New Hope Fertility Center

Just once, I was told to continue taking a certain medication but they hadn't called a refill in to the pharmacy. So I tried calling New Hope, but it was the weekend so they were closed, so I e-mailed them, and someone was able to respond and call in the prescription. It was resolved quickly, but still an oversight.

I once had two nurses in the same day email me two differing amounts of estrogen to take for the upcoming twelve days. I had to clarify. Also, whenever my bloodwork results come back, I always have to ask for the details of my follicle lengths. Not the end of the world, just an annoyance.

In general, everything went good if you think for how long I've been going (around 10 months). 1 or 2 mistakes... we are humans!

I have several drug allergies and when I was passed between doctors, it was like they hadn't even read my chart. It was clear from their questions they did not even know the cause of our infertility. I was given BC for another retrieval round even though I was headed for transfer and since I'm so drug sensitive I had horrible headaches for days for no reason. Just frustrated me at the time on top of everything else and just the general stress of all the meds and hormones. I was never informed I had "switched" doctors (I hadn't), so when a new doctor who had been assigned to do my egg retrieval then ordered an endosee and spent all of 10 seconds explaining what was involved, I trusted them to move forward with this plan and assumed it was routine/ordered by the primary doctor overseeing my care. I will spare you the details, but the endosee, which we could not complete, was traumatic for me and the most pain I have ever felt in my life. In my opinion, the doctor took the procedure much too far witnessing the level of pain I was struggling with, and did not even return to the room to check on me afterwards even though I was sobbing. Given my history it should have never been performed without sedation (both my retrievals were under anesthesia) and it was clear to the primary doctor overseeing my care that I could not take vicoden or valium (allergic) which were offered to me the morning of... thus I was not administered anything for pain at all. Being offered these meds was my first tip that this was not a mild procedure (and that again important details about my medical history weren't coming up at critical times) and I felt extremely ill prepared going in. Looking back I still can't believe it happened. You do have to be flexible because your retrievals and transfers have to be timed perfectly and you get who is assigned that day, but you really need to learn to advocate for yourself and not hesitate to ask questions, raise eyebrows, trust your gut, and reiterate things about your unique case to make sure nothing falls through the cracks. Eventually Dr. Olcha performed a hysteroscopy on me under anesthesia. He discovered mild cervical stenosis, tried a water ultrasound, sono (I think), and performed a mock transfer to make sure that on the day of it would be smooth sailing. I was so grateful for his patience and it felt like he went above and beyond even though what he encountered was trickier than he expected. I felt so relieved and that he maximized the opportunity to explore my condition during a single procedure.

I would have liked if the clinic provided more than one sit down consultation with the doctor. Before starting a second IVF, I would have liked that they met with me, discussed what they think went wrong, and how they were going to address it for the next one. They should have told me, after the first egg retrieval, that I should prepare immediately for another, and the reasons why. Instead I was presented papers to sign I could barely understand, while waking up from sedation, by a disgruntled employee who didn't want to deal with me, or my collapsing recovery chair, being told that I was to have another egg retrieval for the first time. I'd also would have liked to have had an opportunity to speak to my doctor with my pants on, at her desk, and not in the exam room, about my case, with her halfway out the door. They booked her solid and ultimately I stopped seeing her and didn't care. Next, the billing cashier ran my partners credit card for a charge without notifying us first. She also didn't allow me to get on the wait list for the final blood draw before the egg retrieval until I paid. I waited a half hour thinking I was soon to be called up. The charges were all explained and she told me what the charges would be. Then gave me the receipt, and told me she'd email the receipt too (never did). Then my partner gets a cc notification that another 550 was charged, without an email notifying us that this was happening or a receipt to our emails. Overall, the cashier is the most demoralizing of the experience. I have no problem paying for services rendered but to make me line up like I'm buying tacos at a food truck is just not respectful of our time or money in a room that's supposed to be about "hope". Also, being 42 I don't think the doctor advised me accurately from the start at how slim the chances were of having good enough eggs and embryos without abnormalities. She is skilled and intelligent, and great at her job, but could have let us know how small the chances were before we got into it. We could have opted for a more aggressive treatment cycle.

They have a full-time female anesthesiologist, her iv insertion requires an additional injection of lidocaine before IV insertion. Its an additional needle stick and its not necessary if you have decent veins. I wish their male anesthesiologists were back. They had no problem getting my veins.

Communication need to be improved. I like the rates, but not sure if I am sacrificing care.

The doses amount was translated in units instead of mg. Also type of pill I am taking her mixed up sometimes. But they do have an emergency number too call

I received conflicting information from nurses on one occasion, which was disconcerting. I also had trouble getting prescriptions called in.

The billing department is not as well ran as the nurse and sonogram staff.

My issue is one of communication. In a high stress time, I really need someone to sit with me and speak clearly, explaining my options. I’ve gotten much savvier in this process, but the stress was tough. I’d love a counselor to be on staff permanent and as a feature of care for the patient.

Not calling in prescriptions

They don’t explain why they chose a protocol or explain why changes were made

Clinic told my wife that she had ovulated when in fact she had not.

Twice I didn't get an email with my instructions and had to call and hunt someone down to give me the info. On the other hand, they once went out of their way to help me get a prescription quickly so I could travel.

I often felt like the ball was being dropped and had to stay on them to get the information and then call back again to confirm only to find out I was given wrong information. I really feel like they had too many clients otherwise why did this happen so often. I also had about 18 mos of waiting in between cycles because they did not do FDA paperwork correctly on my donor eggs so they were unable to transfer my embryos until the FDA did their audit, it probably exactly why I have not had a 2nd child. infuriating.