This office is great if the only thing your child ever gets is strep throat. If your child comes in…read morewith a sore throat, they'll diagnose your child with strep throat. If your child has appendicitis, they'll diagnose your child with strep throat. If your child comes back a couple days later because they still have appendicitis and are getting worse, they'll diagnose your child with - you've guessed it - strep throat again.
We had an absolutely terrible experience where three different pediatricians misdiagnosed our son's appendicitis over the course of a week. We went in on a Saturday because my son had intense abdominal pain beginning the previous night. Abdominal pain was his only complaint and symptom. We saw Dr Landis and she diagnosed him with strep throat. He had no sore throat and no cough, which was how he presented with strep when he had previously had it. We were surprised considering his symptoms, and my husband even mentioned that we were worried about appendicitis. "No," said a wildly incorrect Dr Landis, "If it were appendicitis, he would not be able to walk."
Two days later, my son was not better, instead he still had abdominal pain and was now also presenting with 101+ fevers, not eating, felt achy all over, and was severely fatigued. We tried to get an appointment for someone to see him 48 hours after the initial appointment, but the person answering the phone said no and to give it another day. So first thing the next morning we were back and with these increasingly worsening symptoms, Dr Zeman diagnosed him again with strep throat and changed the antibiotic.
Two days later, the office called and said the throat culture was negative for strep (to the surprise of absolutely no one living in our house), and we should come back the next day if he wasn't better. He obviously wasn't better since he had only been treated for a misdiagnosis of strep throat twice. This third time, now a week after his first symptoms presented, he saw Dr Kepler, who at least managed to not diagnose him with strep throat. She suggested a viral source, maybe mono, but at least ordered blood work. Later that evening, the blood work showed he had a raging bacterial infection. After receiving the results of the blood work, she called us and said we should go to Children's ER to figure out the source of the infection.
When the PA in the ER asked my son where his pain was, he pointed to his appendix with the precision and accuracy of a fourth year medical student. This ER Nancy Drew ordered an ultrasound, which showed a perforated appendicitis. (Yes, Dr Landis, it turns out you can walk around with appendicitis.) Even if this had been treated more seriously or thoroughly at the first or second appointment at Arlington Peds, I realize we still might not have caught this before his appendix perforated, but my son certainly did not need to get as sick as he became over the course of that week.
Not surprisingly, we chose to leave the practice. We are very lucky that our children have been healthy, but in this instance, when we needed a pediatrician to actually listen to our child and see this was a BIG DEAL, we instead received a series of mis-diagnoses, delays, and condescending attitudes.