Banner Health Center Plus | Phoenix, AZ | Camelback Rd. — Attraction in Phoenix

In my humble opinion, this is a potentially dangerous situation for the facility, the medical staff and the patients. In my years of using Banner and their healthcare staff, and as an older patient, I feel this is an example of excellent healthcare professionals and their patients being negatively impacted by "assembly-line patient care policies" being imposed on those great professionals.

Wait times continue to increase both to get an appointment with your preferred physician and then when waiting to be seen when you show up for the appointment. In my personal experience (and confirmed at random times from frustrated staff members), that's likely a result of a scheduling issue being imposed, i.e., shrinking the time for each medical appointment. In turn that may result in inadequate patient-physician conversation to cover the many maladies of older patients. For me personally, I always think of another question I should have asked on my ride home.

I can understand both sides of the shorter appointments, i.e., shorter appointments create more opportunities for patients to be seen while keeping health care costs from rising. However, the overload is further impacting notifications of personal lab results, which are now being delayed, causing the potential for critical information that needs to be dealt with by the patient and physician to be delayed, which in turn may cause further medical complications.

My sincere hope is that the medical and administration staffs will force a self-review of those policies for everyone's benefit and safety. Perhaps it's not a "one size fits all" solution. Perhaps with the overly cautious situation that COVID has caused via TV and vaccination advertisements, it too is impacting the workload.

Perhaps, the area of practice needs to come into play. Perhaps there's a balance that needs to be struck between a physician's need to adequately address the patient's needs (expressed as minutes per patient), combined with additional hires being necessitated by the situation COVID has left in its wake.

These problems only add to the insurance industry's impact on our overall health with their imposed policies - especially for seniors. My sincere hope is that our healthcare teams will get together and solve these problems...

I had been having medium grade headaches since November 2023 and my primary care provider (PCP) suggested I make an appointment with a Neurologist when I went to see him in November. I had been treated at Barrows when I had a stroke ten years before and called them right away. I was given an appointment in mid-March which I thought it was kinda ridiculous but it turned out just right. During that period, my PCP had run me through all the suggested tests (CT, MRI, PET scan) and it was time for my appointment with Dr Tobin at Banner Health Center Plus. The facility was great and everyone we dealt with was friendly, professional and knowledgeable. When I got there, I was asked to fill out a headache questionnaire! That’s how tuned in they are! Dr. Tobin and his PA(?) spent an hour with us! Afterwards, I felt very positive about him finding a way to cure my headaches! He said the Central Scheduling staff would call me to schedule my MRIs soon. My only disappointment was that his first available appointment was September 26th. However, he did note that after three months, they would move me to a wait list where I could get access to cancellations. The facility was immaculate and extremely well-organized. After my visit with the Dr Tobin, I went to the lab and had blood drawn. Phlebotomist was friendly and talented at drawing blood. My veins are difficult to find and she got one on the first try. Had a nice chat about our crafts, too! Don’t hesitate to use...

I had a 9am appointment on 4/9/2024 at a specialist’s office at the Banner Health facility located at 1213 E Camelback Rd. After waiting for almost 2 hours, I was informed that my physician was at her other office that day. There was another patient in the waiting room with me who was also scheduled to see the same physician that day, so this was not a scheduling mistake made with an individual patient. The confirmed with the desk staff that our doctor was supposed to be at that location on that day and she confirmed that yes, my appointment and that of the other patient were correct. The desk staff were very frustrated as was myself and the other patient.

This was actually my second attempt to see this physician. Back in February I arrived for my appointment at her office on 12th Street only to learn I was at the wrong facility. I had called Banner Health earlier in the day to confirm my appointment and was given the wrong address by the customer service representative I spoke with. My appointment was scheduled at the Camelback location in their system, so I figured it was a one off error. That was when I was re-scheduled for my April appointment that she failed to show up to.

Banner Health clearly has a problem with their scheduling system and communication with their physicians. Due to this experiences I will be seeking care with a different...