Dell Children’s Circle Of Care

I had not been happy for a while but felt somewhat loyal to my pediatrician. She was always friendly and laid back, and would address my older child by name even when we were there for my baby’s well check. But then she started splitting her time between this location and somewhere else, and our last two appointments were with some random person, and I decided to make the switch.
Much of the staff was unfriendly, and the wait times were always outrageous, turning a simple well check into an almost two hour ordeal at times. They do at least have televisions playing kids shows, but I find it odd that there are no toys in the waiting or examination rooms. I realize that it is a doctor’s office, not a playground, but every other kid-​oriented doctor or dentist I have been to, and even usually ones that are not pediatric in nature, have had some toys to keep kids occupied. As a result, kids tended to run amok in the large waiting room, mistaking it for a track to run laps on.
I also received some terrible medical advice for my oldest child. I almost hesitate to bring it up because I did like our pediatrician, but it was serious enough to mention. I fed my son peanut butter when he was 10 months and he had a reaction. I told my pediatrician what had happened and said that I suspected he was allergic. She said that babies often outgrow allergies, and I could try again in a year. She also said that allergy tests are not reliable at that age, and are also expensive, but I could have one done if I wanted. I was fairly ignorant about food allergies at the time, and took her at her word. I continued to monitor ingredient lists and avoiding peanuts, but did not take any further measures. When I switched pediatricians, she was mortified. She scheduled blood tests right away and prescribed epi pens, as well as referred me to an allergy specialist. It turns out that my son IS allergic to peanuts, as well as almost all tree nuts. If he was in day care or I didn’t monitor what he ate there could have been a potentially fatal event. Luckily nothing ever happened, but if it had I would have been completely unprepared and ignorant.

I’ll start off by stating my reasons for 4 stars and not 5 for this location. 1) PNP Kate Paskiewicz. We used her for my son up through his 3m well-​check. She’s very kind and knows how to recite things straight from a medical text book; which, hey, can be good sometimes; however, her lack of experience in both pediatrics (because of her young age) as well as motherhood (she can’t possibly be a mother with some of the advice she’s dished out) forced me to choose a different practitioner that was respectful of our parenting decisions. I felt judged by her on several occasions after leaving the office (e.g. not wanting to take her advice on allowing my 3mo to cry for extended periods using a stop watch/​timer so that he could learn to «self-​soothe,» or not wanting to add rice cereal to my child’s bottle to help him sleep longer. 2) Calling the 800 number. Good lord. If you’re calling to make an appt, then you may get someone within 10 minutes. But call to speak with a nurse? You have to make it to the customer care representative first and THEN you’ll get transferred to a nurse. The wait has been up to 45 minutes on a few occasions, and I believe once I had to leave a vm on the nurse’s line. I have never once been able to speak with my son’s PC over the phone. 3) The waiting area consists of a few framed pictures of cartoon characters on the wall, and two televisions. That’s it. This is a pediatric waiting room? There is not one thing for kids to do while they wait that involves interaction or learning.
On to why I love this place, and it’s for one reason only: Dr. Jeffrey Bocchicchio. We began using him when my son turned 6mo (he’s now 13mo). You want a great pediatrician? He’s it. I have complete and total trust for this guy. He is a wonderful and knowledgeable Doctor that respects my parenting choices (I practice extended breastfeeding on demand; we are anti-​CIO; we bed-​share, we delay certain vaccines; we take a wholistic approach before the mainstream approach first) all while still managing to give his professional opinion sans judgement, imagine that. My son’s insurance will be changing over from Medicaid by the end of this year. Most people would jump at the chance to take their child to a «better» non-​Medicaid establishment. I, however, plan to see if our new insurance will allow us to continue to bring our son to Dr. Bocchicchio. THAT’S how much we love this guy.
I’d love to give a 5star review based solely on Dr. Bocchicchio himself, but alas, Round Rock needs to know the woes of this place as well.