Urgent Care of Berwick

I took my child here today. I was told the wait would be about an hr and a half. I waited about 2hrs before we got called in but that didn’t matter because they’re always pretty thorough when myself or my children do get seen. THAT was NOT the case TODAY! We got called to the back. It took all of 3 minutes for my child to get a diagnosis. She asked if my child had been tested for Covid. I replied no. No testing was done at BUC for ANYthing. I don’t recall ever seeing the physician before that we saw today. She told me my child had strept, even tho one of the most obvious symptoms is red sore throat and fever. While my child did have fever, their throat couldn’t have been been a better condition. Physician said my child’s tonsils were very red and very swollen. Although I wasn’t content with the diagnosis, I had to take another child to a different appt. My 1st child’s diagnosis didn’t sit well with me so after my 2nd child was done, we went back to Berwick Urgent Care. I told the receptionist that I wanted my child to be seen again because I wasn’t content with the initial “diagnosis”. We waited for about 5min then got called back again. I asked one of the nurses to stay with us while the physician came back. She said ok. As I was expressing my concerns to the nurse, the physician pushed open the door to say,”you can just get your money back and go somewhere else.” I replied I used insurance and if it doesn’t cover a thorough exam, just say that and we would happily go elsewhere. She LITERALLY became defensive and belligerent! She got even louder when she said “iM oNe oF tHe oWnErS oF tHiS cLiNiC!” 🤨 I don’t give a Master Splinter’s orifice!! My child wasn’t tested for anything because according to her, the tests were a waste because 50% of all of those tests give false negatives and some other nonsense that she tried to force to make sense. She couldn’t have even looked at my child’s chart because the child she walked up to and tried to start “doctoring” on was an opposite sex and much older than the child she was supposed to be looking at! Well well well ,,,, she was adamant about not testing my child until I said to the nurse well if she’s not going to authorize my child to be tested for what I want them tested for, then be sure to chart that I requested it and she denied it. All of a sudden, her tune changed and she asked what I wanted my child tested for. Safe to say, all tests came back negative. She kept saying my child had symptoms they didn’t have. WHOEVER she’s in partnership with, the ship has a hole in it. I’ve been using BUC for the last 5-6 years. Today’s one horrible visit is why I will NEVER patronize Berwick Urgent Care EVER again.

I want to be clear that everyone I dealt with at the facility was kind and my complaint is specifically with their billing practices. In February of 2022, I broke my left ring finger and came to the Urgent Care of Berwick for x-rays and brace. In July of 2023, I finally received a bill for this visit, along with a bill for a previous visit from 2021. I called to dispute these bills because of the fact that I knew I had met my deductible in each of these years. I follow this closely enough to be confident they had not filed the charges in time to contribute to that. In fact, I had an unrelated surgery in 2022 that required me to pay the whole deductible in full prior to being scheduled. After explaining the situation, they told me they would look into it and get back to me. Several months later, I received a new bill for the same broken bone. This time, at least, they saw fit to remove the charge from 2021. I called again and was informed that they had switched their billing system within the recent past and it there were some hiccups. Completely fine! But also not my problem. I was then told to contact my insurance, but I told them I would not be doing that. In May of 2023 I switched employers and thus, insurance. If they were certain they were entitled to money from my insurance, I was certainly fine with them pursuing it. I hear nothing further. Now, in January of 2024, I have again received a bill for this visit in 2022. This feels predatory. I imagine many people would simply pay the bill without looking into it and that is why I felt compelled to finally write this review.

I have been to this location before and fortunately had great experiences in the past. This time, I cannot say the same. I went in today with concerns about my symptoms and was seen by Tatyana Ioffe who I have not been seen by at this location before. To only say that I felt dismissed is an understatement. She was in the room for MAYBE one or two minutes, I wish I was exaggerating, and GUESSED that I might’ve had strep throat. She didn’t test me for it nor did she test me for the flu or COVID-19 and when I questioned this I once again felt dismissed. But she didn’t hesitate to go ahead and try to prescribe me steroids for something I probably didn't have. After finally stating that I did want for sure testing, especially since it is the holidays and I plan to be around family I didn't want to expose anyone to what I had, I came back negative for both. Imagine if I would've just accepted her guessing game of a diagnosis instead of advocating for myself to get tested. Safe to say, I won’t be back here.

We had to stop here for my daughter while traveling with our family. It always makes me nervous to need care while away from home, but we were seen quickly, easy diagnosis and the PA went above and beyond the original ask. She also helped me find a pharmacy to send my daughter's prescription too. I was happy with the service and the staff.

I came in with my son at 7:27pm on 8/24. The receptionist told be that we could not be seen because they stopped accepting patients at 7:30pm. When I told her that it was not 7:30 yet, she stated that they have a lobby full of people (there were four people there) so they weren’t taking any more so we needed to find somewhere else to go. The website says they are open until 8pm, the open light I was turned on, and we also made it there by the 7:30 cutoff time that isn’t outlined on their website or posted anywhere. This feels discriminatory because people walk in right before me and were able to be seen and we were turned away.