Dr. Joseph Patrick Costello III, MD

This guy was the worst. Glad he has retired. He won’t be terrorizing any more parents or children like he did to me and mine.

My daughters has been been going to this office for six year and in that time she has only ever seen Joseph once or twice. She always saw Joan his wife. Now when my daughter was diagnosed with adhd instead of focusing on the care of our child I felt like it was just another diagnosis to them. Now I have a son who they changed his formula like they change there socks. They tried to diagnose him to be lactose and tolerant just because I had a history of it no testing at all. When my son was 5 months he came down with a cough so we took him in and they said it was viral and put him on antibiotics cause his ear was a little red. Now 6 months comes and he still has a cough they give him another antibiotic cause his throat was red but past his strep test and still said his cough was viral. ( you can't fight a viral infection if your on antibiotics) offered a prescription for albuterol for the congestion but husband denied due to thinking we already had it by mistake, we called Monday to get… prescription for albuterol cause husband made a mistake and they wanted us to bring him in cause there was no documentation about albuterol being offered. So I was done with this doctor and we put in for a transfer of care and they chose not to because of a balance on the account. And still today my son at almost 9 months he still has a cough. These people do not care about their patients I can recall several times that Joan was late and we would here some sob story but she would walk in with a Starbucks cup cause that was more important than her patients that were already waiting for her ( I also had an insider that knew her at the Starbucks she went to and would tell me when she go there before coming to us). I would not put my worse enemy in these people hands so I hope my story helps.

We have been taking our children to this MD for 17 years. Through location and many staff changes we have stayed through it all. Every year they get more and more disrespectful, and the new staff especially has been the most rude of all. When you call, be prepared to sit on hold for insanely long periods of time. The wait gets longer and longer, and the care gets less and less. Constant unnecessary billing. Some is even for things they make up such as "developmental testing". Which is a dry erase marker and a plastic questionnaire that anyone can fill out and lie on! If you are going to charge me for "developmental testing" you dang well better sit down with my child and evaluate them! On top of that is disrespectful staff, ungodly wait times, frequent misdiagnosis, and the list goes on. Now since my children haven't been sick for two years they are treating me like a bad parent! This was the last straw. My children will NEVER return to this MD. We have been nothing but loyal to… them through everything, and are done being walked on.

My 2 girls went here VERY briefly. Never once did we even see the REAL Dr., only his wife Nurse Practitioner Costello. 2 visits with both of my children they claimed it was "viral". No meds needed. My children continued to be sick for 1-2 weeks, before whatever it was finally cleared up. During that 1st visit my daughter was scared & didn't want to cough (that's what was terrible), so they did a strep test (for which I had to help hold her down for)-that came back negative & they seemed aggravated b/c she didn't want to talk or cough for them, so they told me it was viral & just sent me home to deal with it. Last time I called for a same-day apt. I was place on hold for 15 mins. When I called back & they asked to put me on hold, I was basically called a liar and placed on hold without another word being said to me-no simply apology for my being on hold for that long. Obviously, I got more upset then I should have & informed them I knew I should not have cursed & Nurse Practitioner… Costello, supposedly standing near, informed them to tell me because of my attitude with the staff they were refusing to see my sick 3 yr old. I went here in the first place against many warnings from other who used to go here-my advice, find a different Dr!

So many mistakes in the little amount of time that we were with him...let me reflect:-told me I just needed to use Desitin on my newborn's AWFUL diaper rash. I finally researched online and realized that it was a classic yeast infection...got over the counter ointment and it cleared it up very quickly. -told me my son was likely to get AIDS because I'd chosen not to have him circumcised. -when I asked about a bit of mucus that was continuously in my newborn's stool, I was told to go to the hospital for x-rays and testing. I tackled looking at my diet instead, and that was clearly the issue -- some sensitivity to something in my diet passing through my breastmilk, and nothing worth rushing to the hospital for!-when we had a brown recluse infestation in our old home, I was extra watchful lest my children be bitten. My daughter woke up from a nap complaining of a booboo, and I thought it looked like it might be a spider bite. I shook out her sheets, and out rolled a dead recluse. I put it… in a jar and watched the bite, ready to take her to the ER if necessary. It looked okay the next morning, but I called the ped to have her seen, just to be sure. Took the spider with me, as I'd read that spider bites are hard to diagnose without the actual spider. The doctor took one look at the bite and said, "If this was a brown recluse bite, it would look much worse than this. This is a trapdoor spider bite." I just rolled my eyes and said, "Okay." Went home, googled trapdoor spider...yeah, that's a tarantula native to the Southwestern US, Mexico, etc...NOT Southern IL!This guy's a joke!!!!

He treated families differently if he thought you didn't have insurance or were on public assistance for medical care. He told me that both my kids would need an expensive test fpr their heart. When I asked some more questions about it he said "they could be fine but they might just drop dead one day. When I lamented the cost, he said "oh I thought you had insurance then the test is not necessary." He immediately walked out and never gave me the prescription for the test. Other things he did were more irritations I guess but each one made me trust him and his staff less and less. I finally left and got another ped. I have never been happier and now that I have a comparison, I see I should have left a lot sooner.