Shady Grove Fertility

Shady Grove Frederick is one of their smaller office in my opinion, so we always felt like we were getting individualized attention. We always saw the same friendly faces at each appointment which took a lot of the anxiety away. The clinic is well organized. From our first contact to set up a consultation, to financial counseling, to our final appointment before discharge, everything always ran smoothly and the staff had all bases covered. I really liked how patients get a patient portal online where you have direct access to your test results, monitoring and treatment schedule, and messaging for your doctor, nurse, front desk, or financial coordinator. If I had to name one weakness it would probably be that they are not open on weekends for monitoring or phone calls, so if one of your monitoring days falls on a weekend you have to travel to another office. For us, it was Rockville, MD which was an additional 30 minute drive.

Staff at the front desk wasn't extremely friendly. It didn't bother me too much, but it did bother my husband. I forgot my insurance card, but I had the app with all the important numbers. The clinic is not really digitalized, so couldn't just insert my patient numb, they had to make a paper copy of my card. In 2019 seemed weird. Financial person didn't contact us, but waited for us to contact him. I would have like to have somebody to talk to us right away. But it's all ok

Shady Grove is massive and I worried I'd be just a number with them. It's not the case. The entire staff is compassionate, helpful and caring. I also believe their size allows them to be cutting edge and have vast experience and expertise. Nothing seems to surprise them - probably because they see it all. I also love that they have a Wellness Center onsite with acupuncture! I participate in the Shared Risk program which gives me peace of mind. It's a wonderful option and is not something I've seen available at many other places. An exception to my high praise is the billing department. To be clear, I don't mean the financial counselors - April Jackson was wonderful. The billing department is unresponsive and challenging to work with. I had a really bad experience with them working with my insurance that caused me a lot of added heartache I didn't need. I mentioned this to my nurse, Shawn, and financial counselor, April, and they helped me escalate it to a senior person on the team to help get resolution.

Shady Grove is a large practice and it is a business. They do their best to provide the best care but by nature because it is such a enormous practice you are constantly dealing with different people for all parts of the process. It would be easy to feel like a number but I actually don't. I think it does force you to realize you and your partner are in charge, and you must consistently speak up for yourself at every step. They appear to follow science to the enth degree and for that I respect them.

Their front desk is sometimes clueless and it at times takes several times to get through. However, their after hours line is very responsive. I would keep on top of your financial responsibility because we had to advocate a lot for ourselves to be reimbursed and make sure we were really paying what we were supposed to. Otherwise the clinic is good. They do have a rule to not bring your kids in which we LOVESD because who wants to see a persons child that you can’t seem to have yourself in a place where your paying thousands to have a kid? Just loves that they were sensitive toward that. It’s also renovated and clean. I’m not sure if it’s up and functioning yet but when we left they were building a procedural suite next door for retrieval’s, transfers, etc. which was much more convenient than going to their facility in Rockville. It was working to get accredited by insurance companies first at the time so we couldn’t use it. But still pretty neat! Also parking is terrible. They have one parking garage that services 4 office buildings. So arrive early to make sure you get a spot on time.

Shady Grove Fertility - Chesterbrook is like a well-oiled machine. The waiting times are minimal (10-15 minutes max, although it was usually closer to 5). When you first walk in the receptionist always greets you with a smile. The medical assistant/phlebotomist is extremely skilled and makes you feel at ease when getting blood drawn. When getting ultrasounds done, they are gentle and explain everything that they're doing and what you're seeing on the screen. I've always been able to get an appointment when needed, even on a last minute or emergent basis.

Shady Grove is huge and therefore has the expected strengths and weaknesses. Strengths: multiple locations, very good hours for appointments, usually pretty efficient monitoring hours Weaknesses: takes some time before various personnel get to know you. your doctor is likely not going to do your procedures

It is a little slow and hard to get someone on the phone. However they do a great job managing all aspects of the process. I personally think their business office is amazing as they do all that they can to try and help you figure out the best way to pay for everything.

Shady Grove Fertility knows what it is doing. I am sure they churn out patient after patient every day. To some people this may make you feel like you’re just a number to them but for me it was a comfort because it meant they knew what they were doing. I never had anything but a kind interaction with everyone who worked there and the nurses there are above average. I had trouble getting blood drawn and they were so patient and kind to me every time I was there (which was sometimes almost every day for weeks at a time).

