Dr. Alejandra Cristina Ayestaran Cassani, MD

I took my 18 month old daughter to a 9:50 am appointment, didn't get to see the doctor until 10:50 am (do you know how hard it is to keep a toddler entertained for an hour?). Dr. Ayestaran was patient when examining my sick/fussy child and called in two prescriptions. When i went to pick up the prescriptions around 1:00 pm, I was told that Dr. Ayestaran had written one of the prescriptions down incorrectly and they had a call into her to confirm the prescription. Now 5+ hours post appointment...still no word from Dr. Ayestaran and still have a very sick child. I called up to CMA Pediatrics to see if there was another doctor or nurse that could confirm the prescription and was told that only Dr. Ayestaran could confirm this information and she is only in until noon. We are now looking into other doctors that can return a phone call in less than 5 hours and make my child's health a priority.

My daughter was a patient of hers for a year. I really liked the office and the convenience of appointment scheduling. The only awkward thing is that when you get there to check in, you and your child have to stand in line after about 5 other people usually. The waiting room is nice and there is the coolest parrot fish in the aquarium that my daughter loved. The next part of your experience is awful though. Dr. Ayesterans nurse calls you back. I literally cringe thinking of this woman. She is blatantly rude and impatient and seems to hate children. She was rolling her eyes and getting mad at me on our first appointment because my daughter did not want to lay down on a hard wooden plank to measure her height. Then on another occasion, she patronized me for giving her a pacifier. My daughter grew to be afraid of this hateful woman. She came in once after my daughter had shots and was trying to give me after-care instructions, and I was like I can't hear you over her crying, may we have a minute? And her response was, I'm just going to have to come over here and stand really close to you so you can hear me. I was telling my daughter not to be scared and she said not to use that word in the office. When I asked why, she said because they do vaccinations there. Excuse me? You are not going to tell me how to speak to my child. I like to teach her words to express her emotions. She never smiles and is always in a bad mood. Dr. Ayesteran herself is very nice but has a heavy accent and is difficult to understand. The medical assistant that does vaccinations is very sweet and gets it done really fast but none of that was worth dealing with this hateful nurse who should have retired in 1985. I'm not taking any stars away because it is not the MDs fault, just be aware.