I've gone to this practice for 12-13 years. In ALL of that time, my biggest complaint will always be the office staff. There are a few individuals there that have been there 12-13 years, and they are by no stretch of the imagination nice. Actually they can be extremely rude, extremely impatient, and are frequently apathetic. If you are sick with something specific, a smile can do wonders, but don't expect anything but your insurance card, credit card, cash, etc. to be ripped out of your hand before you can even let go of them. In 12-13 years, they apparently have not realized (nor have been told) that they are the first thing people see when you walk into the office, and they are the first people you will talk to when you call or have a problem. It is a business like others, and to be successful (aka, you don't get 1 star), the staff needs to be courteous, empathetic, etc. Extremely more irritating, their rudeness extends to elderly people (the staff will frown and sigh if an older person is taking too long paying, or perhaps needs information repeated). They have the attitude where they can be ignorant to the elderly, because, perhaps, they won't hear or understand. Well, I've been the next person in line behind an elderly person being treated like that, and if it were not a doctor's office, I'd easily go ape-s**t on them for the attitude. They seem to have a good bit of turn-over in 'newer' staff, and I'm not a bit surprised, strongly and rightly assuming that the atmosphere is toxic with the office staff who have been there a long time.
It's all good if you don't have any billing or insurance issues. Over 12-13 years, I've had issues, each of which were not satisfactorily resolved, and I just gave up. The one insurance issue I needed their help with, ended up costing me ~$550 worth of Quest Diagnostics bills. The office staff had dropped the ball in speaking to the doctor about my issue, and when I followed up by providing info to my doctor, they again dropped the ball. It was wasted hours of time calling Quest and Aetna and PMA, trying to coordinate the puzzle pieces.
In the last 3-5 years, the wait time in the waiting room after check-in has drastically improved; average maybe 15 minutes. For years prior to that, it was common to wait 30, 45, 60, and times even longer, as they were running 'late'. Like I said though, they did improve a lot.
I've seen a few doctors there, and only one (Dr. Sodacoff [spelling may be incorrect]) I didn't like. He wrote a book at some point, and he does proceed to 'plug' the book during your entire visit. He did keep reiterating the fact that I'm unhealthy and will die early. I appreciate open honest dialogue with my doctor if they are going to know my life history. A doctor would not be doing his job if they didn't point out habits / behaviors that were unhealthy and the ramifications of not changing. But I walked away from the appointment feeling a bit demoralized, and like his book, if I bought it, would be a panacea. I'm overweight and I smoke, so, yeah, I get it.
The remaining doctors and nurses are genuinely kind and empathetic, but the terrible office / front desk staff drastically detract from that fact, to the point that I'm changing practices. read more
