Stanford Children's Health, Pediatric Group of Monterey

Newest Update: We received a call from our daughter’s pediatrician. After my husband talked with the pediatrician about our experience, we ended up deciding to give them another chance. Receiving phone call directly from the pediatrician, meant a lot to us so we increased the star review from 1 to 4. We’re first time parents, have lack of sleep, and I, post surgery from my cesarean, have extreme difficulty walking, so taking our daughter for almost daily weight checks was too much for us to bare. Our daughter’s pediatrician listened to our concerns and apologized for our experience with their clinic, and offered a convenient way for our family to still continue with their clinic. Previous Review: Worst pediatrics office in Monterey county!!! I had a cesarean and was expected to come in with my newborn for a weight check almost every freaking day right after leaving the hospital. Our daughter was discharged from CHOMP as perfectly healthy with no medical conditions. My husband and I called the office and asked can we please weigh our daughter ourselves. The staff said any questions must asked in office. They won’t even bother to ask a simple question to the doctor, they just want to bill our insurance for any little non-emergency item! This office is obviously trying to reach a insurance sales quota, their focus isn’t on healthcare. And this office should be ashamed of themselves!!! Update: We called Ryan Ranch Pediatrics, their front office staff was kind and straight forward. Weigh-ins are you be done weekly, not daily!!! Don’t take your children here! Not unless you want to wait an hour long for a doctor to weigh your baby for 1 minute, leave for 45 minutes and come back to do heart stethoscope check for a minute, wiggle legs for a couple secs and say come back tomorrow for another check up!

TL;DR 5 star doctors, 1 star office staff and since they seem to run the show, it makes for a pretty bad experience. The doctors here are amazing. The office staff is difficult. 15-20 minute hold times when trying to set appointments. Worse if you have any concerns. They are completely unwilling to work with you. We’ve been taking our children to Dr. Bennett since they’ve been born and he is great. Unfortunately we only see him for about 50% of our appointments anymore, again, because the office staff just schedules us for whenever and to see whoever. Unfortunately, if they can’t get a handle on the office staff and terrible service they provide we will be finding a different pediatric group.

Impacted. Left on hold for over 20 minutes. Submitted an online form to be contacted for my daughter's new patient appointment. No one ever called or emailed. Stanford needs to recruit more pediatricians and NP's for this group. From my experience and that of other reviewers, I would double the current office staff as well. As it stands the clinic is not able to serve the community with the staff they have.

Very poor customer service and unprofessional behavior. We had an appointment set for our kids, months in advance. We were driving from Salinas to their practice in Monterey but,since we were a few minutes late, we called and let them know we were going to arrive 10 minutes late. They said: "Fine, I'll let them know." Well, we arrived and they stated that Dr. Bennett was at a meeting, at the same time our daughters' appointments, which could mean they double booked or they wanted to make a point. I understand they are professionals, and being punctual is very important, but things sometimes come up, hence the calling ahead of time to let them know we were only 10 minutes late. And frankly, it is not like they are very punctual. As a professional too, I'm tempted to bill them for my wasted time. The attitude of the receptionist was rude and in a "not my problem" kind of way. They gave us an appointment for two weeks out, even though we had serious medical concerns. We now have to scramble to find another pediatrician that can see us sooner because of this. Not going back.

Even with a letter saying that the hospital would adhere more to their late policy, my 3 year old daughter still had to wait for over 1 hour to be seen by the doctor. We arrived more than 10 minutes prior to her appointment which the hospital asks for 10-15 minutes prior. I had to ask 15 minutes after my daughters scheduled appointment before finally being called back to have my daughters height, weight and vitals taken. We were then given a room where we had to wait another 15 min before being told we had to change rooms where the Doctor is able to use the computer better. After getting into the new room, we had to wait another 15 minutes before the doctor finally came to look at our daughter. I don’t believe the Hospital when they says they care about our time, since we wasted over 45 minutes waiting for the doctor, not including being early to our appointment. The staff is kind and takes care of our daughter well. They just don’t know how to manage time or inform patients the doctor is running behind.

Customer service is a disgrace. I was trying to make my daughter an appointment and get her registered into their system after moving up here from Alabama. I gave them my information and was told i would recieve a call later for registration. Never got a call back. I called the next day and explained what had happened to a different lady. I was at home with 5 bars of service and the receptionist told me i kept breaking up and told me to try again later and hung up. I called 5 minutes later no service problems...same spot in my house, a different receptionist answered the phone. I asked if i could make my daughter an appointment and get her enrolled in their system as a new patient and i asked if we could get her physical done for daycare and get her 15 month shots done also. She told me “no physicals until the end of February” and put me on hold then i was hung up on...again. I call a third time to a DIFFERENT receptionist, explain what my daughter needs, and she says “no physicals till the end of April, sorry.” Her attitude was very disrespectful and unprofessional. There is no need to hang up on people trying to recieve medical attention for their children.

