Columbia Health Systems, Inc Reviews

Mostly great service. An occasional black attitude.

I agree with the person who said they'd rather bleed out in their dorm room than have to go to the shitshow that is Columbia Health Services.

The receptionist I ve interacted with has always been impatient and rude. Her energy has consistently been negative and her affect visibly tells that she doesn t want to be working where she is. I attempted to schedule online and through phone, but no one answered so I hung up after 14 mins AND the online web portal never has any scheduling opportunities (I.e. the same day appointment is a terrible system and inefficient). The nurse who first saw me had horrendous bed side manner and also appeared to be impatient as well. This service pales in comparison to my previous institution and it s clear that administrative staff and some of the clinical staff do not care about the clients they are servicing. Make sure to arrive with tough skin and draw boundaries to demand respect since it is never offered from the beginning.

Srsly what s the 3k insurance premium for? 2hr waiting time to see a nurse? 2 weeks and still no appointment available?

Doctors appointments the same day you book, excellent travel nurse, same day gynecology appointments, and labs. What more do you need?

Sept 2017:

The reception staff here is absolutely horrible. They are incredibly rude, inconsiderate and inefficient. This is not an isolated experience either, it has been my experience literally every single time i visit the clinic or call on the phone. I've seen more competent workers at the DMV. Ridiculous. The doctors, however, are fantastic! It would be great if the had a halfway decent reception staff to support them.

Update march 2018:

So, im back at this place six months later and i'm sad to say it has gone even further downhill from when i was last here 6 months ago. The scheduling system has been very poorly re-configured routinely doesn't work online. Furthermore the reception staff has now stopped answering the phones all together. The only way for me to schedule a simple physical exam was to go in person and ask. Even then, the receptionist made me wait 45 minutes to see the nurse just so she could give the 'ok' for the receptionist to schedule the physical. Incompetence runs deep here. Avoid this place if you can.

I was misdiagnosed. My friend was misdiagnosed. Most doctors are incompetent. Appointment system is f'ed up. Administrators don't care.

The medical service may be good, but that isn't really relevant because it is impossible to get an appointment online or over the phone, which forces you to walk in, which in a best case scenario entails waiting over an hour in a small waiting room with other sick people. Seems like it is set up so students have to either figure things out for ourselves or just get sick enough that we call CAVA to actually get service

Incredibly rude and unprofessional reception staff on the phone and in person at the clinic. Terrible customer service, and based on the other reviews here, this is clearly a pattern they are not held accountable to improving.

I, like many others, was misdiagnosed. Now I m suffering because the doctors at med services didn t take me seriously. I ve now missed a full days class, which in Grad School is a pretty huge deal. I m paying over 300 dollars a day to attend this school. So thanks for that.

Absolutely trash place. Trashier staff. Unless you're bleeding to death right in front them, prepare to sit in their waiting room with other coughing sneezing patients for at least 2 hours.
I went in there with a broken nail and bleeding toe and apparently it wasn't serious enough for them to see me. At least 40 people who got there after me were treated before me.
Wish I could rate them lower.

I am here to support the previous reviews. The university should somehow encourage the administration staff to be more attentive to students.

Horrible experiences. If I could.give.less than one I would . Nobody at the reception desk answers the phone and they are incredibly rude unhelpful and dismissive in person . As a former Columbia student I would think the ridiculously high tuition I paid would at least qualify for a phone answered .

Terrible just terrible. Would definitely not see Dr.Sattar who is the most sarcastic unhelpful doctor I've ever met in my life. Dismissed my bronchitis as an allergy even though I told her of its severity and how I had it for months. Did not listen to anything I told her.

Other doctors also dismissed my symptoms and I had an acute respitory infection for five months. (Dr Grenadier is the one competent doctor I saw)

Absolutely terrible job. Medical licenses should be terminated. patient should not suffer from bronchitis for five months due to a failure in diagnosis.

My professor who teaches Buddhism and my classmate majoring in psychology were able to correctly predict that it was bronchitis five months before the doctors at health services.

Dr. Jordan is an absolute dream. Don t expect first class service from the desk folks, but the nurses and doctors are great.

It seems that this system is set up to create as many barriers as possible so that students just give up on trying to get treatment and figure things out on their own. Their hours of operation coincide exactly with normal work hours so if you have a job or internship it becomes almost impossible to get anywhere.

Helpful and easy to schedule appointments. They have real primary care physicians here. I have Columbia University Health Insurance and I have never paid anything out of pocket for any of my appointments here.

This is the second time that I have been on hold for over half an hour this week, hoping to accomplish a simple task that I should be able to do online and yet some how can't because of the inaccessibility of their website to the entire Columbia system. I have left appointments in tears multiple times without clear answers or diagnosis.

The doctors are great, the administrative staff are HORRENDOUS. Flat out rude, disrespectful, and that's if they give you the time of day. Two years of coming here, I haven't had a pleasant experience with a blood tech or intake staff once. Do these women have tenure or something??