Lake Saint Louis Dermatology — Local services in Lake Saint Louis

OK, I waited a week to "count to ten", before I posted a review, in my best effort to be fair, and not make an angry review, in haste.

I have used SSM, at 40/270 before, and that is the basis for my comparison.

Everything went wrong. I feel as though this doctor is all about the money, and believe I was taken for a ride. Considering that I spent close to $300 on this appointment, which was a two-part visit, one for an overall check and one for a specific problem near one of my eyes.

It took the doc less than a minute (yes, less than a minute) to look at my eye and say "This appears to be such and such, and there is no known cause or cure, just leave it alone for 16 days and it will disappear. I replied, well, this problem has been here A YEAR, and has not gone away. She gave me a blank look and repeated herself. I have bandaged the area, and hope she is right, as this looks just like it did 8 days ago.) After the one minute "appointment, she asked if that was all I had. I said, "NO, I scheduled this eye thing, and an overall cancer screening. She balked, but by now I was in no mood to be pushed out the door, and stated I had arranged with the receptionist for the screening, and despite my being late to get to my other surgical appointment (see below, this is disheartening.) it took months to get this dermatology appointment and I needed the screening. It seemed that she did not care for me standing up for what her office scheduled (maybe to patient overload?), but she relented.

When making the appointment, I stressed to the receptionist, that my schedule was very tight, as I was taking care of a cancer patient, who was to be in surgery for only an hour and a half , and my schedule barely allowed me time to make this long-awaited cancer-screening appointment. I asked the receptionist to PLEASE call me if the doctor's schedule was late. No dice; I arrived on time, but waited an hour and ten minutes to be seen.

After a flurry of interns/helpers came into the room, giving the impression that they were quickly going to get me screened and back on the road to my charges hospital, so I could check on his cancer surgery.

Well, that was not to be, as after a rushed Q&A session, the doc left the room, and I had to wait another 20 minutes for her to return to take the skin samples. More on that:

At SSM, they took a small (1/8" diameter) "plug" of suspected cancer and used two tiny stitches to close the wound. That caused minimal discomfort, and life pretty well continued as normal. THIS doctor said they did not use that method (I can guess why), but took postage-stamp sized, deep patches of skin. Not only is this more painful, but its a cleaning/bathing problem, as great care is needed to avoid drying these areas. It may take 3 WEEKS for these "patches" to heal, vs the few days the SSM version of plug/stitch). I suspect this may be a cost-saving method by the doc, so she did not have to take time, later to remove any stitches. I am beginning to wonder if the doc was prohibited, for some medical licensing reason, that she COULD NOT use the less painful method used by SSM.

I will not be back to this office. I also urge anyone needing a skin-sample to be taken, that they inquire about the benefits/drawbacks of the two sample methods. Its now been 8 days, and I have concerns that these open, large (postage stamp sized) areas may get infected somehow. With a plug/stitch method, I did not have those concerns.

btw, the doc is NOT part of SSM, and the cost reflects that. (and she has no access to SSM records) I did myself a disservice, as I inferred that since the doc works at an SSM facility, that my costs would be less than the eye-blinking...

Had to pay $75 to see the Dr. We were perfectly OK with this. My prior history being at a Doctors office I knew we would also have to pay more for the visit AFTER the visit. We walk-in fill out all of the paper work (after giving all of the insurance information over the phone) we had to give them our insurance card to retake the information down just for them to tell us we had to pay an extra $200 for the doctor to even see us. The lady at the window proceeds to tell us well shes the one that scheduled it as she does with all new patient appointments and claimed she told us. She never said we would have to pay prior to seeing the doctor. We understand paying for a visit for the services and any medication but we couldn't even find out if anything was needed before paying a total of $275. Communication is key and this dermatology office definitely lacks this with its patients and...

Appointment was for my 9 yr old. No complaints far as time spent there or staff, they were great……UNTIL they wrote the referral for my kiddo and i got home to find out the phone number they provided was for Direct TV customer service and the doctor they referred hasent been in practice for a few weeks (according to the individual i spoke with on the phone AFTER doing my own googling since i guess the staff doesnt know what that is). Not sure if this was meant as a light hearted joke or if they really are just that incompetent. 50$ later, turns out we have to do yet another assessment. Save your money and time. DO NOT go here. Especially for your...