Planned Parenthood of Metropolitan Washington

Why aren’t zero stars available for reviews yet? Unless absolutely necessary, do not go here. DO NOT! As I watch the second DVD they just put in, I contemplate leaving. I thought making an appointment MIGHT help a little. Nope. I’ve already been waiting two hours, what’s one or two more? The unacceptable wait time truly hurts and deters young women who are trying to be responsible. I want to scream, but I’ll just continue to sigh aggressively until I’m seen.
You think it’s over when they call you in the back? It’s not! You wait some more. Thankfully, they are closing this location down on June 26^th, 2015.

Made my first appointment here today. Came 15 minutes early, and have now waited over an hour for my appointment. The front desk says approximately another 15 minutes. Don’t waste your time here.

I am currently sitting at the clinic and I am awestruck by how ride the staff is. One nurse simply refused to treat me because she considered I was not nice enough. If all that matters to you is people being polite, you should quit your job and work in a bakery. Of course people are stressed coming to this Clinic, and it’s rather unprofessional to deal with staff not properly trained to deal with stressed patients. Overall, the clinic is gloomy and barely clean. I will complete my opinion once the procedure is done, but frankly, I am scared.
Ok. Done.
The procedure by itself is painless. But the staff was still rude and careless. Every question I asked was a nuisance. I wish this place could close asap, because they are not dealing with patients respectfully. It’s one thing to be pro-​choice (ad I am 100%), it’s another thing to be treated like a dog.

Love and support Planned Parenthood, but it’s currently 2:15. Made my appointment a month ago. Showed up early. I arrived at 12:15, and have not yet been called in. Was told I’d be next 15 minutes ago, but 2 others were called in. At least 5 people who checked in after me, have been called in — and some have gone. I’m not waiting for anything fancy — a yearly renewal of the birth control pill — the same kind I’ve been on for years. This is mind blowingly absurd. I swear it’s like they target some people to just play and see how long they’ll wait, for kicks and entertainment.

The Planned Parenthoods of Metropolitan Washington both 16^th street location and the Silver Spring location provided me with faithful service through my late teens/​early 20s. I did not grow up in a family that was open about sexual health or provided any resources on who to contact. Planned Parenthood was the only female health clinic I knew of, so I turned to them for my healthcare needs.
Yes they’re incredibly busy and it’s sometimes hard to book appointments. I’ve waited at a clinic for 2 or more hours before waiting to be seen for an appointment I booked far in advance because they were so backed up with high priority cases. But at the end of the day, I had my needs taken care of, and I am so thankful PP was there for me at the beginning and I am especially thankful of them being there for other women and girls who need the help and have no where else to turn to.
As I am encroaching my mid-​20s with my stable long-​term relationship, it is a bit awkward to sit in the waiting room with my adult partner watching teenage girls with their best friends crying. But I am so thankful that there is a place that young girls can turn to get answers in a culture that stigmatizes reproductive rights. Thank you PP for what you do!

I read the previous reviews and thought it’s been awhile and things could’ve improved. Nope, the reviews are still true! I booked an appt for 2:00pm and was not called until 3:30pm. I asked twice how long the wait, and they lied twice. I saw 4 ppl who got there after me go in before me. Waste of time don’t bother unless you want 2 hours or more of your time wasted. Poor service and lazy workers who don’t care about other ppls time but their own and personal. I could hear them talking on their own personal phone lines about misc crap unrelated to the already 10 plus ppl waiting. The one in falls church was way better than this crappy run planned parenthood. A lady was waiting since 1:30pm and left around 3pm after not be called. So i know it wasn’t just my experience alone, other ppl as well.

One word!!! DISGUSTING!!!
Horrible service and very unorganized. I have been to several PP centers and this one in particular is like pulling teeth to get any kind of information. They are a health care center for Gods sake and are suppose to provide a list of services eg. annual check ups, birth control etc. How can you run out of birth control!!! WTF. Not only that, there is no registered clinician on site to assist with giving you a similar pill!!!
I will not be going back. I wish I could give zero stars!!!

I went here this morning for a pregnancy test. All the staff were friendly, and it was also my first time visiting Planned Parenthood.

