My favorite children’s hospitals, doctors and medical suppliers in the Philadelphia metro region

Are you new to the Philadelphia area or looking for the right pediatric hospital, doctor or other medical service provider? If so, you are in the right place! I navigated pediatric care in the Philly area for eight years and I’m going to give you my cheat sheet of my favorite people. You may or may not end up utilizing their services, but at least it’s a starting point. You will notice that this is not a comprehensive list of providers in each category. There is a reason for that. I am only including providers and services that I would recommend to another parent. Anyone that I do not have personal experience with or was not satisfied with did not make my list!

My recommendations for Children’s Hospitals in and near Philly

You should know this. If you are in the Philadelphia area or are about to move there, you have hit the jackpot in terms of medical care. We’ve lived in three metropolitan areas in the Northeast (DC, NYC, and Philly) and so far Philly definitely rises to the top. So, take a minute to breathe a sigh of relief before you continue reading because you have certainly landed in the right city.

CHILDREN’S HOSPITAL OF PHILADELPHIA (a.k.a. CHOP)

Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, also known as its acronym “CHOP”, is ranked #3 under “Best Children’s Hospitals in the U.S.” by U.S. News and World report. It is only outranked by Boston Children’s and Cincinnati Children’s Hospital. Even if you look up rankings by specialty, you’ll see CHOP is in the top three in most categories.

I certainly do not dismiss the credibility of published rankings for anything. I always use them as guide when looking for any product or servce. When your child is a frequent user of hospitals and doctors, however, your own experience will ultimately end up outweighing any rankings.

CHOP definitely measures up to its rankings for us, and we have high standards! This is definitely the place to go if your child does not have an established diagnosis yet or if he/she has a rare disease. CHOP has many specialty clinics and research trials as compared to other hospitals, too. You can also rest assured that you will find quality care during any ER visit or hospital stay. The nurses are extremely skilled and the doctors know what they are doing. I even found the residents (doctors in training) to have good bedside manner and ability to interact with parents. I mention this because this has been lacking at other hospitals we have been to. CHOP also has convenient satellite centers in the suburbs so you don’t always have to go into the city to receive this high-level of care.

We found inpatient stays and surgeries at CHOP to be of much lower stress than at other children’s hospitals. Their hand-off process between doctors is smooth. You are not left re-inventing the wheel when the day doctors go home and the night team takes over. This is typically the part of the hospital stay that causes us the most frustration at most hospitals but it was painless at CHOP. This is something to be valued highly.

Hospital stays are also bearable due to the good “amenities” for parents, such as the family center for books, snacks, laundry, and coffee in the family center. Volunteers even come around the floors offering free coffee and drinks donated by Wawa (love this chain). They even have sleep rooms that you can reserve so you can get some rest without leaving the hospital. Like I said, they’ve thought of everything.

Naturally, there are going to be some downfalls when an institution is so large and offers so much. First, it is quite common to wait a few months to get most specialist appointments. Once your child is an established patient, contacting the specialist can take a few days for a simple question. This involves a phone call to leave a message for the nurse, who then calls you back to take a message for the doctor, who will then call you back a day or so later letting you know what the doctor said. Some departments are better than others but it can surely make the whole process a chore. Using the patient portal is much easier, but unfortunately many of the doctors do not use it for communication (??).

I also found communication between departments to be poor but I find this to be true everywhere (I won’t go into my rant about this today). I feel it’s worth mentioning because you would expect it to be better based on the high quality of everthing else at CHOP. I was always the missing link for communication between departments until I stumbled upon Compass Care with Dr. Annique Hogan. CHOP Compass Care is a clinic that sees medically complex children and is trying to make it easier for families like ours by communicating with specialists and helping with coordination of appointments. They have definitely been helpful to us in bridging the gap when complex problems arise.

Keep in mind is that not every doctor or hospital that is ranked at the top is going to be the right fit for your family. You already know this. It’s not unusual that many of us will go to one children’s hospital for one particular doctor we really like while most of our child’s specialists are at another. This is exactly how we ended up getting some of our care at our other favorite children’s hospital, A.I. Nemours Dupont hospital for Children in Wilmington, Delaware.

Nemours Alfred I. dupont Hospital for Children

Nemours (locally known as “Dupont”) is gem of a hospital/medical network. It is often overshadowed by CHOP but it deserves recognition in my opinion. Nemours is smaller, but family-centered care is their priority. From the moment you enter the doors, you will find friendly people who will help you find your way. It’s not as busy as CHOP, so it is a calmer experience as you walk down their hallways. They try to keep wait times for appointments to a minimum and do a pretty good job of doing so.