Our personal experience with this facility, and Doctor Penn in particular, has been nothing but excellent. I had doctor Penn as my pediatrician when I was young and many, many, years later he is still in business and seeing my own child. The history and continuity is kind of nice but his competence and great manner with children is nothing less than outstanding.

I worked with the Pediatric group of Monterey for over 12 yrs.. and I believe it to be one of the best pediatric office's around. I have recently moved... and well NOTHING compares.. It may have it's moments at times when people feel appts are too far out or scheduling multiple kids can't be done, but sometimes there are reasons behind that. Esp with well exams.. The Dr's like to take time with the child scheduled to give them full attention. Kids like that. Sharing their appt with a younger sibling sometimes takes away from them and, well, that's just not fair. So when you get upset or aggravated.... i wish I was still there to explain these reasons... but you can ask to speak with a Dr directly or leave a message for the nurse. I hope this helps a little. The office is full of Dr's that really care for their patients... I know I miss all of them...Staff and Patients.... :

I was very happy with this office. Dr. Bennet was wonderful! You can tell he enjoys his job and really cares about children and their wellbeing. He takes his time and answers any questions that you may have. I would recommend him to anyone with children. All the staff I ever came into contact with were friendly and helpful.

Every parent is concerned about their child's well being and I am writing this review to assist parents in deciding if Pediatric Group of Monterey would be a good choice for their child. I know because I myself tried to find out as much about him before I decided which pediatrician to "stick to". We wanted a pediatrician for our newborn who was competent and who we could trust. We found one in Dr. Todd Dwelle. He offered to meet with me even before my son was born. He was very calm and soft spoken as he described to me how he treats his tiny patients and how he makes himself available for consultation including email responses for non-emergency concerns. He said, "You may have concerns for which you don't necessarily need to go to ER or call in for a nurse and I'm here to answer some of those for you..for example 'my baby is having green poop'" He made me smile and I walked out feeling comfortable that I had a doctor "next door". Dr. Dwelle was at the hospital when my son was born and then we visited his office thereafter. He has very good memory. I shared with him how my OB/GYN had made a mistake after the baby's delivery at CHOMP and immediately he recollected that I was not feeling too well and had to stay back at the hospital another day and still didn't feel right. With so many little patients to care for, Dr. Dwelle surprised me by remembering about his new patient's mother! My son has been traveling quite a bit including internationally. I have consulted with Dr. Dwelle before, during and after my travel as needed and he has always provided me with his feedback along with some options. I like his method as patients don't feel stuck with a solution but have alternatives when they are not close to their pediatrician. My son was throwing up non-stop when he was out of the country at 5 months age and we called the doctor's office while on our way to ER. We were advised to just give him Pedialyte and keep him under observation. My son recovered in a few hours. I cannot explain how grateful I felt for having my son under the care of the Pediatric Group of Monterey. Dr. Dwelle is very understanding and has always accommodated us for appointments around our travel schedule. Seldom his office staff appear as if they don't want to help when they tell you over the phone "Dr. Dwelle is fully booked for the next ...months and the wait list is too long". However, I have been persistent and called in again to find a different staff member who is understanding and "willing to help" and has squeezed us in. Overall, I am very much appreciative of all the nurses and administrative staff at the office so I would not give the orchard a bad name due to one bad apple. One of my son's favorite books is a gift to him from Dr. Dwelle. Dr. Dwelle's advice, knowledge and techniques used for treatment are admirable. He never prescribes strong medication right away. He listens to parents and tries to understand what the symptoms are indicating. It is not always straigtforward to pinpoint the problem and Dr. Dwelle tries the elimination method to get to the root cause. He also researches different medication and cautions parents of side effects. He is observant and does not jump to a conclusion. He never rushes through an appointment and ensures you feel you are being cared for. It is good to be greeted by a smiling doctor and cheerful nurses who do not intimidate your little one or you. We have recently relocated to the east coast and one of the things we will miss a lot is the care our son received from Dr. Dwelle. He has been very kind by offering us to contact him anytime with questions even after our move, which makes me less nervous, however, I doubt we will find another pediatrician like him.