Florida Spine Institute

I too have had a bad experience at FSI. And I am, still dealing with the horror. I have been going here for several years. I have been through 6 doctors. Every appointment I have to wait at least 1 hour, some times 3 hours past my appointment time to be seen. I have complained about the excessive wait time at appointments –no body cares! I have complained about waiting months for follow up appointments — no body cares! I have complained about issues with my prescriptions EVERY month — no body cares! I have complained about the girl that handles w/​c not returning calls or not requesting authorizations in a timely manner — No body cares! (it appears the 3 week delay is standard before requests are even sent in for procedures) The first surgeon left this practice, the second surgeon left this practice, now a third surgeon wants to operate again, Are you kidding me? It seems like they are here to «practice» operating on people, screwing up their lives, then just walking away! After all the operations, too many injections, burning nerves etc, the new surgeon wants to operate, again. The pain management doctor has me taking 10 different medications and ignores the disastrous side effects! I am getting no relief and dealing with too many side effects. This practice has been a JOKE since day one.
The office staff is awful and the doctors do not care, in my opinion they only care about the money not the patient!

Dr. Hanna and the staff have been wonderful, so if you are in pain and looking for pain management, relief from back or neck issues or suffering from Fibromyalgia, CRPS or RSD, look no further. I can’t speak for any of the other doctors or staff because people need to keep in mind that this is a very large medical treatment group with a number of doctors. I cannot speak for them, but I highly recommend Dr. Hanna and he has treated me successfully for seven years and I’ve recommended him to a number of others, all with excellent results and opinions.

The worst customer service. You cannot even get them to answer the phone its Wednesday at 2;35 in the afternoon and their phone just rings off the hook. Leave a message on the general voice mail and you have a thirty percent chance of a call back. How are they in business I do not.

Absolutely Horrendous office staff — I told my referring doctor that he would have to send me to hell before I walk into an office and have to associate with the ignorant, uneducated, disrespectful, inconsiderate, non-​compassionate, unprofessional office staff that work at this office. They couldn’t pronounce my first name (the staff speak very clear English just as I do), they couldn’t spell it, when I gave my date of birth they thought I said 1922, they had no idea who my referring doctor was NOR DID THEY KNOW THE DOCTOR I WAS REFERRED TO– DR. TORRES (he works in the office with them). Did I mention that it took three phone calls/​three voicemail, one online inquiry for an appointment, one email to the attention of the office manager or doctor to FINALLY schedule an appointment. I also spoke to the «scheduling manager» when I asked to speak to the office manager in the first place in regards to the scheduler and the «scheduling manager» was no better then the office staff. I asked the «scheduling manager» if I could speak to the «office manager» and she states that she is away from her desk. I then asked if the manager had a voicemail and the «scheduling manager» said yes but if she could get my name and number she’ll have the manager call me back. I replied NO, give me her voicemail and left a lengthy message. So, how many of you think I got a call back?

OK, I’m confused with all the bad reviews. I chose them because they were the closest one that were on network with my insurance and was concerned with all the reviews. I had an appointment set for Monday. Thu before, I came in to sign release of medical records forms and told them I was in real pain and asked if anything was available sooner. The 2 women at the front desk were very nice and sympathetic to my situation and called to see what they could do. My appt was with Dr. Greges, and I could tell they were trying to fit me in somewhere. They finally said if I could wait, he would see me that same day, but it could be a while. I told them that would be great, and was thankful.
I filled out all the forms, and they sent me to next building over. I did have to wait a few hours, but again, since I didn’t have an appointment, I was thankful.
Dr. Greges finally came in, and he had already reviewed all my information, including the MRI I had provided. He was very informative, quick, and to the point, but still very friendly. You could tell he knew what he was talking about. He said he would have to check with my insurance to see how quickly he could schedule my procedure and would be right back. He wasn’t gone 5 minutes until he returned to tell me he could do it the next day.
The place was packed with people, so they are very busy, and am shocked and so grateful they were able to fit me in as I was in a lot of pain.
Had procedure the next day without any issues, and feel 100% better. I will need another which I expected and Dr. Greges told me it would probably require. Called back following Mon and was able to schedule follow up for Thu.
So far, my experience could not have been better. I will update as I keep going, but seems like they probably made some changes since last reviews, because my experience was spectacular to say the least. I highly recommend them.

