Seeking Pediatrician in Long Beach, Lakewood, or Surrounding Area.

Hi N.,

I see another person has recommended our daughters medical group, Columbia Pediatrics. They are right down the street from the ER at Long Beach Memorial Hospital, n the corner of Columbia and Long Beach Blvd. Our child's pediatrician is Dr. McFarland and we love her and the other doctors in the practice are great too. I think they have like 8 different doctors. They also have a lactation specialist, if I remember correctly her name is Susan Orr, she helped me a lot with the issues I had with breast feeding. Their website is www.columbiapediatrics.com . We've been going there since my daughter was born 10 years ago. My OB/GYN recommended Dr. McFarland.

I hope you find a doctor that you like and trust. Best Wishes.
~J.

I must say that my son's have the best pediatrician ever. Her name is Dr. Jill Gaoghagan at Columbia Pediatrics in Long Beach (right next to Long Beach Memorial). Columbia Pediatrics has a group of about 6-7 Pediatricians who are all great, but I love Dr. Gaoghagan and so does my kids. They have seperate well child and sick child waiting rooms as well. If you have your baby at Long Beach Memorial they will come to the hospital to see the baby when it is born. I'm not sure if Dr. Gaoghagan is taking new patients, but you can call and see which pediatrician is taking on new patients. Sign up for the one who is taking new patients and then when you call to make an appointment just ask to see Dr. Gaoghagan. She is soooo great. She spends at least a 1/2 hour with you and your child and is very on top of making referral etc. Good luck. A good pediatrician is hard to find. J.

I like Pediatric Medical Center, 2921 Redondo Ave, Long Beach CA 90806 ###-###-####.

They have 6 doctors (we use Dr. Cox), all of whom teach residents at Long Beach Memorial. They have sick and well waiting rooms, and limited Saturday hours. You can interview one of the doctors, or all six, to determine which one you'd like to use. You'll see your designated pediatrician for well-child visits, and whomever is working for sick visits. I like Dr. Cox, she's very practical. My OB told me (after I told him who I selected) that his children go here, which sealed the deal for me.

*** I'm editing my response, because I forgot to mention that you can check out their website, www.informedparent.com. I like that they teach residents at Memorial, because as Dr. Cox told me when I asked her some questions about vaccines, since they also teach they have to stay on top of the latest research.

We had 21 years of good experience at Pediatric Medical Group in Long Beach. Our initial referral came from our ob/gyn. We were blessed with no serious illnesses, but friends of mine who have faced challenging health problems with their children have received high quality care.

Good luck and congratulations.

C.

Hi N.!
Columbia Pediatrics has good doctors and a nice office, and are very popular. We used them for the first 9 months and really liked our pediatrician, Dr. Lau.

BUT- many times when I need an appointment or to talk to a nurse, I get a busy signal or a fax machine sound and have to redial many times. Then, when my 9-month-old daughter became really sick in February, I was speed-dialing for 30+ minutes each time at different times of the day over a couple of days, and was unable to get an appointment. Not sure how sick she really was or what to do, I finally just took her to the the urgent care, where we had to wait for 5 hours, and then they diagnosed her with pneumonia and sent us to the hospital emergency room. (Everything turned out fine, thank goodness!)

As a result of that experience, we are now trying out Pan and Hsu pediatrics on Atlantic. So far, so good. One of the pluses to Pan and Hsu is that I get to talk to our actual pediatrician, Dr. Pan (instead of whoever is on call), when calling after hours, and she actually remembers my daughter. Also Dr. Pan takes more time with my daughter, the patient rooms are more spacious and the equipment is more modern. (The waiting room is not great, however.)

Hope this is helpful!
-R.

I loved Dr Nation in LB
I also like my current Kaplan group in Los Alamitos. They have eperate sick and well rooms. I guess my first response would be I wish I still went to Nation. He and his partner Dr Bebe are wonderful although they are both older men. LOVE THEM! They do not have seperate sick and well waiting rooms