Terrible Experience from start to finish - we won't ever be back…read more
Middleborough Pediatrics has a cultural issue, they simply do not care about making you feel welcome, heard, advocated for, or part of co-creating a health plan for your child. Let me explain.
1. Outdated policies without consideration of economic / time consuming impact to patients. You have to print all your medical records & either hand deliver them, or mail them in before they'll consider scheduling an appointment with you.
2. Inconvenient Hours: The reason we chose Middleborough Pediatrics was because I was under the impression they had weekend office hours for sick visits, and evening appointments. For some reason, during a global pandemic, the practice has chosen to drastically reduce these hours to 8-5PM. When patients need care most, they've decided to cut back on available hours instead of maintaining them.
3. Misquoted car seat safety recommendations, incorrectly citing the American Academy of Pediatrics: When I was surprised to see that my son did not meet the 35 lb. weight limit for his rear facing car seat, Dr. Gross explained to me (very condescendingly) that according to AAP, children under 2 years of age should remain rear-facing. When I contested that I have read conflicting information, I was shut down by Dr. Gross who repeated, "Well, that's from the American Academy of Pediatrics", and then continued to recite outdated information. According to a 2018 update to the Car Seat Safety Regulations by the AAP, the most up-to-date information concludes that all infants and toddlers should ride in a rear-facing car safety seat as long as possible, until they reach the highest weight or height allowed by the seat's manufacturer. This means that it's important to know what the height and weight recommendations are for your rear-facing car seat, and to not make assumptions based on a child's age. Considering that over 80% of parents have car seats installed incorrectly, and that car accidents are the leading cause of death and injury among young children and infants - you would think Dr. Gross would be abreast on the most up-to-date car safety regulations, you would also think that he'd be interested in hearing what a parent thought was the correct information, so that we may have an informative conversation resulting in the overall safety of the patient, and first-time mother before him.
4. Outdated views on how to discipline children. Offered outdated, punitive suggestions when asked about age-appropriate tantrum behaviors. Dr. Gross asked if I had any concerns about my child's behavior. I explained that since returning to daycare - there have been instances of head-banging during emotional outbursts. The head-banging behavior has subsided over the past few months, most noticeably in parallel with our son's ability to know and say more words to express himself. Dr. Gross went on to explain to me that I should say, "If you're going to act like that I am going to leave you here by yourself" to my ONE year old child. When my mouth fell open beneath my mask, Dr. Gross went on to explain that when a child has a temper tantrum, parents need to ignore the behavior completely and only offer attention once the tantrum has stopped. Offered "time-outs" as a method to reduce unwanted behavior in a 17 month old child. I'm not a child behavior specialist - but neither is Dr. Gross. He should not be doling out inaccurate/outdated information and punitive child-rearing methods without doing some research.
5. Terrible bedside manner - Dr. Gross made a comment that the "only time it's okay to comment on a woman's weight is if she's lost it". When I disagreed, that no, it is NEVER okay to comment on a woman's weight, and explained that perhaps the weight loss is from a new medication, or diagnosis, or stress-related event - Dr. Gross cut me off and said, "MOVING ON!" and proceeded to ask me a gamut of unnecessary family-history related questions that I already answered in the mountain of paperwork they mailed to our home prior to our visit.
The only positive during our visit was our interaction with the nurse. I wish I remembered her name, but she was excellent with my son. She was helpful when I arrived, I was stressed / answering a work call when we walked in, & she was really understanding about me being on my cell phone. I wish we could live just stayed with her the whole time.
But overall, from the first phone call with this practice to the interaction with Dr. Gross, I am disheartened (but validated) to see that our experience has been echoed by other reviews on Google. I'd rather drive the 45 min north to see our old Pediatrician at Boston Children's.
