My relationship with this practice started off with my wife having a verbal tug of war with one of the office girls on the phone (the girl wants to hang up, my wife says wait, I still have questions) which ended with the office girl hanging up abruptly. The soonest I could get in was 10 days later, so we set the appointment. I ended up waiting for 1 1/2 hours beyond my scheduled appointment to see the doctor. All told, I was in the office for about 2 hours. The visit with Dr. Garofalo was okay, though she seemed uncomfortable and very reluctant to palpate (touch) the area in pain, which was my neck. Eventually I left with a prescription for x-rays. When the x-rays came in I was given my diagnosis by an office person, not Dr. Garofalo. The girl on the phone even gave me medical advice! Basically that advice amounted to there's nothing we can do for that problem and take Tylenol for the pain. When I asked to talk to the doctor I was told the doctor was busy, but she would call me later. Later, apparently, was 7pm. I missed the call and was never able to reach Dr. Garofalo again before she left for a 3 week vacation. I was later told that I had a referral for a physical therapist and we just had to wait for approval. I called Dr. Garofalos office 4 times over the next 2 1/2 weeks to find the status of the referral. This involved lots of being interrupted, put on hold, and hanging up to call back because hold times were too long. Well, after each conversation over that 2 1/2 week period I was told we were still awaiting approval from my insurance group for physical therapy. I finally spoke with my insurance group who informed me a referral had never been received. So I called Dr. Garofalo again and had them actually fax the referral. The doctor is just okay and the office personnel are TERRIBLE! They appear to be incompetent. Bottom line: Unless you have the time to spend to make sure they do their job, find another doctor.
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