Laureate Medical Group

Good doctors, HORRIBLE STAFF!!!
I’ve been seeing a GP and several different doctors within the Laureate practice for a number of years now. I don’t have any complaints with most of my docs — they’ve all been pretty good. However, the office staff and the medical assistants are truly AWFUL.
Office staff is almost universally incompetent and most of them have attitudes. They make you feel like an annoyance rather than a valued patient. I can’t remember the last time I dealt with anyone who was good at their job, from front desk staff to billing to appointments.
Good luck getting an appointment if you’re already a patient, but forget it if you’re a new patient. If you call for an appointment (even for established patients with urgent issues!), you will be put on hold for ages, then told that your doctor’s next opening is in 6 – 9 months. I don’t think this is really accurate, but it’s like they don’t want to give you any openings sooner than that for some inexplicable reason — maybe they do this as a messed-​up way of triaging the urgency of cases, but it really sucks when you need to see your doctor and can’t because the staff is so rude and stupid that they won’t try to work you in. I recently tried to refill a medication I was totally out of and they left a message insisting that I see my doc first (OK, that’s reasonable I guess). I then called back to make an appointment and they «weren’t able to accommodate me» for another few months (WTF?!?). I explained that I was out of a medication that I need to take daily but they didn’t care, so I am just stuck waiting without my medication until the appointment. Luckily it’s not a life-​threatening issue, but I can only imagine how bad this would suck if it were a medication I needed to live.
Their medical assistants are some of the most incompetent I’ve ever dealt with. I’ve noticed several errors on my charts that were made when I was giving my history and medications to the medical assistant before seeing the doctor. Luckily the mistakes did not endanger me, but again, what if the mistake had been costly or deadly? Reckless recordkeeping of this sort should not be tolerated. I also had a PA order the wrong tests for me, then of course I was forced to pay for her mistake.
The absolute WORST is when they have to take blood. I am not a person who ever has any issues with getting my blood drawn and I don’t bruise easily, but *every single time* someone at Laureate takes my blood, I am experience pain and scary bruising for days (sometimes weeks) afterwards. These people honestly do NOT know what they’re doing. I don’t know whether Laureate thinks it can save a little money hiring badly trained medical assistants, but that’s what it seems like their strategy is (same as hiring incompetent office staff).
They refer within the practice, which is annoying 1) because you still have to deal with the grossly incompetent office staff, and 2) sometimes you will get a specialist that’s not great. I’d rather my doctor refer me to the best specialist there is, not the shitty one who happens to be on staff.
The online patient portal that they tout is OK for getting test results and such, but it SUCKS if you are trying to get in touch with your doctor. It says you can use it for that, but when you go in, there’s no way to reach your doctor. Multiple messages go unanswered by anyone, even urgent ones. Same as when you leave voicemails for staff — they only sometimes call back, if you’re lucky.
There have been billing errors that I can’t go into now because my head’s about to explode.
Other than the actual time spent with the doctor, my experience with Laureate Medical has been thoroughly terrible across the board. The staff (office and medical) are so unbelievably incompetent I don’t know how this place stays in business. I hate to leave my awesome GP but I’m afraid I’m going to have to go elsewhere because I just can’t take the headaches, hassles, and injuries anymore.

Dr Ghosh and nurses are great, but office staff is hopelessly disorganized. Lost biometric screening form provided 12 days ago. Can’t reach a human there, can only navigate horrible website, which restricts patient entries from providing lucid info.

My doctor, Rachel DelFavero, is wonderful. She’s competent, professional and easy to talk to. In a previous review I noted that there were problems with the front office staff. Those problems have been corrected. The office staff is now friendly and helpful.

Dr Millhouse is nice but her nurse and billing team is highly incompetent. Her nurse sent me for an MRI and scared the heck out of me and my family. Went to see the Dr. later and she said I have tension headaches and never needed an MRI. Guess who had to still pay the $ 300 MRI cost and the staff did nothing to help? Yup, ME! Needless to say I have no plans of returning. Who wants to deal with false scares?!

I have been going to this group since 1972 when there were only 3 doctors. I was Dr. Palay’s patient. The doctors in this group are top notch in their fields. I have not found a physician in this group yet that is not much better then most doctors out in the area. Office staff does leave something to desired. You don’t go or go to a doctor because of the office personel, you go to the Doctor because they are GOOD.

