Dewitt Hospital Fort Belvoir

hoping4sticky

This is my first time posting on this board, and I was hoping someone around here had some experience with giving birth at Dewitt. I have heard good and bad, and I'm trying to decide whether or not to switch insurance and go to a civilian.

My biggest concern is going into labor at rush hour, since we live south down 95. The other problem I am running into though is that I can only find two OBs that take Tricare - For Women in Fair Oaks and Adler at Potomac Hospital.  For Women is close to my work and Potomac is the closest hospital.

If anyone has any Dewitt/Potomac/Fair Oaks experience I would appreciate it!

AgrippaRidesAgain

A friend of mine delivered at Dewitt last summer and was pleasantly surprised.  Despite it being old, she couldn't say enough about the spectacular care that she got while she was there.  She delivered her first child at a state of the art civilian hospital in FL and said that it was horrific.  She was really worried about how Dewitt would be, but ended up loving it.  I understand the concern about traffic though.  We live in Woodbridge and she was worried that she'd go into labor during morning rush hour.  It ended up not being a problem though.

I'm delivering at Potomac Hospital. I've heard good things about their L&D unit, but haven't actually been over there to check it out yet.

 

AgrippaRidesAgain

agis:

That was an issue when i first moved here - NO ONE takes Tricare!!  But anyways, i know that Tepeyac Family Center takes it (though it is a pro-life facility and i don't know your comfort level with that).  I switched to Aetna and didn't have any issues with finding a doctor and did deliver at Fair Oaks and LOVED it.

You may want to look up the doctors from the TriNorth website and simply call them all and ask if they are accepting new patients.  If all else fails, you can go to any doctor you want, but you have to file your own claims and pay upfront and then wait, and probably wait, for Tricare to reimburse you.

Dewitt is EXTREMELY old and i never really liked the way you never had just ONE doctor (or two or three).  Basically whoever was there was "your" doctor.  It may be different now, but i will always choose to go to a civilian doctor even if i have to pay more.

That's the way my OB is now.  We rotate through all of the doctors so that you're familiar with them when delivery day comes.  Doesn't really bother me all that much.  So far, they've all been great, and they're only there to catch the kid anyway.