Barbara Osborn

Strengths: They have many locations throughout the DMV (DC, Maryland, and VA), and this is helpful when you need a certain procedure or evaluation. I've even used their clinic many times in greater Philadelphia, because my evaluation coincided with visiting family. They also have an office or two in NYC, which I almost used, but they were more difficult to communicate with. The facilities are clean and decorated well. The waiting room at the main facility is very large, which gives you some privacy. Weakness is that even with all of the locations, all the IUI procedures would occur only at their Rockville location (which is the biggest, and where the cryobank is located, and the lab). This makes sense, but it is more difficult to get to if you are used to traveling via public transportation in the city. And some procedures require an escort to take you home. All in all, their facillities are beautiful, and they are constantly upgrading them.

SGF is big but Sibley is a small office so you don't feel like just a number the way you might in the Rockville office. Most of my monitoring was done at Sibley so it's the same nurses and staff that you encounter every time. SGF is very technical and wants the best outcome for you. Everything that they do is research based so you know that they are making the most educated decisions on your behalf.

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.

It is a business and run like a business but I trust their success rates. There is not a lot of personalization but I have not pushed too much for that either. There are a lot of locations so my main office is near my home for the monitoring and blood work appointments but I go to a further office for the IUI's as that is where they store the donor sperm.

Shady Grove runs a tight ship with some of the nicest nurses and physicians. The vast majority are thorough, kind and compassionate-- they know the specialty they are in, and take that very seriously and with care.

While SG is a high volume practice, I never felt that compromised the care I received. I think their state of the art facilities, the quality of the staff they hire and their success rate are all reasons to use Shady Grove. They were preferred provider for 2 separate insurances I used for treatment given that they are 1 of only 2 local practices to have received a clinical standard of excellence designation.

Shady Grove is like Starbucks. But the multiple locations, range of hours for monitoring, and fact that they provided dedicated financial advisors, and on site acupuncture made the process much better than most medical experiences. We also considered going with GW, and the doctors are great there and always gave great insight into our issues, but the staffing and locations were just more limited than what is available thru Shady Grove.

I rate the Nursing staff low. I rate dr Osborn high because of her bedside manner and interest in answering questions. I rate the administrative staff very low. Some are nasty. Most are unfriendly. You have to advocate for what you want/need and sometimes demand it from the administrative staff. In my case, I had to hold Shady Grove accountable for their responsibility in a contract and they were trying not to do it.

Shady Grove is very well-run. It's very organized. It is convenient - there are multiple locations, and I could go to different locations for blood draws or ultrasounds if a certain one was closer (i.e., if I was doing errands on a Saturday in Baltimore, I could go to a MD location and they'd do the work and have the results.) The waiting room is very crowded and that can get a little awkward. But they were always prompt with all of the appointments. They were great about squeezing me in the time I thought I was having a miscarriage. Ultimately I am glad that we made the choice to go here. I liked the injection class they taught - very useful and helpful.

Very research / evidence based. Some people don't like that they won't deviate from protocols but from my perspective there's a reason those protocols exists and I appreciate their adherence to evidence based medicine.

Multiple locations, convenient, runs like a well oiled machine, but also feels like an assembly line

Shady Grove is THE place to go! They know exactly what they are doing and have all the facilities with the most recent technology. I went to clinics in DC, VA, MD and PA depending on my travel schedule.

They did a nice job dealing with the insurance and let us know what we might have to pay for and how to get our drugs from insurance.Very helpful with scheduling appointments..............................