Coastal Medical Waterman Pediatrics

We have been with Dr. McGookin since my daughter's birth almost 10 years ago. He is a wonderful, patient and very capable.We had a scare with my daughter and he handled everything immediately - getting us to a specialist and then following up with us on her progress.I am a very hyper and anxious mom who calls when my daughter coughs and he has never dismissed me.He calmly explains what is going on and how to treat her.I think he is amazing. more

Having been a patient of Dr Utter as a little girl in the late 60's thru the early 80's, it was a pleasure to bring my children to Waterman Pediatrics when my HMO folded. The best part was that I was an employee of Waterman at the time. I had the best of both worlds. I don't think I'm jaded in my view of this practice. Never will you find a better group of pediatricians, or a better group of co-workers. The doctors are ALWAYS there to answer even the most mundane question. In that office that there is no such thing as silly question. Drs. Shaw,Gaines,Lange, McGookin,Finigan,Kriz and Drs. Utter,Elofson,Tordoff are some of the finest in the field of pediatrics. After relocating to Georgia in 2003, I find that Drs in this part of the country are years apart in thinking, acting, and practicing in general. I was blessed a third time when my grandson became a patient at Waterman! I hold ALL doctors up to the standard of care we received over the years at Waterman and I judge the quality of the service I/we get by the knowledge that I was once employed by one of the best, and therefore know how an office should run. more

I, ironically have perspective on both of the experiences above. We too have been long time Waterman patients. (I am the mother of twins). I agree that back when Dr. Utter was there it was the perfect practice. His wisdom, personality and experience, combined with the younger, predominantly women Dr's he added to his practice made for a great combination of good old fashioned hands on experience and fresh new perspective and knowledge. My children were extremely premature and required significant care and without Dr. Utter at the helm (and the weight he carried at the hospital and the confidence and reassurance he offered me) they would not have turned out the way the did. That having been said, it is not the practice it once was. The dr.s that make up the practice have for the most part become focused on moving people thru and moving on. You do get the feeling that they don't really know you or your children any more. Dr. McGookin is one of the best of the new bunch of dr.s and hearkens back to the kind of care Dr. Utter would be proud of--but sadly he is more of an exception than a rule. Don't get me wrong--these are fabulous Dr.s and importantly have real weight in the hospital community and great connections for specialists and referrals--all great things. But much of the humanity and personality is gone. It takes hours to get thru on the phone. Office personnel are brusque to rude. Just not what is once was. The hard part is the good (knowledge, experience, quality of care and referrals) still outweighs the bad (lack of personal touch, sometimes abrasive doctors, challenging office staff/limited accessibility due to high demand). more

I've been a patient at Waterman/Coastal Pediatrics up until age 23 or so (I'm 25 now), probably much longer than most patients stick with their pediatric physicians. I initially was a patient of Dr. Utter, I vaguely remember hiding under the benches when I had to have a shot. I definitely must have caused multiple scenes in the office. Around 6th grade I began to see another physician at Coastal Pediatrics named Dr. McGookin, and he is primarily the reason why I decided to stay with my pediatrician for so long-- when I could have switched to an adult doctor at age 18. I'm currently going to Boston University Medical School, and ironically I'm interested in pediatric medicine. I had the unique opportunity to shadow Dr. McGookin last year for about 8 hours. This was a great experience because before-hand I had never seen how he interacts with other patients. I was extremely impressed. Not only does he treat the child and parent as equals (when appropriate) to gain the patients trust, but he really does care and love his job. McGookin really wants to improve the lives of his patients, and his charisma is unparalleled by any other physician I have ever interacted with, including Utter. Parents should feel very comfortable and at ease in his office, during my shadowing experience, he answered this one overreacting-mother's questions for 30 minutes longer than was scheduled- basically teaching a mini-microbiology course. I just hope that he doesn’t retire before I have children of my own. The only negative experience I have had at Coastal Pediatrics occurred while Dr. McGookin was out of the office. And the replacement physician, an older woman, was very rude to me and basically told me not to come back anymore because I was too old - in hind sight, she was probably right but I wouldn’t want her ever examining my child or explaining any information to me about my child. I don’t want to give the other physicians there a bad name just because of this one negative experience, in 23 years, 1 negative isn’t that bad. Also, there are two, maybe more, new physicians that I met when I shadowed Dr. McGookin. They are both relatively at the same age as Dr. McGookin was when I first met him, and they really impressed me as well. I believe that they would make great physicians and you should keep them in mind. Dennis Gray more

I have been seeing the pediatricians at Coastal Medical with my daughter for the past nine years. Dr Wilson Utter, the son of the founder of the practice, was fabulous, but unfortunately they were unable to clone him before he retired in 2003. The quality of the current staff of doctors really varies, but you should be able to find one whose style and philosophy is a decent match for you and your child. There is another review on this site by someone who is quite enthusiastic about Dr. McGookin. The office is bustling and a little frantic, and I sometimes wonder if our doctor (not McGookin, by the way) has a handle on who we are and what our daughter's health issues are, despite our long relationship with the doctor and the practice. The office staff is polite and friendly, but often appears overworked and harried. It is very difficult to get through to the office by phone. However, I have never had a problem reaching an on-call doctor when I needed one. Overall, our family doesn't really love any of the doctors in this practice, and when they move off the East Side (in 2006 or 2007) we will be moving to another practice. more