As a 4 time surrogate who’s worked with many fertility clinics, this has been my favorite! The nursing team always got back to me quickly, and made me feel like they really cared about me. The clinic isn’t senselessly strict, and helped us achieve a pregnancy on the first embryo transfer 💫
TL:DR DO NOT CHOOSE THIS INSTITUTION UNLESS YOU HAVE A LOT OF YEARS AND MONEY TO WASTE.
I should have read the Google review before I work with them. But they are the first one that referred by my primary doctor. With the strange American medical system, it's not trivial to get a referral. So I decided to be a patient of PNWF. It turns out this is a nightmare.
After I received the referral, I registered as their patient. I filled up a lot of forms and signed a lot of waivers and finally I could start to make an appointment. I was told the earliest available appointment is in 3 months. At that time, I was pretty early on my schedule. So I just made the appointment without thinking too much. The first incident happened 2 months after I made the appointment. They just cancelled my appointment. They called me to notify the cancellation and told me to call them to re-schedule. Sure, things happens. I understand. So I try to call them back and re-schedule the appointment. I called them multiple times over a few days. No matter when I call I them, 10am in the morning or 2pm in the afternoon. It's always a voice mail telling me I am calling them out of their office hour. Ironically, they will call me back in a little bit and ask me to call them again. I work full time and have a lot of back to back meetings. So I couldn't pick up the phone call during the meetings. After go back and forth for a 3 or 4 times. I have to write them an email to tell them stop calling me and I prefer to communicate through email. Finally, they scheduled the first appointment for me again, and it's a month later than the original appointment.
So after a long waiting time, I finally could talk to the doctor Zhou. After I told her all about my concerns and our life plans and my special conditions. I was told they could do nothing unless we have been try to conceive for over a year. I understand that doctor has some practice guidance they need to follow. So she ordered some blood tests for me. I have very decent insurance and based on the PDF booklet they attached to the email, the price doesn't look crazy. So I agreed on all the tests (it turns out to be another nightmare later).
When the test results came out, Dr. Zhou said I am on the PCOS spectrum but they won't do anything for the first year. So I trusted her and start to prepare for pregnancy. I do my LH tests everyday, we try not to miss any windows. For the first few months, it feels new and fun to me. But after a few disappointing cycles. This start to become very frustrating. After three cycles of monitoring, I contact Dr. Zhou's team and give them a detailed list of my records. They just say keep recording and let us know. I was a little bit unhappy at that point, because I don't know what is the point to let them know about this. Clearly, they won't do anything. However they did say I have to waste a year of my life before I can get help. So what else can I do. I keep doing my LH test for another cycle, let them know what happened. So they ended up scheduled anohter Zoom meeting for me again. (At this point, we have wasted 6 months already, not including the three months to wait for the first appointment.)
Meeting went ok, Dr. Zhou issued Letrozole for me. But when I ask for Ultra sound monitoring same time when I start the pill. She suggested me try the pill for another 3 months first. I have to ask her for a HSG check. She agreed on HSG.
The last straw that breaks all the trust is when I received a $15,000 bill from genetic testing lab. It turns out this lab is not in network with my insurance. And because this is the test that I requested. So it's optional but not required. So I have to pay out of my pocket. Because this is not in net work, so my out of pocket limit doesn't apply for it.
So at this point, I got a bill of $15,000, I didn't get any help from them besides a few blood tests and one ultrasound check at the beginning. I wasted 9 months of my life. After all of this, I finally look at the Google review and found another patient has similar experiences as I did.
It's a shame zero stars isn't an option. We actually LOVED Dr. Rothenberg but unfortunately, we could not get past the dysfunction and bad vibe of the practice itself. We gave PNWF two chances, a year apart. We were heartened to hear there had been staff changes and hoped it was enough to give a great customer experience but in the end we had to part ways (at our expense, delay, and hardship). Emails from staff were long and often not clear, or lacking vital information. The staff was extremely quick to blame and took little responsibility when things went wrong. They also had little empathy or compassion for the patient experience. The first time around, we had a difficult time even getting reception on the phone, including when we had urgent needs (this did seem resolve the second time however). Orders not sent, no help coordinating outside labs and appointments (not even help with suggestions of where to start). Terrible, terrible experience. This process is hard enough. Our advice? Save yourself the hardship and find a better clinic where everyone is happy to help you.
Couldn't say enough good things about this practice. Dr. Marshall was incredible. Her nurses and team were so helpful, kind, and supportive, explaining all steps of the processes and helping me weigh my options. Because of them, I have my family I've always wanted.
Dr. Massie feels like a part of our family now. Her compassion, diligence, and kindness got us through difficult times and helped us achieve our dream of having a family.
My experience with all of the staff was one of thoughtfulness and support. I never felt rushed through an appointment and always felt supported. As a healthcare worker myself, I was always impressed by the bedside manner, and how informed the staff is.