Shady Grove's (SG) strength is in its reputation and size as apparently the biggest fertility clinic in the nation. With experienced REs across multiple centers, the within network expertise is available to guide treatment plans in difficult cases. I liked the flexibility of being able to go to any of its numerous locations (even in several states) as medical records are linked. Overall, getting an appointment is easy especially for monitoring, which can be done in different centers across town rather than needing to be at one's primary clinic every time. Having said this, I found it necessary to book a post-treatment follow-up appointments with my RE weeks out (typically at the start of a cycle) if my goal was to not miss any time due to scheduling availability. While getting a phone consult to regroup was an option, in-person consults had to be scheduled further out. Even though one has to medically qualify, SG's programs such as Shared Risk allow for a certain sense of security to the stress of many unknowns associated with IVF cycles. While I haven't used SG's Shared Risk program, either party (clinic or patient) can choose to withdraw at any time in which case the patient receives a full refund. Although I learned of this too late to fully benefit when first seeking care, SG provides a free consultation for would-be patients who attend a free seminar. This is a terrific idea since some insurance companies make women jump through multiple hoops before being allowed to see a specialist yet timing of early diagnosis is so critical to improved outcomes. SG's major weakness is that patients do not see an RE at every appointment (far from it) and unless one really tries, it's possible--likely even--to have very little interaction with the clinician overseeing your medical care. I had to specifically work on getting attention from my RE between consults since SG is nurse-centric-in patient care, which is admittedly to a detriment relative to competing clinics. For instance, I had to actually ask to receive attention from my RE between consults via call-backs by request through my nurse or run-by Q&A during monitoring if we happened to intersect (his idea & willingness, by the way, for mid-hallway dialogue). Admittedly, my RE was quite open to grant the extra time and even came in purposefully early on numerous occasions to do my egg retrievals himself. Were it not for my RE taking an interest in seeing me succeed in having a baby, I would have left SG for one of the several competing clinics offering more ready access to its REs. I further think that much can be missed by having REs only analyze images rather than being there to see results firsthand and would urge SG to restructure its practice towards a greater fraction of direct patient care.

Sometimes the clinic was really crowded and I would wait 30-50 minutes for an ultrasound. This would happen maybe 25% of the time. Usually bloodwork was on time and quick. It was usually wasy to schedule appointments for times that were good for me.

They have a brand new facility, which is always nice. I wish they offered more adjunctive treatments like acupuncture her in their Richmond office. Appointments usually start within 15 minutes, so wait times are generally short.

Shady Grove Fertility - Frederick as a clinic is welcoming and clean. The staff is friendly and professional. It is a little bit of an inconvenience that the Frederick office is only able to do bloodwork and/or ultrasound and I have to travel for any other type of procedure. Initially, when we started this process over a year ago, they were rearranging their staff and we went through 3 nurses before we landed with Janine. That was a bit confusing because it felt like we didn't know who we should be talking to, and when we did talk to someone, they weren't always sure what our protocol was. I think, now that they have figured out the staffing changes, that both nurses we have dealt with are doing their best to make us feel like patients and not just numbers. Overall, our experience has been a positive one.

The clinic is waaaaaay too big, and people are treated like a number. Read your contract VERY carefully and make sure you understand exactly what is and is not covered. If they ask you to do an additional test or appointment, make sure you check to see if it is included, otherwise you will be stuck with an extra bill. The financial department is also a complete mess. They couldn't have cared less about my questions and they were unresponsive, and sullen on the phone. They didn't do a good job of figuring out my insurance coverage, and I had to make a number of additional calls to my insurer to make sure everything was correct. They also advised me to not bother to check the prices of medications with other pharmacies, since they had a deal with a specific pharmacy. After I had already bought the drugs, I talked to other SGF women who had found drugs from lots of different pharmacies for cheaper. My nurse also did a terrible job of helping me to order the exact right amount of medications for my last cycle, which means I have unusable drugs in my fridge now. They let you donate them back to the clinic, but you can't return them, which is ridiculous. I felt really manipulated and take advantage of by the end of my care at SGF. The care I received from monitoring nurses and retrieval staff was excellent, however.

My clinic has very good hours to accommodate my work schedule. They have excellent administrative staff included those at the front desk. I never had difficulty making the appointment I needed. They were very efficient at getting patients in and out for morning monitoring. I did feel that they had a large number of patients to manage but we knew that when we chose to use them for our fertility needs.

They can often feel like a well oiled machine, which they are, but it’s difficult to get a first appointment if you aren’t looking for “traditional” treatments. For example, I called initially to get a baseline fertility test and was told that they don’t do that unless you’ve been trying for a full year. I’m not in a relationship and considering becomeing a single mother through IUI, so that’s not really my situation. When I called again to schedule an egg freezing consultation I was told that I was too young (read: under 35). I’m 32. I had to fight to get them to let me get an appointment. The entire time I was scheduling it, the coordinator just kept telling me how young I was. And it turns out I was right because I have diminished ovarian reserve. It was really frustrating to get that first appointment but I’ve actually had a decent experience beyond that. I would just be sure to tell a new patient to be persistent and to be your own advocate if they aren’t taking you seriously.

I wouldn't be at the clinic if it wasn't for their doctors. The clinic is updated, and the now has an IVF facility. The front desk is typically a mess and sometimes doesn't answer the phones. Most of the non-nurse, non-doctor staff, not all but most, treat you like a number. My financial advisor is nearly impossible to reach. You have to be proactive and stand up for yourself in an office that sees so many patients.

The clinic is very modern and welcoming. Several of the initial coordinators were great, and provided us with a wealth of information. The waiting areas are very comfortable and provide a bit of privacy for the couples to wait for their appointments.

They were always understanding and flexible. With traffic in the morning sometimes i would call if I would be late and they were always very understanding. Their receptionists knew you by name quickly. They offered very early appts which were helpful with our work schedules.

This clinic is run very smoothly and timely. The clinic is very clean and accommodating for my family. (I have a 3 year old son who had to be snuck in a few times). The staff is friendly. They have weekend hours at different locations that isn’t too far away from where we live. I just don’t appreciate how I was treated as a number by the doctor.

It was easy to get an appointment, and the locations are convenient. All of the staff were competent and kind. I did have to call to remind the insurance/billing specialist about my authorizations, after not hearing from them before a procedure.