I have been a patient here for a few years now and Dr. Bandukwala is beyond fantastic. Unfortunately, unless you have an appointment set up for months in advance, you will never see him or any other doctor. The PAs I have seen are okay but the last visit, they sent me away with a prescription for a drug that was harmful for my infant daughter (I was breastfeeing at the time). They gave me this prescription even after I explicitely stated I was breast feeding and wanted a medicine that would be safe. Luckily, I was able to reach the on call doctor after hours who did the proper research and changed the prescription (and was also surprised that the PA gave it to me in the first place).
But the most frustrating thing about this office is the office staff. When you call and try to book an appointment, you will be placed on hold. After 4 minutes on hold you are transfered to a voicemail box. I have left 3 messages to this mailbox on different days and hours and have NEVER been called back. Your best bet is to call multiple times during the day and hope you get through to a scheduler.
When I have finally been able to get a hold of a scheduler — they incorrectly booked the last 2 visits (1 was supposed to be a physical but was set up as a sick visit and I had to reschedule the physical appointment for months later, and the second incorrectly had me coming into the office for a shingles vaccine when in fact the visit was because I had shingles).
My recommendation is to stay away from this practice!

I give the staff zero stars, the only star i give is for Dr. Kleber. Surprisingly, he called me back after initial appointment personally, late on a Saturday. He explained my test results and said I should research some medications and decide on Monday. When I called the nurse line on Monday, they had no idea what medications he referred to. It took 2 days to sort it out. They promised a nutritionist would get back to me, it has been over a month with no response. When I call to ask a question, I get the voice mail and they claim to return the call in a few hours. They discourage you from calling back, so as to «avoid confusion,» yet, after 2 days they still don’t call back. Very disappointing.

Doctor I saw was nice. I only spent 5 mins with her. Knew what I needed so was in and out. But I get a bill in the mail, they are charging a $ 25 administrative fee. For WHAT??? I Called to find out and they said it’s because I didn’t pay at the time of service. Well no one ever asked me to pay, I was told they would send me a bill as they did not know how much my insurance would cover. How ridiculous? Charging an extra fee for something that was not my fault. Also this place is like a factory. Lots of doctors, lots of rooms, it does not feel like they really care about who I am. I would rather see a doctor/​clinic which really seems to care. I will not be going to this clinic any longer. Also you have to pay for parking at some locations. Takes a long time to get an appointment. Not worth the time, money and hidden costs! Unethical behaviors from the practice in my opinion. I will not be referring anyone here.

I like Laureate Medical Group. Granted I’ve only been going to them for a few years (prior to this I was still living in St. Louis and my general physician was based there), but so far so good.
When I initially started, I went to the Alpharetta office as it was closest to my office, but when I changed jobs to an office in Midtown, I made an appointment with the office located at Emory Hospital in Midtown. I called to schedule a yearly check up and learned my doctor didn’t service the midtown location, however, there were two other female GPs who did work there. With no problem at all, the coordinator helped me switch doctors and make an appointment about three weeks out.
I remember on both visits, Laureate’s very state-​of-​the-​art when it comes to patients offering tablets to check in on, an online patient portal that’s actually ease to use and digital forms of communication (like secure emails) to deliver test results much quicker than older methods like phone calls or regular mail.
Aside from waiting for 10 — 15 minutes after I arrived to be signed in and taken back to meet my doctor, everything went very smoothly at the Laureate Midtown location. That day I saw Dr. Gandy — very nice lady, who went over my family history, if anything had changed medically, etc., etc. Then I had every test possible run, and my results actually came back super-​fast — my doctor emailed me that night, in fact, with the results (all of which were stellar). The nurse had trouble finding a vein in my right arm to draw blood from, but even after she stuck me in both arms to get samples, I was still bruise free afterwards (a rarity for me, who bruises like a peach all the time).
All in all, I was in and out in less than an hour and a half, and although I had to fast until after noon, it was an okay experience considering. Dr. Gandy even gave me a recommendation for a dermatologist to go see for yearly checkups since my skin is so fair and skin cancer could be a real risk no matter how religious I am about sunscreen.
If you’re in the market for a female general practitioner (harder to find than you might think), I would highly recommend Dr. Gandy and Laureate Medical Group.