Office visits at Dupont are quite pleasant. The doctors take their time and actually look at you versus staring at the computer for the entire visit (I know computers are essential nowadays but there is an art to using them while still providing a good patient experience). We noticed they are particularly good at explaining your child’s condition and answering any questions you may have. I was never rushed at Nemours and you know how comforting that when caring for medically complex child.

Calling the doctors’ offices at Nemours is not too painful, either. You will actually find a live person in a relatively short amount of time. You will still need to leave a message for the doctor but less steps are involved. The patient portal is also available, but not every doctor uses it (again, ??).

I felt coordination between departments was great! Our son needed two procedures by two different departments and they coordinated it seamlessly. I barely needed to get involved! What a breath of fresh air.

Inpatient stays at Nemours were also a good experieince for us. The doctors and nurses are highly professional and communication was strong. The patient rooms are designed with input from families and are very accomodating for the simplest reasons. For example, there is a TV for the child AND the parent! Also, a parent can order a food tray without even leaving the room. Makes perfect sense right? I thought so.

You should know that our experience with Nemours is limited to neurology, neurosurgery, and ophthamology. Our son has been seen by many more specialists at CHOP in comparison. Quite honestly, we would have seen more specialists at Nemours but the drive was about 25 minutes longer. We were pleased with CHOP and the specialists we were seeing at the time so we didn’t feel it was worth the switch or the drive. It was also more likely to that the local ER would transfer us to CHOP due to the distance so it made sense for us to keep the majority of our son’s care at CHOP. Nemours also conveniently has outpatient satellite centers in Pennyslvania and they accept PA Medicaid at all of their locations so it might be worth a try.

Now that I’ve explained why these two children’s hospitals are my favorites, I’d also like to share the specific doctors and other service providers I was very pleased with.

Favorite pediatric doctors and service providers in and around Philadelphia

You should know I’m not suggesting that these are necessarily the best and most recognized doctors in their field (although some of them certainly are). I’m recommending these doctors because I felt they good bedside manner, seemed very skilled, listened to my concerns about our son, and were thorough in their assessment.

1. Pulmonary – Dr. Anita Bandhari, CHOP – very practical and worked through our concerns step-by-step.
2. Gastroenterology – Dr. Jonathan Flick, CHOP – my favorite of three CHOP GI doctors we have seen
3. Ophthamology – Dr. Jonathan Salvin, Nemours – superb bedside manner and will explain everything in detail
4. Cardiology – Dr. Karl Degenheart, CHOP – not only did he give great cardiac care but also referred us to genetic testing that led to the diagnosis of our son’s genetic syndrome
5. Dermatology – Dr. Albert Yan, CHOP – He knows every rare syndrome so if no one else can figure out what your child has, he can or at least knows what to test for
6. Compass Care – Dr. Annique Hogan – created this clinic and will help you sort out complex issues
7. Developmental Pediatrician – Dr. Mary Pipan – ultimately diagnosed our son with autism. I must say I didn’t agree at first, but she was right all along.
8. Pediatrician – Dr. Bryon Lauer – Yardley Pediatrics, Bucks County, Yardley, PA – excellent bedside manner, very responsive, will pick up the phone and call you himself, and very comfortable with special needs children
9. Equipment Clinic – CHOP Adaptive Equipment Clinic (I have also heard Nemours equipment clinic is great) – knowledgable physicial therapists and have a variety of equipment as examples to try or see

The following are other medical service providers we have used and I would recommend:

1. Home nursing agency – Bayada Home Health – the most skilled nurses you’ll find, very professional and very good communication about scheduling.
2. Respiratory supplier – CHOP Home Care – easy to contact, knowledgable respiratory therapists, and quick delivery of oxygen and supplies
3. Durable medical equipment – National Seating and Mobility – never had issues with ordering any equipment. I worked with them through CHOP seating clinic and a few times through the school therapist without any hassle.
4. Orthotics and Prosthetics – Lawall Orthotics and Prosthetics – the only orthotic provider we used but always great.

I will reiterate that the Philadelphia area has a lot to offer in terms of medical support for our medically fragile kids. It may take some time to find the exact care and support you need, but I hope this list can be a starting point for your navigation of Philly’s services.