Penn Ob/Gyn - Helen O. Dickens Center for Women's Health, Philadelphia PA

I knew when I went in I was not at the clinic I had made the appointment for. I had a very specific issue. I waited two months for an appointment to be seen at a clinic for this issue. I was not seen at the clinic. Rather, I was assigned to a resident with no expertise or experience in the area I was coming in to be seen for. I called from the hospital room, which was tiny and dirty to tell them I was in the wrong place. They told me to wait to talk to the doctor. The doctor, as I said, was not a doctor but a resident and completely unqualified to be working with me. I ended up leaving upset and frustrated and not helped. Additionally, they overcharged my copay by 20 dollars. Everyone was nice. That is the two stars is for the fact I had to wait forever for an appointment with a specialist, did not get to see one, and instead was sat in a tiny, dirty room where I was expected to allow a resident to examine me without any supervision. This was not remotely OK or ethical. Not only have a lost an entire day of work to prepare for and go to this sham of a clinic, but I am now spending my entire morning on the phone with my insurance trying to get my money back.

PLEASE LaDIES DO NOT GO THERE FOR PRENATAL APPOINTMENTS IF YOU CARE FOR YoUR BABY! In my case, literally google saved my life and it could have helped in early diagnosis as well if I had not trusted my Ob GYN in Dickens. What is the point of prenatal visits - to catch any abnormalities and to get educated on symptoms to watch out for. I did not get either. I had high blood pressure and the team ignored. I had others signs that something is wrong with pregnancy and the team ignored. They also did not give me information on things to do or watch out for in pregnancy. So what is the point of going there. I had the worst experience at the dickens center. I was visiting the Dickens center for my prenatal visits. My RN used to spend just 5 mins in the appointment, never gave us any information and would say only one thing in the appointment - “do you have any questions? ” And if you ask any question to her, her response would always be “it is normal in pregnancy” because of her my low risk pregnancy quickly turned into a high risk pregnancy because I did not even know what symptoms to look out for.she also never ordered us a blood pressure cuff or explained the importance of it. In our minds, blood pressure was something that you just get checked during prenatal visits. But they ignored my high blood pressure. The CNAs who measure blood pressure here are not educated at all. At my week 14 and week 18 weeks appointment, my nurse never listened to me when I mention about my symptoms and my sudden weight gain. At 22 weeks, my blood pressure was over 140 but the CNA said it cannot be that high and she tried multiple times in a different hand to get a lower number. She never recorded the right blood pressure and told me that I may be nervous. 2 weeks later I was admitted to hospital with high blood pressure and went into emergency c section. When I presented with very high blood pressure, they asked me to walk to the emergency at blood pressure of 180/107. They did not even have courtesy to provide a wheel chair. I walked and looked for emergency department for 15 minutes. By the time I reached there, my blood pressure was at seizure level. Please ladies don’t choose Dickens for your prenatal appointment if you care for yourself and your baby. Also is there a way I could make a formal legal complaint against the team taking care of me for being negligent in care. I feel that they charge very high amount to insurance companies for 5 mins of them asking us “what questions do you have”. It almost felt like the hospital purposefully does not encourage giving enough information about this condition. If you are going there, you need to extract information from them. They will not know about your scans, your history or anything. You need to remind them of everything and ask 100 questions. And, most importantly, ask everything on text so that they are bound to give you answers vs.ignoring your concerns.
While dickens for prenatal appointment is really bad, their labor department is extremely good. The RNs and medical team there was just fantastic

The doctors and nurses speak to you in a condescending tone. They do not educate the patients. One almost has to force information out of them. Please keep in mind that they will change an appt without first asking.

The Drs are knowledgeable and qualified (for the most part) but the coordination between Drs and Nurses is non-existent and will put your health and the health of your baby at risk. Nurses will always answer messages in the portal and it will be difficult to contact a Dr with problems that arise. M Eileen Sullivan, RN was not able to connect me with a Dr when my leg kept giving out post partum. Even though she acknowledged that I was unstable and felt unsafe carrying my son, she did not believe it was a serious situation and told me to get some rest.

If you need a prescription updated, be ready to go without for 2 weeks and it taking a lot of your time and many messages to get it resolved.

My first visit at 12 weeks the Dr was convinced my baby was dead. I did not see that Dr again. I regret staying through 33 weeks and now dealing with inadequate treatment for gestational diabetes.

I had 2 Telehealth appts with Dr Durnwald for Diabetes and she did not show up to either one. My appt with the Diet Clinician was 3 weeks after my diagnosis.

I had significant post partum problems and was never able to contact a Dr directly. They will call - but will never schedule a call so that you might be awake to answer it. It's like they have no idea what new mothers with weeks old infants are experiencing.

My recommendation is to find a different OB. I regret my choice.

While the staff were generally fine, my main issue here was always the wait. I received gyn and OB care here, and in both instances the wait times varied, often to the extreme of an hour-plus wait. I knew if I was scheduled on a work day I needed to block several hours just to wait.

Some of the nurses or doctors didn’t have the greatest personalities, but as I said, overall they were fine, and I saw many black women providers, which I liked.

It’s just a shame about the wait time. This influenced my decision to discontinue care here and not deliver at HUP. The woman this center is named after is a remarkable black woman and it feels like they are poorly carrying on her legacy by not elevating their service.

I gave birth yesterday and they moved me to a shared room! Shared bathroom! They turned the lights on at 4 am while I was sleeping after being in labor for 24 hours! Also, I can't hear what my nurse saying when there is another nurse talking to the family beside me! The other thing is I feel cold, they feel warm what we can do with the room temperature. I can't take a shower! I can't talk on the phone freedomelly, there is no space for my stuff and for the 2 visitors they allowed, I can't sleep it's noisy, Lots of annoying things hard to deal with especially for a woman who has just given birth. And when I ask for a private room they say you are on the waiting list! I've been on the waiting list since yesterday and I didn't sleep since then because it is SO NOISY. The family

Never going back to the that place ever again it's just a waste of time.