I have had the same wonderful doc for 19 years. Everything is electronic and really pretty efficient. I was VERY sick a few years back and had to be admitted. My doc called me from home later in the day to check on me. They have x-​ray, bone density and normal «instant» lab work ups available in house. Once I called on a weekend with a really bad UTI, the on-​call doc could read all my doc’s notes. With my full medical history on the computer for him to see, he called in a Rx right away. The new patient Portal lets you see all your lab results. I don’t know what I am going to do when my doc decides to retire. He is awesome.

Been going here for over a decade, and I’ve never had a single issue with billing staff or doctors. I like Laureate because they are a very modern office with efficient digital medical records– for example, you check in on an iPad, a process that takes way less time than typical paperwork.
They also make good use of PAs and NPs, which help with quick scheduling of appointments (they can schedule you for a next-​day appointment without issue usually as long as you don’t mind seeing a PA/​NP, which you shouldn’t because their expertise and training is excellent for nearly all medical matters).
My only complaint is that you have to pay for parking because they are located at Emory Midtown, but it’s not outrageously expensive for Midtown parking ($ 6 per day max).

I went to the Dunwoody/​Northside office for the first time to see a doctor I had seen before. They use tablets for registration which is better than paper in my view, but, there were two screens for «accept these terms» and I blithely accepted the 1^st but when I got to the 2^nd screen I decided to quickly scroll through the lengthy terms. They actually said you must accept that they can use your medical information and contact information for fundraising, not only for this practice but for any «affiliates». When I said I would not accept that, they said I couldn’t see the doctor. THIS IS THE MOST UNETHICAL THING I HAVE EVER SEEN IN A DOCTOR’S OFFICE. I left, never to return.

I have been going to this doctor office for 5 years. However, my recent doctor’s visit will be my last. The billing office was very unprofessional. Every year my job changes my health insurance. So naturally, I would check to see if my doctor at Laureate accepts my insurance. I checked online before my policy began because if your health provider was not in network there was some paper that need to be submitted. My doctor was listed as an in-​network health provider. That was around early December.
My first doctors visit for this year was in August because I was experiencing vertigo. Before my visit, I called to the doctor office to verify my insurance information and the copay. The next day, I checked in for my appointment and pay a copay before seeing the doctor. 2 weeks later, I was feeling worse. Went back followed same procedure.
Almost 3 months later I get a call from the doctor billing department that they never accepted my insurance and I will have to pay every thing in full. I asked why was I not informed about this before going to the doctor. Their response was «coverage was not guaranteed at the time of your visit». THAT MAKES NO SENSE. The billing officer started out saying the doctor never accepted my insurance. By the way, I called my insurance company and found out the contract between my doctor and the insurance company expired January 6, 2012. I did not receive any mail or phone call.

Switching Physicians is never a fun thing to do. But this practice, so far at least, has been great. I recently switched Insurance from BCBS PPO to BCBS POS… and my primary care physician, Dr. Scott Parry was no longer in my network… So I went on the search. After calling lots of offices, and having a check up with a different practice (I liked it fine enough, just had some issues with insurance), I called Laureate Medical group and asked for a same day appointment. Now this was weird because I actually had a physical scheduled with the doctor that I had Insurance issues with… but Laureate nurses worked some magic, and got me in the same day for a physical with Dr. Ghosh. Dr. Ghosh was great. He was friendly, efficient, and personable.
This leads me to the arrival. I arrive on time, and I’m greeted with a friendly receptionist, and given a swanky iPad to fill out all my «paperwork» (?). I was called back quickly, the nurse did her vitals (she was crazy nice too), and the doctor came in. He spent a bunch of time with me, did his exam-​thingy, ordered blood tests, and recommended I get my Pneumonia vaccine, which I had already knew I wanted to get. They quickly drew my blood, did an EKG (part of my physical which was cool), gave me my vaccine, and doctor came again to read the EKG, refill my scripts, and end the visit. I was ushered to the check out line, was told my physical was covered at 100 percent, then a follow up for 4 months was scheduled. Perfect.
The only bad thing is that the parking is in the Emory Midtown Hospital deck, so it is a pay lot, and they don’t validate parking.

Everyone who knows me understands that I rarely write one-​star reviews. In this case, I appeared for medical testing as scheduled, but due to an error in their administering of the medication (not critical, but scary) I had to be recheduled a week later for further testing.
When I returned, the doctor took personal offense because I questioned his procedures. That, coupled with other avoidable administrative errors, created an experience that was not something I’d willingly repeat.
I know that «stuff happens», but when it does, stepping up to the plate makes a real difference. This wasn’t the case with Laureate.