UNC Family Medicine at Blue Ridge — Local services in Raleigh

If I could give this place negative stars I would. My wife and I have been coming to this location for the past 7 years. The doctors are nice and attentive, and they actually seem to care for their patients.

The office staff is horrible! Every single time I go in for an appointment, I end up waiting an additional 30-45 mins in their lobby. The office staff are constantly implementing new policy changes without informing their clients. First it was "If you are more than 15 mins late to an appointment, we will charge you $XX amount of money." Next it was you needed to provide physical proof of insurance every time you come in. These are not unreasonable policies. The fact that they do not communicate these changes to the clients is what makes this place so unprofessional.

The straw that broke the camels back was with refilling prescriptions. I called in a prescription (One that I have been taking for the past 7+ years) to be refilled. First I had to wait on the phone for 20mins before I could get anyone that could help me. Then I received a voicemail from the nurse stating my prescription would be available at 2pm the same day! Wonderful... except they changed their policy without notifying anyone. I showed up to my pharmacist and it was not called in. I contacted the office and asked what was going on. The 1st person I spoke to said that my medication was reclassified and it was illegal to call it in. My pharmacist informed me this was false and called up the practice himself. They told him it wasn't illegal, it was just their policy now not to fax or call in these prescriptions. Would have been nice to be notified by someone at their location that this had changed. I attempted to call them right back to complain, and they had switched their phone over to an answering service. They were still technically open for another 8 minutes.

So I went to their office (On my own lunch break) today and spoke with their office manager. I came prepared with the DOJ paperwork discussing the classification of my meds, and asked to speak with an office manager. She informed me that they do not intend on informing clients of these policy changes, and that they would have to just come in and get these scripts. This is insane. I asked why they couldnt fax or call them in (since it was legal to do so), and she gave me the excuse of maybe one day they could e-file them, but they no longer fax or call any of these in.

I informed them that I was unhappy with this policy, and would be okay with it if they had just told me. That's when she told me they don't plan on communicating these changes to their clients. To have the office manager just come out and say this was appalling. I calmly informed her that I would like to transfer my medical records somewhere else, and her only response was "You have to do whats best for you". No attempt at making anything right. No real justification for this policy change except for "I dont want to call or fax things anymore". This place is supposed to be a business. Not an oligarchy.

Thank you Blue Ridge for making me finally get off of my butt and find a more suitable place to receive...

6.8.22----updating, even though I don't think they care. Just phoned them to schedule an appointment. While things have changed considerably they still have these rude people manning the phones that have absolutely no people skills. It is extremely frustrated to ask questions and have the receptionist repeat the same answer over and over verbatim without any clarification.

3.26.18---Just phoned only on hold for 5 mins, which is a record for this place. They are still working on getting everyone in the CareCloud crm. Reached out for F/U after recent visit. 3.12.18---Called 3x today to schedule an appointment and each time there were like 15 ppl ahead of me. I hung on line for 10-15 minutes and then tried later, finally able to schedule my appt. Also, just received an email from CareCloud. A new patient CRM tool they are leveraging for better healthcare, looks as if you can schedule appointments and everything here. Happy to see a step in the right direction. Updating my review. Jan. 2018--- I had a visit back in January and I must report all went well. They actually squeezed me in to a busy schedule. Updating my rating accordingly. 12.6.17--- Editing this review because the service just keeps getting worse. So I reach out to them 12/5 around 10:30 AM to let them know I was having complications with a antibiotic they proscribed. I was slurring my words, unsteady on my feet, groggy, and having a really hard time focusing. After googling the medication these are all listed as pretty alarming side effects and told me to go straight to the hospital. It's now been 24 hrs and no one from this doctor's office has returned my phone call. Thank goodness for Google. Update: Received call from nurse 36 hours after calling. Smh.

11.27.17---They are the absolute worst. Horrible customer service from their front office staff. You will wait on hold for what seems like an eternity and more often than not when you finally get someone they will say a quick hello then hang up on you, if you don't respond fast enough. Today's appointment took me 1 hour on hold and being transferred back in forth to finally confirm. Billing department is atrocious and disrespectful and will never apologize when they make a mistake. I was overcharged for a service and it took them 6 months to refund my money even with me calling every month, they kept telling me our Operations manager hasn't signed the checks yet. They cancelled my appointment without telling me and then put it in the system as if I had cancelled myself because I refused to pay them a $25 copay they didn't collect at the last visit, even though I told them during the previous visit I needed to pay. I was scheduled for a $300 procedure so there was no need to pay the money separate and I told them I would pay when I got there and they still cancelled my appointment and didn't even communicate it to me. Despite all of the shenanigans with the front staff the doctor's and PA's are really nice and professional. I've been going here for almost 5 years and I've noticed a continuous decline in the service they offer here. It's time to find a new doctor's...

I originally changed my primary care physician to BRFP because my (then) current doctor actually killed someone in his office, was sanctioned, and he prescribed treatments that permanently impacted the quality of my husband's life. Our cardiologist recommended BRFP as an alternative. I convinced my husband to make the change with me. He saw Dr. Foley on his initial visit, and she almost accused him "drug shopping." I don't know, maybe they see a lot of that, I don't know.

What I do know is that they maintain staff that are clueless. I have had difficulty getting results from tests that are performed off-location. I once had someone from the office call me with test results who told me, "I can't pronounce it." and when I asked her to spell it, she told me she couldn't. I don't even concern myself with test results anymore. I figure that if I'm dying from something, they might let me know.

Just yesterday, I realized that I only had one day left on my blood pressure medication, and they said they would call in a 30-day supply, but that I needed to come in to see the doctor before they would extend the prescription further. So, I got to the pharmacy today, and guess what, no call-in occurred (and this is not the first time.)

Last week, I asked them to become a "management" physician for an autoimmune disease I have that impacts any area of the body that involves mucous membrane. They refused. They want me to have my dermatologist take that role. It's my guess that part of the problem is I asked for a maintenance dose of Prednisone.

I am old. I am tired. I am not looking for drugs. All I want is to feel better. My gynecologist has suggested changing to an internist. Maybe she is right. There is no pleasant interaction with the support staff at BRFP, and the doctors seem to feel that we all want something unreasonable. I think that, given all the fraud and other things they must see everyday, I just don't understand, However, I don't want to feel like I am involved in an adversarial relationship with my doctor instead of a collaborative one. I have never seen a doctor's office staff that was as dysfunctional as that at BRFP.

Who would have thought that a doctor's support staff would become more important in the quality of healthcare than the actual physician's care? Not me. But...