I've had many appointments here, and in retrospect, I feel they were all more or less a complete waste of time. Initially, I thought we were getting somewhere - one of the doctors spent some time with me (after waiting forever in the room for him to show up) asking questions and poking and prodding. I had been in so much pain that when he wrote up a prescription and said it would help, I smiled all the way to the pharmacy without asking the right questions. But I quickly realized that the frequent follow-up appointments were little more than a revenue generator for them, and I got nothing out of it. The meds didn't work, so they would write me a new one and send me on my way with a follow-up appointment for a month or three.
I often found myself having to repeat information that I had told them previously... Frustrating, since it was often "Groundhog Day" that I was paying for over and over. After that first appointment, the doctor was a rare sight, and I was usually seen by a PA. Normally I don't mind this, but I felt like I was getting nowhere with the PA either... I had to explain things over and over and received what seemed like an infinite follow-up schedule with a dose of "let's try this drug next and see what happens." (In fairness, they did warn me initially that it may take many different tries at meds to find one that works.) When the doctor did see me, it was for literally 2-3 minutes, and he would slip out of the room as quickly as he slipped in. The appointments were very frustrating. I never received any relief from them, other than one drug that I told them worked (told them about it during my first appt, but it's not a suitable long-term drug.) They put me on a short-term dose of it (as a previous doctor had) to see if it would have the same effect on me the 2nd time.
Aside from that crummy service, two things really struck a nerve with me. I had one appointment scheduled well in advance, and later received a voicemail saying the doctor was going to be out of town that week and it would need to be rescheduled. When I called back, I found that they had simply cancelled my appt and left the voicemail. If I hadn't called back, I would have been "out of sight, out of mind" to them. Not surprising, since the front office staff typically had a "I don't care" mentality when I was in there. At that point I decided to go find an office that sees the patient as someone who needs medical help, not as a revenue stream. The other thing is when I ordered a copy of my entire medical record from them (which I had to pay for). Reading through the office visit notes, I was dumbfounded to find so many inaccuracies! Information was omitted, and things I said were completely twisted. Only a fraction of the symptoms I had mentioned had been documented. NO WONDER I never got any relief from these guys, it WAS Groundhog Day! If you're seeing as many patients as roll through here and have no idea what their issues are (due to poor documentation and clinic notes) then you are an awful long-term healthcare provider.
Shopping around for a good doctor is a crappy experience - especially when looking for a good Rheumatologist - but this place makes it worth looking for somewhere new.