Dr. J. Edward Spence

Dr. Spence is rude and makes inappropriate comments. We have seen him 3 times now and will not be seeing him next time my daughter has to see the geneticist. He’s more than knowledgeable and makes sure you know that. He asks you a question and when you respond he tries to make you feel stupid for your response. He has made inappropriate comments at least 2 of the 3 visits that I can remember but has been rude at all 3. One of the latest comments was when my daughter was getting up to leave and he said “ I haven’t touched you yet, you can’t leave until I touch you”, while I know/ hope he didn’t mean it that way he should really rephrase that statement to a child let alone anyone. He also asked if “they” let her pass kindergarten at this appointment and at the very first appointment made a comment about her hair being crazy, my daughter is extremely mixed and her hair is curly, I had literally just done her hair and it was down showing her beautiful curls, a women that was also in the… room that worked at UNC corrected him. Those are just the comments I can remember at the moment.

Dr. Spence is a child friendly doctor. He is very thorough, and took time for all my questions and concerns.

You would think this office would take better care of their patients after forcing them to wait nearly 10 MONTHS for an appointment. The day of the appointment we waited nearly 45 minutes to see the doctor - and although a bit cold, Dr Spence was fine during the visit and the office staff was reasonably professional. The issue I have with this office came after we left; to put it succinctly, if you are expecting results on blood work in any reasonable amount of time you are better off taking your own sample and mailing it to a reputable lab. We were told to expect a 3-4 week turnaround for our results. After 4 weeks WE called and were told the director of genetics was on vacation and no one else in the office could read results. After 6 weeks WE called again and the director of genetics told us the lab director was now on vacation and no one else was authorized to read the results to her and insisted she would call us one week later with the results. One week and two days… later, WE called again and were told the machine at the lab was broken, so the test had not even been run yet. An expected 3-4 week turnaround (including insurance approvals) has now turned into two months plus - and that's only if they cannot find another excuse to offer when we call back again after week 8. The expected results are extremely important to our family, the director and doctor both know that and this is the best they have to offer? I am a very reasonable person, yet this is unacceptable. I am in process of cancelling our '8 month' follow up appointment with Dr Spence and scheduling one with a highly rated doctor in Raleigh. Driving 4 hours round trip to receive the care you need should not be required in this situation, but I'd rather sacrifice 4 hours of my time than sacrifice quality health care particularly when the health of our child is on the line. Assuming you care about what the geneticist has to say I highly recommend you weigh all of your available options before making a pediatric genetics appointment at Levine Childrens Hospital.

Seemed very concerned and caring! Spent time with us and made sure we understood everything before we left. Personable and friendly. I highly recommend him.

had to wait over 3 months for appt. had to wait over hour and half for appt. dr got call while with us and we had to wait additional 15 minutes. bed side manner was poor. gave me the impression that since he is the only geneticist in town for pediatrics that he was doing me a favor by seeing us. had no real answer for my daughter. overall bad experience