The Core Institute

I had a great physician that did back surgery on me but he left and moved back east. The physician that took over his patients has not talked to me more than 5 minutes for the follow-ups i had with him. His bedside manner is terrible. The staff leaves a LOT to be desired. He just doesn't act like he cares. If my original dr had stayed i'd give it a 5 star. I am changing drs. and will never recommend this place to anyone.

I've had several surgeries with CORE doctors, and they were always professional and I never had any problems with scheduling, paperwork, etc. I've never heard 'infomercials' while waiting, and if I needed to get a message to the doctor, I was put through to his PA or MA and got a response back rapidly.

THIS GROUP OF DOCTORS IS SO BIG, SO COMPLEX THAT IT IS LIKE CALLING A GOVERNMENT AGENCY. NOT GOOD.

The Core Institute is has a very slick web page, fancy offices, and a great public relations company writing their ads.... they also have wonderful doctors. Where this Institute looses big time is in their inability to build a decent phone/message system to match the "World Class" image they have bought.

Really they can get surgeries schedule faster than anyone. Really their doctors ARE SUPERIOR that the average doc you will bump into in the Ortho field. Really they do have very good support staff and the very latest x-ray, MRI equipment. So at it's heart the Core institute is a very good facility... but it is NOT a USEFUL facility because it takes, on average, 12 min. to get through the phone tree (the hold waiting is one long very pompous infomercial that will drive you crazy). Then you will get a call center person (yes they are that big an organization) - their call center people are very nice but wait there's more! After waiting 12 min. to get a call center person - they will then TRANSFER you to the department you wanted, then you get ANOTHER INFORMERCIAL that can take another 5 min. or more, and then you get -- VOICE MAIL - at which point you leave a message. Occasionally, you might get a real person to answer and they will take a message to forward when they can to the person you were calling. In other words, it's a nightmare. And they do answer messages - but only in an average way - sort of hit or miss.

So You can't just call ask for the nurse of your doc, talk to her or leave a message, you have to Call the institute, wait about 15 min on infomercial, get a call center person who will then transfer you to either a "triage nurse" or the voice mail of the person you wanted to call, you then talk to the triage nurse who will leave a message for the nurse who works for your doctor - and maybe you will get a call back - L A T E R.

So there are so many layers to get through to just have a simple conversation with your docs staff that you will need to be institutionalized after dealing with the Core Institute. It's a shame but the Core Institute is so big - it is like dealing with a Federal Government agency... and you know what it is like calling a government agency. My advice - find a nice local Ortho Doc and get to know his staff - you will be happier in the long run.

I had surgery with these people. I loved the doctor's but their staff is horrible. A lot of screw ups before my surgery. Appointments were appointed on the incorrect dates and the scheduler always lost my paperwork! I am getting too old to have to deal with that type of stress. Be very wary if you go there.