Palomar Health Medical Group - Poway (Formerly Arch Health Medical Group) - Poway, California

Anastasiya Kuznetsova

I tried to get a first appointment with my primary care physician. I first called but no one answers and I was told that they will call me back. No one called in 5 days. I called another time and waited for 30 minutes to be on a call with manager. After 15 minutes we were disconnected and again no one called me back. I called several times and sometimes my call was just hanged up. After another half an hour wait I talked to another representative and was told that I’m not able to get help without having a physical medical card. In addition, a representative was confused with some numbers on my insurance. Finally I called my insurance and changed a physical to a one from UCSD Health and had no problem with getting appointment. I was told that virtual card is fine as well. Therefore, don’t waste your time on this clinic

James Phelps

This place is astonishing for achieving a rare, almost supernatural combination of being rude, incompetent, and expensive.

Plato's Theory of Forms posited that there is a higher plain, a realm of ideas, where perfect versions of abstracted ideas exist, called Ideal Forms. If Plato was right, then Palomar Health Medical Group is like an Ideal Form for the worst doctors office possible. It is a perfectly awful practice.

You know something's wrong when your doctor's office makes the DMV look like a paragon of efficiency and high performance. PHMG offers patients an experience so absurdly bad that it would be funny, if your health wasn't hanging in the balance, and it wasn't so overpriced.

It was common for me call the place, leave messages, wait on hold for 25 minutes, and they just don't answer or call back. I've had them fail to fill critical prescriptions on time. I've had them intentionally not fill critical prescriptions, and not tell me why as weeks sail by (I needed a new appointment). They don't follow up with lab results. I've shown up for an annual physical, only to be told my appointment has to be rescheduled. I need them to send medical records to another provider, they just don't do it (this is before the hack). I've had them send out erroneous invoices, erroneously too low!

I wouldn't be able to get any help for days and weeks at a time, that was typical. One of these times, after playing phone tag for half a month, I finally got ahold of the receptionist. I'm finally speaking with a human. I tell her I urgently need my critical prescription refilled, the pharmacy says they've been calling for three weeks and they get no response from PHMG, and I've been stretching my supply to the limit. She told me that the next appointment is like 3 months out, and there are absolutely no exceptions. She gives me grief about patient responsibility and tells me that I should just go to urgent care if I want my prescription that bad.

So I called customer service at the parent company to complain about how I can't get my I-need-this-to-function prescription filled. Within 24 hrs, the same receptionist calls back, still audibly irritated, and she makes an appointment for me the same day! My prescription gets refilled right away. What was all that talk about being booked for three months? How am I supposed to respond to this? What do they think this looks like?

I kept coming to PHMG because I loved my doctor here, they are a specialist for a unusual combination of diagnoses I have, and they accepted my insurance plan. But my Dr. has since left PMHG, and I fortunately will never have to deal with this place again. Anytime I feel down, I can recall this fact, that I never have to deal with this place again, and ai feel good everytime I think about it.

It is no surprise to me seeing PMHG are in the headlines for their bad behavior. They're owned by a private equity company, who, from the looks of it, has basically destroyed the existing medical practice, and made it impossible for the place to function. No doubt the private equity fund has somehow managed to make a lot of money off the company while at the same time causing it to fail, sucking money and sustenance from the practice like a parasitic lemprey eel. If any of you are reading this, you guys should be ashamed of how you conduct yourselves, the way you treat both your patients and your providers.

Teresa Hogan

Horrible, horrible service! Too bad you can't rate with zero stars. Their computer system meltdown that happened months ago is just an excuse for terrible customer service. If you call they say you won't get a call back for 5-7 business days. I called last week and still nothing! Of course you can alway drop by the office to talk to the guy sitting at the table who hands a note to a nurse in the back. Which I have done. It's been months since the meltdown and you would think they could figure out a better system--or at least call us back like they say they will. I am still waiting for an approval on a prescription and a referal to a specialist I've been seeing for 6 years and nothing.
I called today, waited on hold for twenty minutes to talk to the monotone message taker--who couldn't care less if I got the treatment I needed--and got her short and annoyed-sounding robotic response that if I can't wait another 5-7 business days for a referral I'll have to drive up to Poway (I live in San Diego) and talk to whoever is sitting at the table today.
I love my primary care doctor, Dure-Smith, who I've been with for 8 years, but I'm done!
If you have chronic issues steer clear.

Chris Sa

Went to their Emergency dept for heart issues and staff are very friendly but short staffed. I believe there's only one doctor seeing all patients and was there for 5 hrs to clear my heart issues.

E V

Funny how they have some great reviews. This medical group has very poor service and is extremely neglectful to their patients. Still waiting after 3 months to get them to send medical records for a transfer. No reply to calls. Doctors charge appointment the day of and send you home after you’ve taken the day off work and already arrived! Choose sharp or a better medical group. Palomar should be avoided.

LA

Palomar health medical group is a mess. They have difficulty keeping doctors long term and I'm sorry to say that some of the doctors that do stay probably don't have other options.
If you have serious health problems I would urge you to find a different group.

Ron Fawcett

Palomar Health Medical Group continues to be a management train wreck. 2.5 months after going down with a cyber attack, there is still no evidence of management or communication of what is going on, what the plan is and what does the end game look like. I love my doctors (Present, Balakian, and Lozier) but they too are victims of poor management and leadership situation. One can only hope an acquisition by Sharp, Scripps or some other competent medical management organization occurs.

Carolyn Miller

This use to be a decent experience. When the merger happened, it’s gone really downhill. You can’t get ahold of a person to take an appointment without a 20 minute hold, then you can leave a message, but no one ever follows through with a call back. If you are lucky enough to reach the inner sanctum and get a human, the appointment schedule is 3 MONTHS out for an appointment, if you’re lucky. My husband has been waiting for an MRI for months! Don’t recommend this health care facility.