Rivers Edge Family Medicine — Local services in Columbus

The doctors and NPs here are all beyond excellent. My family has been frequenting this practice for over a decade. The doctors and NPs ask questions, listen, explain things really well and follow up. BUT about five years ago they acquired a new office manager, Cindy, who has been just absolutely heartless to me. When I was diagnosed with breast cancer she made sure to call me repeatedly to settle a bill for a co pay of less than $20. (While my world was falling apart.) When I was in treatment for my cancer and working over nights and still trying to make it to my med checks, Cindy made sure to give me a very hard time about the five minute grace period she’s so keen on. (Five minutes!) And once, when two appointments were accidentally scheduled at the same time, Cindy just bumped me to a later time slot, even though I had just worked over night and I desperately needed to get home to sleep. Then today, when I came into the practice and found out my appointment was an hour later than it was originally, I thought; she’s done it again!! That Cindy is just out to get me. (I had actually requested a longer appointment time with Erin, but they never spoke to me directly about changing my appointment time, they just left a message about it, after telling me that it was going to be just fine as it was when I had initially called in to ask.) So, I’m in the waiting room, mad about this oversight, mad that this horrible woman is ruining my doctor’s office, and she comes out and tells me that if I’m that upset about how she manages the office, I can just request my medical records and go to another provider. Honestly. I went right back up to the window and told her that I needed some assurance that my appointments would not be changed without directly speaking to me again and I told her that she really should apologize to me. She said, “I did! And I flagged your account so we know not to change your appointment times.” And I let her know that I shouldn’t have to special request that or be flagged. This had zero to no effect on Cindy’s conscience or demeanor. The nurse was then rude to me as well because I was crying—she put the tissues on a stool and kicked them over to me!! She said that if Cindy hadn’t changed my appointment time, I wouldn’t have had one—wait, what? I tried to inquire about the logic of that statement, but the nurse said she would just let Erin deal with me. Okay, that’s what I came for. Of course, I still managed to have a pretty good appointment with NP Erin Welch, but office manager Cindy and her rude nurses are just ruining this practice—if the doctors and NPs weren’t so excellent, my family wouldn’t go here, but they’re the best, so we put...

I am surprised to read some of the bad reviews here. It's true there is a charge for missing appointments and I totally understand that. I was also bummed about the charge since it happened when I had a newborn baby with jaundice (just a few days old) and forgot my older son's yearly appointment. It was $50. My whole family sees Dr. Blackburn and she is always amazing with our kids. She is kind, vivacious, and spends lots of time with us. She let my kids toss a ball in the boat hanging from the ceiling and even participed herself. She is very cool-headed, logical, and forthwright. The office has never felt rushed. In fact, they always see patients on time or even early. My first appointment they appologized for not getting me in sooner when I arrived 15 minutes early. I'm pretty sure they had me in 5 minutes before my appointment. The only reason I didn't give them 5 stars is that they didn't take me as seriously as I would wish when I asked for them to run labs for me. I was having some vague health issues. I know they were not easily diagnosable but I wish I would've been taken more seriously. When they ran the labs for me they did find a couple of problems and I wish they would have been more investigative so that I didn't need to advocate for myself. I received this same treatment by several other doctors so it's not a problem unique to this office. Overall I am satisfied with the level of care and am very pleased with...

Very much on time. I never have to wait. But if you're more than 5 minutes late, you will be rescheduled. That's how they constantly run on time. So no one has to wait. I received a response to this review from someone at Rivers Edge Family Medicine need Cindee & I appreciate the response, but I wanted to make it clear that I meant my review in the most positive way. I'll admit when I very first started coming to this office as a patient (over 10 years ago) this policy was a little hard to get used to. But now that I'm aware of the way it works & I just try to plan accordingly & try to do what I can to get there a few minutes prior to my appointment time & it's worked well so far. The real benefit to this policy is that I typically try to arrive about 10-15 minutes before my appointment time & in most cases, I'm walking out if the office at my actual appointment time. I literally never have to wait more than 5 to 10 minutes at the very most. I love that. I talk to friends of mine & coworkers who make an appointment to see their doctor for something minor& because of irresponsible scheduling, over booking & what ever other issues their doctor's office has, they could be at their appointment for several hours! What's the point of an appointment when you still spend all day there? I really appreciate my doctor's office's policy on tight appointment times for this reason. Life is too busy to spend 5 hours at a routine doctor's...