I visited back in January 2013 but just getting around to writing the review. It appears that this health center has been improved in the past year or two. The reviews on Unilocal seem to be improving and I took a very short tour and was impressed by the staff.

I have been going to PPF for years. Part of that decision is convenience: it’s right near my office. Part of it is cost: birth control costs half of what it does at the pharmacy, even with insurance. But I also feel like overall I’ve gotten good care there — yes, the building is worn to the woof (although they’re now renovating), and yes, be prepared to wait a good while (30 mins to an hour) in the waiting room. But I’ve always found the people at reception friendly — sometimes a bit harried, but I’ve seen them deal with all sorts of people from all walks of life and rarely have they been anything but patient and helpful. More to the point, their doctors and nurse practitioners have always been highly competent, frank, and responsive to my questions and concerns. And I’ve been at times tracking a potentially serious condition, so that counts for a lot! Indeed, most of their staff have struck me as people who do this work because they believe in it — you don’t get a mansion working at PPF. Don’t be afraid to walk in and give them a try.

Worst experience with medical/​health personnel ever, the only reason I will go back is to collect my health records so I never have to go back again. Like others, wanted to support PPF. Waited three hours last time I had an appt (yearly exam). The worst part, after unfortunately losing the prescription slip for my birth control, I called to see if they could just look at my record and phone it in to my pharmacy. I was told they would do it, both times. No call to my pharmacy was ever made. I called back today, a 3^rd time, and was told there was no way they would ever phone a prescription in to my pharmacy unless I came into the office again, so evidently the first 2 responses were straight up lies. On top of that, everyone I talked to there was rude. I don’t have time for this. Who does? This place just lost one more client.

Maybe I just got lucky here, but I’ve never had a serious issue here. Yes, there is a wait if you go in as a walk-​in (which may be required depending on the service that you are looking for and when you are looking to have it done), but how many doctors offices have you every gone in and just been seen right away at?
When I actually needed an appointment, I did have to call a couple of times because of the way their schedule works, but I got an appointment within a week of when I finally made an appointment. Unfortunately not all locations cover the same sorts of services, so if you are without a car, you might be out of luck.
The staff isn’t exactly bubbling over with joy, but I’ve never had anyone be openly rude to me there, and I’ve been a few times. In fact, one nurse joked with me when I was having my blood pressure taken because I am really nervous around doctors.
It’s an inexpensive (w/​insurance), non-​profit clinic. You get what you pay for.
Also, don’t go to this location on Saturdays or Wednesday mornings unless you want to be hassled by idiot sidewalk-​stalkers.

Unfortunately I have to agree about the poor service at this location. I had issues getting my birth control refill so I needed a new prescription asap, and my regular Docter requires appointments wayyyy in advance. I made an appointment at PP at 5:30 on a Tuesday (I thought it was great they were opened late one day during the week!) I wanted to make sure they took my insurance, and the person over the phone said they couldn’t tell me for sure, but if I didn’t have insurance it would cost around $ 175, yikes!
I showed up at 5:00, signed in, and asked if they could now tell me if my insurance would cover the appointment. They said they wouldn’t know until I filled out my paperwork. 5:30 passes and I still haven’t been called up for my paperwork to be filled out! Finally, at 5:45 they call me, and tell me I need to fill out the forms.(so much for arriving early to do that). I ask how much longer it will be before I am called back, because I had somewhere else to be later that nignt and couldn’t wait much longer. The girl says, well considering we don’t have your paperwork yet, it will be at least 45 minutes before you are called back. (And who knows how much longer I’d have to wait once I’m in the room) I don’t know why they couldn’t have warned me when I got there that they were running behind so I could have been prepared. So I told the receptionist that unfortunately I would have to cancel the appt because I had to be somewhere else and hadn’t planned on the appointment lasting over 2 hours. She shrugged, took my papers, and threw them in the trash. No «sorry about the inconvenience» No «would you like to reschedule» that was it.
I know it’s a non-​profit for a good cause, but at least show some customer service!
At least I’ll have a good reason not to donate when I’m approached by the PP street canvasers next time!

