Quick question here, Those of you who see Dr. Bonnie Ramsey, has she always been there or was she once at Duke? Her name is so very familiar.
Now to the question at hand. We are a retired military family and have been to many CF clinics over the years, all accredited centers for the CFF and one in Europe. The best clinic to one person may not be to another. My girls have been to Duke, Cook Children's, Dallas Children's, Phoenix Children's, St. Petersburg, Maastricht (NL), Dayton Children's, UNMC, Lucille Packard & Stanford, LSU Shreveport (present). My girls early years were very healthy so visits to clinic were about every 4-6 months, those clinics were Duke, St. Petersburg & Phoenix. We weren't very impressed with Dayton Children's docs. The hospital was decent back in 2001. Maastricht was in The Netherlands so they don't count but they were awesome! Loved the doc & the hospital! Out of all these centers, our collective most favorite place was UNMC (Omaha, NE). We so loved the doc's, clinic staff and hospital staff and the hospital itself and were so confident with them that we allowed our girls to go to college out of state to return to them. A 10 hr drive away from home, because we trusted the doctor's that much! My oldest once told one of her docs (she was 19/20 at the time) that if he ever moved that she'd just follow him to keep him as her doctor. Lucille Packard/Stanford also was a superb clinic. My oldest was listed for tx at the time we went there and the CF clinic staff was wonderful! We had relocated for that. Dallas Children's was the adult clinic and they are great! Doc is aggressive and a great bedside manner. My daughter really liked her. Now, she is married and goes to the adult clinic at LSU Shreveport. She really likes the doc there. She went from the children's CF clinic to the adult clinic and is the director of the CF clinic. My daughter likes that she is really in tune with her patients and listens to them. The hospital itself could be better. The nursing staff is pretty good, most of them are super nice but as with any place, there are a few not so great ones. Cook Children's is the only clinic that has multiple CF docs that didn't seem to work as a team. You see only one doc. If you are in the hospital, the other doc's share call but don't (at least from 2005-2008) get involved, even when you're in hospital. For example, if you call the clinic and it's your doctor's day off, well... ya gotta wait til tomorrow. It took 24 hrs to get a call back when you called, almost every single time. This was a huge adjustment coming from UNMC where you saw every member of the team and if you called, 98% of the time you spoke with a real person. She'd take a message, the nurse, Stacy, would call you back usually within the hour and then after talking with the doc, would call us back before the end of the day.
A good clinic depends on what your needs are. Some people need docs with a great bedside manner, others don't really care as long as their great docs. We, needed both. It's good to be within a reasonable drive to your clinic but sometimes not always possible. Good luck in finding the right fit for you and your child.
