Children's National Takoma Theatre

I’ve been trying to get in contact with someone after the wrong kind of appointment was scheduled for my son. It’s delayed his care for over a month.

We have had a positive experience when taking my child to his appointments. Welcoming and friendly staff. Appointment bookings are reliable and were briefly on a waitlist for SLP and didn’t take long to be called back. Thank you for your service!

Staff are all welcoming and kind- front desk/security, the nursing team and the doctors. Going to appointments is always a pleasant experience. The doctor my son is seeing has been very supportive and responsive to any concerns I had. A great experience all around!

Amazing doctors but the billing department is does a terrible job, calling 4x to get insurance billed and then getting a collections notice instead is unacceptable. Update 6/28/24 - this issue still has not been rectified despite additional follow up attempts. How hard is it to send a bill to the right insurance carrier? The incompetence feels intentional at this point.

Our doctor there is great but the rest not so much and rude staff. Used the app to order a prescription refill (twice). Still no prescription so I called, picked the option for developmental peds and left a message. I get a phone call back that I left a message for the wrong department(?!), got a phone number for the right department, who then transferred my call to someone else who told me it was 4:40pm, and office time ended at 4:30pm so I'm out of luck. And since it's Friday, and Monday is a holiday there won't be a refill until next week. Which is ridiculous when I already ordered a refill 4 days ago.

There is an epidemic for developmental delays and Autism evaluations in America. I have called periodically to set an appointment for an Autism evaluation over the past almost 2 years. I called in January 2022 and was told to call back in March of 2022. Called back in March and was told to call back next year and hung up on. Called back 6 months later, because it seemed like "call back in a year" was an arbitrary blanket response and was told the same thing. Called back a year later from the initial blow off and told to call back in March, called in March, again told to call back next year. Before I was hung up on again, I politely begged to be wait listed or for any other resources for people whose children are now waiting YEARS (mine will be 5 in April), after an extremely dramatic exacerbated sigh I was rudely told they can't do anything and call back next year and quickly hung up on. No wait list offer, just have to play telephone Russian roulette with very unconcerned employees with even less concern for the population they claim to advocate for. As a clinician in pediatrics I am appalled by the treatment at this location. They are all aware we (parents) are getting the run around by DC providers and DC specific insurance companies and the children are the ones who truly suffer. Disgusting! Keeping an ongoing wait list (regardless of it's length) is the LEAST that can be done.

I waited 7 months for an ADHD assessment and left with only a verbal diagnosis—no paperwork—and the assessing psychiatrist was not aware of how I would go about pursuing her recommendation for behavioral therapy. When I called the front desk to make an appointment at this location she said I needed the psychiatrist’s referral. When I reached back out to the psychiatrist I was told to talk to my pediatrician about recommendations and referrals. My pediatrician, who is in the Children’s National network, was not even aware of this practice being a part of the same network even after exchanging direct emails with the assessing psychiatrist (which I’m aware of because they were forwarded to me after I requested a formal diagnosis in writing). Do NOT pursue an assessment here. Though I don’t have any direct experience at Kennedy Krieger Institute, I’ve since received many recommendations (including from my Children’s National pediatrician) to go there for treatment. I wish I had gone there for an assessment instead of Takoma Theater.

I called them this morning to make an appointment with their pediatric specialties. After holding for quite some time, I selected the option to have them call me back without losing my place in line. About a half hour later, I received a call and the young lady told me that there was someone ahead of me and promptly put me on hold again. After waiting a rather long time, I hung up. I’m wondering why they’re calling people back if they’re just going to put them back on hold again. I suspect this is a way for them to get around some quality check, which requires a call back within a certain amount of time. They don’t respect people’s time.

Went for hearing and speech for my infant. They were wonderful and really helped me understand how to better my child. The look of the place is modern and updated. Great job to everyone working here.

Use another office if you can. This office does such a disservice to its families. I called and scheduled my child for a ped dev assessment back in February, got in for a March appt. Showed up in March only to be told they had to cancel on us. They said they called me to let me know. They called me an hour before my appointment (didn't see the voicemail or missed call, I was running around to getting child care sorted so I could get my child to his appt). I made them reschedule with me right then and there. Soonest available appt was May. So as we're driving to the May appt. I called to confirm the time. Jacob the receptionist put me on hold only to come back and tell me again they had to cancel. Two same day cancellations is unacceptable! I asked to speak to their office manager, Mary Samba, and was told she was in a meeting and would call me back. It's been one week and I've yet to hear anything. The overall professionalism and response that we experienced from the front end staff is appalling and I hate to think what other families are going through, especially when all we're trying to do is do right by our children. Stay away. The doctors in the ped dev department are the same, so go to them at another office, like in MoCo. I've gotten feedback from other moms that they've had no issues out of the other offices.