I probably should have read the reviews first. This would be a one star review, but like everyone I’m giving it an extra one b/​c it’s PP and I know they have limited funds. BUT, none of that excuses how poor the quality of service here is (especially since much of the research demonstrating the relationship between quality, continuously available care and good health outcomes has been done by Planned Parenthood). The long waits, the lack of explanations, the lack of clarity-​everything that others have said-it’s all true. I recently called to confirm the time of an afternoon appointment only to be told that this clinic doesn’t provide that service; an explanation that would have been tremendously more useful the day that I made the appointment or in the 3 weeks b/​w making the appointment and the day of. Unfortunately, the information came too late for me to make another appointment in a timely manner and resulted in a serious interruption of necessary health care. Unacceptable Planned Parenthood. It saddens me that this Planned Parenthood seems to think that poor patients deserve poor service, but I’m not really sure what other conclusion to draw.

Again, this review is based on the fact that it’s a Planned Parenthood, a community clinic working on a shoestring budget, not a private OB/​GYN.
I decided to keep coming here even though my new office is a ways away because I love supporting PP. I was expecting a long wait, and while I did indeed receive that, everything else seemed to be looking up. The staff seemed to be making a point to be friendly (not in that syrupy, fake friendly kind of way — genuine friendliness) from the time I scheduled my appointment (and this time I only had to wait less than a minute to get connected to a real person!!) to the time I walked out the door. They also have updated their exam rooms and the office, so it looks much, much nicer than it did a year ago. I had to wait about an hour beyond my appointment time to even get into my exam room, but there was a volunteer there surveying the patient experience, so I definitely let him know what a PITA it is to take time off from work only to have to wait an hour to even be seen — hopefully this will get better, as I got the definite impression they knew something was wrong in their provision of services and they were making a conscious decision to try to rectify the situation.

Like the other reviewers, I wanted to support planned parenthood. First, everyone at reception went out of their way to be rude. Not just to me, but to all the clients. After waiting over an hour to see anyone at all (not even the nurse, whom I only saw after 1.5 hours), the nurse was harried and also rude. She seemed disinterested in anything I had to say, handed me a pamphlet, and told me to schedule another appointment. In addition, the walls are NOT soundproof, as I heard someone else getting a consultation about something that I KNOW she would not want to be overheard.
I was really disappointed in how generally rude everyone was, and the poor quality of the service. Don’t use this planned parenthood!

What a horrible experience! False advertisement! Don’t believe anything they advertise on their website! I went to their downtown center for some education and counseling service they advertise on their website, was told that I have to call the number to do it unless i want to pay $ 80 to talk to someone in person. I called and was told to call a different number so someone can help me. After trying a few different numbers i was given, finally I was speaking to someone in the clinic, who told me that the info on their web is false advertisement. There is no one who can offer educational info, unless I set up an appointment with a doctor in the clinic.

I loved Planned Parenthood when I lived in Boston, even donated to them a couple times, but the service here is AWFUL.
I timed my appointment with a week to spare before I ran out of the pill. I made the appointment through the national call center, and they even took my insurance number.
Showed up today, and the receptionist said, «Umm… you’re here for a birth control consultation? Your insurance won’t cover that because our clinicians aren’t certified. You can pay $ 80 out of pocket and see if they’ll reimburse you.» (Of course, they wouldn’t reimburse for something they won’t approve in the first place.)
She said there was a lack of coordination between the call center and local offices, but that any of the other offices in the DC area would have certified clinicians. She acted like this happened all the time. She showed no concern for the fact that now I have to find another place to get a prescription THIS WEEK, and she did NOT offer to make me an appointment with one of the other area offices. Awful.
Tried to call the other offices after returning home. The NE Egypt office wasn’t open, and I spent 30 minutes on hold with the Falls Church office, then gave up.
If you are new to the area, don’t expect that all Planned Parenthood offices are equal. DC’s suck.

