I'd like to point out that 14 out of the 16 5-star ratings were posted in the past 60 days.
First of all, I'd like to say that I am a person who calls managers to report when a person does a wonderful job, not the other way around so this is extreme for me. That being said, I was extremely unhappy with my experience at Gold's skin care. I would highly, highly advise against making an appointment there.
I went in for an annual skin cancer screening. First the front office staff was a rude and very short (not in height ;)). I waited for over 45 minutes before being taken back. Then I waited in the exam room for another 15-20 minutes. (I will say that the nurse was kind and so was the nurse practitioner... it's kind of a shame that the place is awful!)
The NP came in and looked at my bod then took out a marker and said ""are you going to do the procedure today""
I said...""what procedure?""
She said...""the removals""
I said... ""removals of what? I don't know what we are talking about here.""
She said ""These freckles look abnormal so you need to get them removed and sent to the lab. You're already here. Might as well get it done now.""
To which I replied...""Ummm OK, if that's what you think I need to do.""
So she left and the nurse came back in and numbed the places where the NP marked me up.... And so I waited some more. They took off a couple of freckles... and then I waited some more.
I left the office 3 hours later. 3 HOURS! sheesh!
A few weeks later someone called with pathology results from the lab. 1 freckle (mole) was fine and the other came back positive as a dysplastic nevus. This is a clinical way of saying abnormal mole... which no one ever explained to me and I had to look it up on my own.
Now... to be very clear about 2 things...
1)According to the National Cancer Institute, doctors believe that dysplastic nevi are more likely than ordinary moles to develop into a type of skin cancer called melanoma. However, currently, most dermatologists do not believe that dysplastic nevi develop into melanomas. Today, most dermatologists believe that an individual with multiple dysplastic nevi do not need to have them allremoved
(from dysplasticnevus website)
2) I don't know who called me... was it a nurse? a nurse practitioner? a doctor? a lab tech? a patient sitting in the waiting room? a lady walking her dog? someone's mom? etc... anyway she was clearly reading from a script and told me I need to come in to get a wider and deeper margin. She suggested I come in sooner than my follow up appointment to ease my mind.
My opinion is that they did not do a good job explaining what was going on and they used slight scare tactics to encourage me to get a procedure that I really don't need. At very least, I should have been explained options... not told I need to come back as soon as possible to get a larger chuck of body removed.
I consider myself to be an intelligent person and when I got back to work, I thought to myself..""what just happened!?!"" I really don't feel you should EVER leave a doctor's office feeling like that.
The kicker is I mentioned this to a friend and she had the same experience. Wish I had spoken with her earlier.
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