Finding a Dev Pedi

mom2pottamus

Just curious on how you went about finding/deciding on a dev pediatrician?

I live in an area where we luckily have options within reasonable driving distance.  I have a request in with our Children's Hospital, but have been researching some others in the area and I am just not sure how to proceed.  I know two accept no insurance, one is out of network, and the other ones I would have to call and find out about for sure.

There is also a center for neurodevelopmental health that is accessible and seems to have some of the diagnostic abilities that I am looking for-but it lacks a dev pediatrician in the process.

Any advice?

LALASEPT05

I would maybe start with your regular pediatrician. Similar to you - we live in Philadelphia and so we went through CHOP. We waited for 6 months for the appointment but I felt it was worth it and gave us time to get some of the other evaluations and tests out of the way before the evaluation. It sounds like you actually have a lot of options.

d.f

I went to my regular Pedi and she gave us two options. The local Children's Hospital and a clinic in the city NW of me. We went with Childrens.

mom2pottamus

-auntie-:

It depends.

If you have an idea of what sort of dx you might end up receiving, contacting a local parents at a support group about who they suggest is an effective strategy. The names of the best individuals and team will come up over and over again.

We got turfed within network to CHOP (DS's PCP is a CHOP Care Network pedi) in Philly and were assigned James Coplan which was a stroke of luck. We also have seen Dr. Levy there; but Coplan and most of the other well respected docs on staff when we started have set up private practices. CHOP has something of a revolving door which is not ideal if your plan to work with the group there over the next 18 years or so.

I like the idea of the parents at a support group...I will have to look into that.  I honestly don't know what type of diagnosis he might get--my real concerns are in regards to pretend play and behavioral so I am moving forward just to keep looking into what could be going on.  I don't want to come to my conclusions on what might be going on so that I am open to whatever diagnosis comes my way.

My regular Pedi is also in the CHOP network, which is why I started with the CHOP providers-I also did AI Dupont/Nemours since they are terrific and opened a Dev Pediatrics unit in Oct.  I actually have Coplan on my list--he is private, on the Main Line, but doesn't accept insurance.  DH and I talked about Coplan and we were ok paying OOP for whatever we need to if it works for my son, I was going to start checking into some background on him, so if you have any info to give me that would be fantastic!

 

kcisthebombdotcom

We also have a neurodevelopmental center in our area--only difference is it is staffed with a developmental pedi. We are doing our initial eval there and then will likely do the developmental pedi secondary based on the recommendations/findings.