Done. 100% through with Planned Parenthood. At this point, I think a zero star rating is in order.
«But Morgan, why would you ever go back after the last experience?» you may ask. Because I’m a sucker for a cause, that’s why. Planned Parenthood (once again, in general) provides awesome services to the community… that is, when you can actually gain access to the fing services.
I called a month ago to make an appointment, and sat on the phone for an HOUR waiting to speak with an operator. Get on the phone, operator looks up my records, schedules an appointment, done and done. See you in a month.
I showed up at my appointment this morning, to be told that they would have to reschedule, because it hasn’t been exactly a year since my last crotch exam, and since insurance won’t cover it, they don’t want to do it right now. The lady at the counter asked, with a touch of disdain,“Why did you schedule your appointment so early?” Oh, I don’t know… I wonder if it has anything to do with my prescription for birth control (given to me by one of *your* doctors) is finished at the end of this month? And let me clarify a point: «so early» is under a month from being exactly a year since the last stirrup-​fest. But then I asked the question, «Why did your operator not tell me about the problem over the phone? She had access to my records.»
Front desk lady: «Not my problem.» Of. Course. Not.
Then adds: «If you were here for an STD screen, that would be one thing, but since you’re here for an annual exam, we can’t do anything for you.»
Wait, so… because I’ve been responsible and followed all of the edicts that Planned Parenthood decrees are the way to reproductive health (annual exams, monthly breast exams, having an exclusive partner, using protection in situations that aren’t exclusive, telling my friends where they can go to get emergency STD treatment, ect), I’m being punished? WTF??? If I had walked in complaining of nastiness discharge and burning, you would have shown me to a doctor ASAP, but because I tried to be responsible, I’m getting the shaft? Nice.
They extended my prescription by two months, and told me to call back at the end of this month to make an appointment (because, as we learned in the last review, the day that they release the appointments for the following month is a mystical secret). So, basically, this could potentially entail another hour-​long phone call (I didn’t need those cell minutes anyway!), and an appointment they might arbitrarily cancel with nary a phone call.
Sorry, guys. If you’re not supporting the people who are actually being responsible, the ones taking your advice to heart, then I will no longer be supporting you. I refuse to contract gonorrhea just to get an appointment.

I feel a little bad being the first to review this place and giving it a bad review, but my experiences with the Schumacher Center have been so universally bad, I think it has to be said. How bad? Let’s say this – I’ve had 3 bad experiences with them, but I’ve only actually ever had one appointment.
I’ve been using Planned Parenthood centers as places to go for routine exams for a while, and until I moved to the DC area, it wasn’t a problem. But oh boy, was I in for a surprise.
I made an appointment for close to the end of their work day so I wouldn’t have to take off too much time from my own job. I got lost (wrote down the address wrong) and tried to call them for directions. No one answered the phone, and the message said the office was closed, even though they probably had at least an hour before they actually did close. By the time I got there, I was 15 minutes late, and they said they were so backed up, I’d have to come again another time. Strike one.
I scheduled another appointment. I arrived about 10 minutes early, recalling my previous experience. And then I sat. And sat. And SAT. My appointment time passed before I even got the paperwork to fill out. I waited for them to call me in to the exam room. And then, most awfully, I waited in the exam room. For HALF AN HOUR. Wearing nothing but that flimsy, see-​through paper gown they give you, afraid that the minute I put my clothes back on, the doctor would come in. The exam itself took 10 minutes, but the entire endeavor took in the ballpark of two hours. I was livid by the time I left. Strike two.
The final straw was when I was having an actual problem… not an emergency, but something was wrong and I was scared. I didn’t want to call them, but they had my most recent records, so I tried. It was a Saturday, and they were due to close at 1 or 2PM. I called at 10AM and asked to speak to a doctor who could look at my files and answer some questions. The person on the other end said they would have the doctor call me back shortly. I waited half an hour and then called back. The person said the doctor had my files in her hands and if I could wait a minute, they’d have her call me back. An hour passed with no call. Around noon, I tried again… and no one answered the phone! I got the same message I’d heard before, saying the office was closed. No one ever called me. This time, I was honestly in tears with fear and frustration. I ended up going to a hospital instead. Strike three.
I would give this place zero stars if I could, but it looks like they have to at least get one, unfortunately. If you can possibly avoid coming here, do it.