I have a question, I hope this is in the right spot! We are moving to San Diego, CA, and I was wondering about pediatric healthcare there. Balboa is the big military hospital there, right? Does anyone know if they have pediatric subspecialties there, (such as pediatric cardiologists, etc) or do you go to San Diego Children's for specialized care? I like to know as much as possible ahead of time, and Tricare's website is not very specific, and I didn't find much on Balboa's website either. Thanks!

Im pretty sure that Balboa has subspecialities.. if you want to be seen off base, im sure you know the drill to get the referral.. but my girls are seen at Childrens and theyre very nice there

Yes Balboa has specialty doctors.

If your child has a problem, they will probably let you be seen there (at Balboa) but when my son was born, they were full and not taking any new patients in Pediatrics.. HTH.. :D

If your child has a problem, they will probably let you be seen there (at Balboa) but when my son was born, they were full and not taking any new patients in Pediatrics.. HTH.. :D

That would suit me just fine, I would rather have my daughter seen by the specialists at San Diego children's, I just didn't know if it was possible. Thanks!

The only thing I can tell you is that overall Balboa is a very nice hospital. They were redoing labor and delivery when we left which is good because that area sucked. But I never had anyother complaints about the hospital it self.

I've always had (until coming here to Japan) civilian care for my kids. We only took them to Balboa if TriCare said we had to.

my son had reflux when he was little,they sent him to childrens hospital.

my daughter is seen at chula vista childrens and i love her doctor same one my brothers had. and i know tricare is covered by them or vice versa

Balboa has a subspecialty peds clinic. You don't have to be seen at the Balboa peds clinic to be seen at the subspecialty clinic. My 5 year old has congenital emphysema, bronchomalacia, laryngomalacia, asthma, reflux, and allergies. He's seen at Mirimar FPC for his primary care and has been seen at subspecialty peds for his other care. He's seen the pulmo doc since he was 3 months old, the cardiologist before he was born for an abnormal heartbeat in utero and he's also seen the allergist, ENT and GI doctors at Balboa. Some of the docs who see patients at Balboa actually come over from Children's hospital. When they see you through Balboa you have no co-pay or out of pocket costs. We've had wonderful care at Balboa, minus our one NIGHTMARE trip to the ER.

Right now you can not even get a Navy Ped. for your kids here. They are all closed. SO when you get their PCM- they will more than likely go to Children's Hospital. ;) That is my kid's reg. ped and so far I (L) them!

Forgot to say that my 9 year old daughter also sees the cardio at Balboa. They are doing some testing to see why she is having chest pain.

Ste,
May I ask who your son's pulmo doctor is? My daughter has severe tracheobronchomalacia, (along with other things) and right now her pulmo pretty much makes all of the decisions about her care. He is her primary doc in all but name, so I'm very anxious to find a good ped pulmo. We also need neuro, cardio, GI, and ortho, but I'm mainly concerned about pulmo and GI.

Gabe sees a peds cardio, pulmo, nephro and hemotologist at Balboa. I refuse to deal with Childrens anymore. when Gabe was hit by the car, we were told wrong on so many things with Gabe it was unbelieveable!!!! but that is just my experience. I love all of Gabe's dr's at Balboa. all of us are seen at NTC for our PCM's.

Ste,
May I ask who your son's pulmo doctor is? My daughter has severe tracheobronchomalacia, (along with other things) and right now her pulmo pretty much makes all of the decisions about her care. He is her primary doc in all but name, so I'm very anxious to find a good ped pulmo. We also need neuro, cardio, GI, and ortho, but I'm mainly concerned about pulmo and GI.

He sees Dr Henry Wojtczak. He is WONDERFUL!! Makkiah has congenital lobar emphysema which is VERY rare and Dr W was pretty confident about his diagnosis after being shown a chest x-ray by the peds ENT doc. He defiently knows his stuff AND he has an awesome repoire with the kids. We've seen 2 or 3 different GI docs from Childrens (they see him at Balboa) and I only cared for one of them. All three tried to tell me that his reflux was not an issue. I found it interesting (tongue in cheek) that his reflux didn't have anything to do with it but as long as we controlled it with meds he did better respiratory wise. Dr W pretty much manages Maks care. He prescribes all of his meds and he will consult with the other docs as he feels is necessary but he makes the decisions and he keeps on top of Mak's care very well. Our PCM won't even treat him without first consulting with Dr W.

Well I can't say much for Balboa's ER but my son is in the subspecialty clinic.....but if you could get your kids into chilidren's and it's close to where you'll be living I say go for it!