Penn State Health Lime Spring Outpatient Center — Attraction in East Hempfield Township

I have no complaints about doctors and the majority of staff. While overworked, my experience with Penn State Health Doctors has been very positive.

Penn State Health itself, however, is a cesspool. They have turned small family oriented practices into beurocratic soul sucking chop shops.

Instead of being able to connect with the office directly, whenever you call in you get one of those dreaded central call centers. These people don't know me and the wait times are insane.

During a recent system upgrade, I had an emergency that didn't quite warrant the emergency room, but still was something acute that I needed to see my doctor for. I called in and I waited nearly 45 minutes just to talk to someone and then the person who picked up put me on hold for another 22 minutes! All while I was feeling very ill. I was so frustrated I was all but sobbing at work.

My favorite recent development? You cna no longer pay for your visit at the offices. I mean, what???? Who thought of this? I know I have a copay due from weeks ago but before I knew about this policy I just figured I'd need to pay it next visit. Nope. They gave me a phone number for the billing department. I tried calling, was on hold for over 25 minutes so I hung up. How many people are going to end up in collections over this? What about the elderly who may struggle with these policies? Disgusting.

This absolute trash heap of a medical group also recently decided to close their White Rose facility that has been in operation serving thousands from the local community for years and years. Hence why I ended up in Lancaster.

This practice was thriving, had a full staff of great doctors and nurses and office staff. Penn state came in, and slowly things went downhill. Staff turnover was insane. They couldn't hire or keep any new doctor's hired...knowing Penn State this probably means they weren't offering enough compensation...and it lost the feel of a family practice. I went from knowing the office staff and being able to call in and get seen to having to face horrible wait times.

The closure was abruptly announced and thousands were told well, it's closing in a few months but guess what! You can come to Lancaster! Which is an hour or more drive for most people. Tell me, for an elderly or sick patient, how is it not deplorable to take them from a ten minute drive to the doctors office to an hour or more?

Practice had thousands of patients. Doctors are awesome. So how did it fail? Mismanagement by Penn State...

Absolutely awful experience. After having a skin infection for ten days that left me with fever and very ill, i was treated in the ER with IV antibiotics and told to follow up with family doc. Went to lime springs and the provider wouldn’t touch me or even come near me because of my past fever and current headache (which I mentioned was 100% related to the infection, NOT Covid). Mind you, I passed the temp screening and covid questions that got me in the door and was showing no signs of Covid. I even received a Covid test while at the hospital and it was negative, which I tried to explain to them but they couldn’t find it in my records and accused me of withholding information that i had a pending covid test. Then was told that it was probably a false negative and i should probably be rechecked. I ended up being prescribed a medicine for the skin infection from a single glance from six feet away. I will NOT take a medication for something the provider didn’t even take the time to accurately assess. I’m not even sure if that is ethical. I ended up being ESCORTED OUT like a criminal. Look I get that everyone is freaked out and trying to take necessary precautions and i would never knowingly put others at risk. But there are other illnesses besides Covid going on! There were so many other ways this could have been handled other than to act like i purposefully lied to get into the office. This situation was just incredibly unprofessional. Shame on healthcare providers who will turn away sick patients who rely on them....I will 100% be finding a new PCP who actually cares about patient health. UPDATE: iF I COULD GIVE THIS PLACE 0 STARS I WOULD. MY LAST EXPERIENCE WAS THE ABOVE. YESTERDAY I CALLED NEEDING ADVICE (DUMMY ME NEVER SWITCHED PROVIDERS), AS I HAVE COVID SYMPTOMS AND NEED A REFERRAL FOR TESTING. THEY TOOK MY INFO AND SAID A NURSE WOULD CALL BACK. WELL GUESS WHAT...NO CALL BACK YET. I GET THEY ARE BUSY IM SURE. BUT AT THIS POINT, CALLING THIS PLACE A DOCTORS OFFICE IS A JOKE. TWO OCCASIONS I ACTUALLY NEEDED THEM AND I GET THIS. NOT USUALLY ONE TO REVIEW THINGS NEGATIVELY IN ALL CAPS BUT THIS IS RIDICULOUS. BEYOND...

Bottom line: Terrible practice management, herded around like cattle, feels like you're checking into an airport, no communication, often left sit and ignored, etc., etc.

I only went to this practice because my long time family doctor from Oyster Point joined it. Once she left, I was debating finding a new family practice because I generally disliked this office atmosphere and the way things were run. Today was my very last straw.

I had an important, time-sensitive appointment that I scheduled well over a month ago. I showed up to check in this morning only to be told my appointment had been "bumped" -- to last week. I asked how they had attempted to contact me and the receptionist could find no indication I'd been called, emailed, texted, etc. I certainly had no recollection of a contact. Now to her credit, she attempted to fix the situation. She actually found me a time slot and had put me in it, checked me in and had me filling out the necessary paperwork. However, just as I thought this would have a positive outcome, someone else appeared and said no, I could not have that time slot and could not be seen today with no real explanation of why. There seemed to be no willingness to attempt to work me in to correct a bad situation. Nor did she have an explanation of what had happened to my appointment She said she'd "have someone look into it" as if that would help. I went home, checked all of my avenues of communication and confirmed what I already knew --- no one had ever contacted me . Well, they were right about one thing -- I could not been seen today and I will never be seen there again. I went home, called another practice that I'd been thinking about and explained my unfortunate situation. They got me in today and took care of my problem immediately. Thus, I've found a new family practice. It's a shame I had to do it on a Monday morning under duress but sometimes the good Lord works in...