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
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