Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School — Local services in New Brunswick

I have been in this practice for many years and there is much room for improvement. About three quarters of the doctors are very good, but the support staff is horrible. There seems to be no care about customer service. The phone system is really bad. Very hard to get a live person, messages are not accurately given to your doctor. Urgent phone calls are not returned in a timely manner. Forget about trying to get a doctor on call during off hours, the phone system routes you into an endless loop to the introductory message. The referral system is equally as bad. You talk to a taped recording and it tells you that you will not receive a call back about your referral unless there is a problem. Well then you do not know if your referral was approved and executed to the specialist. You are told that referrals take 5 days, well that does not help you when you have an urgent problem and need to be seen by a specialist quickly, or need a scan or xray. Some of the doctors are poor listeners and ignore important symptoms. They treat the patient as if they are completely ignorant of medical issues. My heart attack symptoms were ignored by three doctors at two appointments for three weeks until I made an appointment with a very astute doctor under urgent conditions. Now the medical group has a Med Connect website where you are supposed to be able to access your records and lab results, however the website and your records are not updated in a timely manner. About a year ago I met with the administration of the medical school to discuss many problems and the same problems really still exist today. The only reason I stay with the practice is that I like my primary doctor and dread the process of researching and finding...

I was supposed to see a gynecologist here today after waiting 6 weeks for an appointment. If you type "125 Paterson St" into Google Maps, it, for some reason, deposits you about a mile away. I called and tearfully asked for directions, and I was hung up on by the call center, who told me they wouldn't hold my appointment. They told me to figure it out. How can you hang up on a patient who is crying and begging you for help?

I ran until I found the building, but the office called me back to tell me they'd canceled the appointment right as I was walking up to the office, just 2 minutes after my appointment time. The appointment was to find out if I'm infertile or not. They offered me another appointment date I couldn't take because I used the last of my PTO being there today. 6 weeks of waiting to find out if I'll ever be a mother or not, and they couldn't hold my appointment for 2 minutes because of something outside of my control that they should have been able to help me with.

I won't entrust my healthcare to people who genuinely don't care for their patients' safety, time, or mental health. I can only imagine I'd be treated as callously in person as I was on the phone today. The silver lining is that there is another gynecology office a short walk away at 1 Robert Wood Johnson where the staff actually care. It's all within the same RWJ network but entirely different staff. I walked over there and got an appointment. They couldn't see me the same day, but they were devastated for me, and it was the first compassion I'd experienced all day. If you're trying to make a gynecology appointment with the university hospital, ask for the one at 1 Robert Wood Johnson, NOT...

I confirmed my appointment 24 hours prior. I was told it had been changed from 1:00pm to 1:40. Not a real issue but I was leaving work early for the original time because I had a 45 minute drive. My appointment was with Dr. Penn who I never met and I still do not no why. Once I was brought to the exam room which was promptly upon arrival at 1:15. I was told the doctor would be right in. At 2:00 still nobody came in or even came back to provide me with any information. I left the room and and politely asked what was going on. First I was told that Dr Pen was not there today that I would see a covering doctor in less then 10 minutes. A half hour later I walked out I said I was leaving I was then told doctor Penn would see me in about 15 minutes. It’s now 2:40 ! Now he’s here !?! I continued out as quickly as possible. There seems to be no communication between anyone, there was way to much personal conversation going on in the hall and clearly no regard for patient care. I will also mention after sitting in the exam room for an hour and 20 mins they need to improve the overall cleanliness as well. Not a good experience to say the least and unfortunately this is not my first a RWJ. This review is not solely on Dr. Penn who I never met but more about people around him. It does make you wonder if everything going on around his office is disfuctional what kinda respect does he gather. This review is on the gastroenterology Department at 125...