Poole, James, MD Growing Child Pediatricians

STAR RATING 0. Don't take you child to the GROWING CHILD! I have NEVER experienced the worse pediatric care more than this one for my 2 children. When I go in for care for my son, the doctor never brings in his medical record in the room and I always have to explain his history each and ever time I go there. The last time I brought him there he had fluid in his ear and all the doctor only gave him were ear drops. The doctor did not even want to make an follow up appointment. The sevice at the front desk is horrible also. When I try to schedule an follow up appointment, the person acts like I am bothering her day to schedule an appt. and smacking on her gum while doing it. When I look to find someone to pay my co payement, no one is around to pay. The nurses and service people do not greet us in anyway and not so much as a smile. The billing is aweful too. when we get bills mailed to us, the bills is so outratious that we have to fight with them to fix it. I schedule an appt for my daughter and the person behind the counter made a smart remark about me doing that and then she was talking about me with her other co-workers. It is time to change pediatrians and it will change really soon! more

DO NOT TAKE YOUR CHILD HERE! Notice ALL the 1 and 2 stars? Well deserved! You will get random bills from their inane billing department for months after you thought you paid or settled it!!!! I've taken my daughter to 2 different locations and, even though they're the same company, they have the inability to communicate with each other's records worse than the government! On top of the poor communication, their billing department, front desk, and managers are all horrible examples of customer service. Our issue? Well, they've continually told me that they'd fix our billing statement after they've charged us for my 1.5 year old's well checkups--which is covered 100% by my insurance. I'm getting charged because they're refusing to file it correctly with BCBS. BCBS tried to speak with them, but of course, their billing department is largely unreachable. When you do finally reach them, they either refuse to help you or they promise they've fixed it. Then, a month later you get another bill! I'm still getting bills after giving in and paying just so they'd quit sending them; and my daughter hasn't gone to them in over 6 months! It's like a bill just randomly appears 6 months later for stuff you thought was resolved! Now I have to call these bastards AGAIN to tell them that they're mistaken. I've spent 20+ hours on the phone battling with these jokers. Our new pediatrician is awesome. And, after several checkups, no bills! Don't stand for lackluster service from Growing Child. more

Growing Child Pediatric is very clearly a for profit business. If you remember this, you will be fine with their level of care and service. The staff is kind and friendly and when you see a physician, the quality of the care will likely be high and professionally delivered. Be aware however that they routinely over schedule to maximize their revenue stream and if you schedule anything beyond the first appointment of the day you will likely wait, often significantly so. Typical wait times, beyond the scheduled appointment time, run in the range of 30-60 minutes. However if you arrive late in recognition of their poor management practices, you will wait even longer. Unlike, for example the Duke Clinics, that monitor wait time and view this a key measure of service delivery, patient wait time is simply not important to Growing Child Group. Under no circumstance should you attempt to use this clinic on the weekend. On Saturdays, they randomly promise appointments to frantic mothers without regard to capacity and then the clinic will force parents to wait in the sick child room with other sick children for long periods of time without any update on their projected queue time. They only have one doctor on the weekends although the demand would suggest 3 or more. Experienced mothers will claim serious illness to cut in queue ahead of you and your wait could be more than 2 hours. Their weekend hotline service is even worse. If your need is minor you will be FAR better served by one of the many area Minute Clinics at CVS. As others have noted the medical staff here and other locations is usually early career professionals (new doctors) and it is unlikely that you will see the same doctor twice. Dr Poole Senior is a fine man and tremendous physician. His original clinic in North Raleigh was fantastic. Growing Child Pediatrics, managed by his son, does not continue the original tradition of service excellence. more

I've been to the New Bern Ave, Brier Creek, and Wake Forest location and my child recieved poor treatment at all three. This is truly low quality medical care and felt like I was at a ""free clinic"". Each time we came, we would see a different doctor and have to explain the history because apparently, they don't document each visit. My 3-yr-old was diagnosed with pnuemonia and when we went for follow-up the next week, they had no record of the visit. more