Olde Towne Pediatrics

My kids have been attending this practice since my son was born in 2008. When we moved to another county we still kept coming back for my kids check-​ups/​sick visits as we loved Dr. Williams. So I called to make an appointment for my daughter for her 6 year check up today. I ask that it be during a time that is after school (after 3:00 PM) and one with Dr. Williams. The receptionist then proceed to schedule my daughter with a doctor I had never heard of. When I asked to be see Dr. Williams I was told that she doesn’t offer afternoon appointments. I told the receptionist that we would find a new practice. I find it unacceptable that my daughter have to be taken out of school for a check-​up. Plus I don’t want her seeing a doctor who is not familiar with her for her check-​up. So it is with sadness that we will be leaving this practice.

They have gone through an extensive restructuring over the past year, they now have online access, the cream of the crop doctors and very professional front desk staff. Glad we stuck it out because the sky is the limit for this practice.

The service at Olde Towne Pediatrics has gotten progressively worse over the past several years. I am often put on hold in excess of 10 minutes when I can even get through on the line. I have not seen an actual doctor in ages — I don’t even know who works there anymore. On a day when we had a snowstorm, the office said they would be open at 11. I called for two hours starting at 11 and kept getting the same message that they would be open at 11. I don’t know if they ever opened or they just didn’t have anyone to answer the phones. I do know that the person who works at the Minute Clinic was able to get in on time and open up shop and I was able to get there without too much hassle, so I’m not sure what the problem was with the Olde Towne staff. Up to now, I have not minded much since we mostly went in for routine issues, but now that I have a son with a rare, chronic disorder, I’m losing confidence that we are getting the best care.

We have been sorely disappointed with Old Town Pediatrics. At first we heard that Dr. Williams was great and was named a top doc by Washingtonian. That may have been the practices undoing. They are very busy, and you almost never see an MD. We are almost always seen by the Nurse Practitioner, who is very nice, but isn’t really qualified to take care of our son’s needs. Our son has a rare form of epilepsy that is very high maintenance and requires a lot of communication and coordination between our Pediatrician, Neurologist, nursing service, and school staff. The weak link in our chain is Old Town Pediatrics. Today I had to call and beg them to sign a form that the nursing agency needs, otherwise he will lose his nursing services. The nursing agency has repeatedly called and tried to get this done and OTP just ignores them.
Dr. Williams is a very nice woman, but it is clear that she has too many patients. My son has a condition that is so rare only 1 in 40,000 children are born with it. You’d think she would remember him and the condition, since she probably will never see it again in her career. But no, I have to explain it to her every time. That is, on the one in ten visits that we see her and not the Nurse Practitioner.
I’d suggest finding a different practice if you want any kind of doctor-​patient relationship. This really functions more like a minute clinic.

This office may be too busy for their own good. We chose to move on from Olde Towne Pediatrics when the Doctor we were most comfortable with left the practice. Other doctors at this practice were not interested in working with us as parents.
We also noticed a lack of competence in the office staff. We would have appointments for vaccinations and the staff would not know why we were there and when we would tell them why we were there they would tell us that we should have made a specific type of appointment. After a little confusion the doctors would look at the records and see that we had done things correctly but that things had not been recorded properly.
We have been much happier with the quality of treatment, and service we have received at other pediatric practices.

I love this office. All the staff is very friendly and helpful. I recently switched pediatricians, and I am so glad we did. My 4 year old daughter used to be scared of doctors, but now she really enjoys the visits and sometimes fakes being ill just so I can take her in. I actually don’t mind seeing different doctors because all the doctors and nurses we’ve seen are great with kids and make the whole appointment a lot more pleasant. We especially like Miss Judy, the nurse. I would highly recommend this office to my friends and family.