check up will be with his ped and unless they say he needs a specialist, I am not going back! My son was so good for those two hours, but I don’t want to have go through that again!