Do not expect to receive the undivided attention of the pain doctor at this facility. After all, according to his nurse, he «has 105 patients scheduled today» and she receives her information from him «on the run» as he hurries to perform procedures next door.

As you might’ve read from most if not all of the previous comments before me, this is the worst place to see a doctor.
I booked through an online website for booking appointments with doctors. The doctor I booked with was rated highly. Then I received a call from Florida Spine Institute! Oh no! If I had knew that the doctor works there I wouldn’t have booked an appointment at all. I had the name of the clinic in mind when I searched for doctors on Google, and it has a horrible reputation.
So anyway, they called to get some information and left a voice mail. I called back, waited on hold for too long, and hanged up the phone. That was two days before my appointment. On the day of the appointment I just got a call saying my appointment was cancelled and that I have to reschedule. Sure, after waiting for many weeks for the available appointment, let’s reschedule it. Nope, I didn’t.
With no apologies or whatsoever from them. I knew that just having problems this early I would have much more down the road. And the appointment was supposed to be on the day I scheduled, not when the incompetent staff who don’t pick up calls want to. The person on the phone was rude, and talks in a degrading voice and manner. I informed the online booking website about them.
Bottom line: incompetent staff, problems everywhere during the process, and extremely rude customer service.

My surgeon Dr. Kowalski was great prior to my surgery but I wasn’t allowed to see him afterwards (even though I was having neurological issues and specifically asked to see him). An average wait time is 3 hours. The staff is very nice one visit and extremely rude the next visit. They changed office policy after scheduling me for a triple discectomy with fusion and hardware. This resulted in them refusing me the physical therapy that went with the surgery because I was on a letter of protection! I repeatedly was told they would make an exception but every time I tried to schedule I was told no. When I asked for the pain medication to be reduced I was treated like a child and told «how about I just don’t write you any pain medication?» I don’t understand why any Dr. would have an issue with reducing pain medication. I could go on and on… This place is all about the money not the patients!

This is the worst medical business ever! There is no consideration for patients. Went 5 times and no good came of any of it. Big waste of time and money plus they knew my insurance wouldn’t cover anesthesia and they continually gave it to me but only billed me after all treatments were done five months later. Unethical lazy and rude.

Although I was very pleased initially with my preliminary meeting with Dr. Gerges, it was downhill from there. When I went for a follow-​up meeting with him after having an MRI scheduled someone I had never seen before came in and started giving me some rather sketchy, seemingly disorganized information. I didn’t know if he was a physician, a nurse, the janitor or someone who simply wandered into the room. After about 10 minutes of the person not identifying himself, my significant other asked him who he was. At that point, he finally gave his name and identified himself as the PA of Dr. Gerges. I thought the discussion of my MRI results where less than complete and fortunately, I asked for a copy of it where I later discovered that bilateral kidney cysts had been discovered. I must admit to total amazement that it was never mentioned in that bilateral cysts of the kidneys can be indicative of something quite serious — polycystic kidney disease.
Although at that point, my back pain had improved considerably, the PA indicated that I would be scheduled for a L3-​S1 facet block under general anesthesia. Here is what amazed me about that:
1) Dr. Gerges had prescribed Celebrex which I did not fill due to the fact that a 30 day supply was $ 260 and Humana did not cover it.
2) A substitute prescription was prescribed by the PA ($ 6.50) which apparently worked the same way as an anti-​inflammatory drug.
3) In that my back pain was minimal and I had not yet tried the drug, I thought it was a rather rapid rush to procedure based on the minimal pain/​discomfort at the time and the fact that one would think a try would be made to see how effective the drug was.
The worse was yet to come — the ridiculous scheduling/​telephone system at FSI. I got home during business hours and attempted to call the main switchboard to schedule the procedure. I was on endless hold with occasional rings indicative of the fact that a human might actually pick up the phone. It never happened. You would think that someone would at least briefly make an appearance and ask you to hold.
I then tried calling the facility that does the procedure (I had stopped in there briefly and spoke with the scheduler and got their number and the number of the administrator). Again, my call was never answered. It was 4:20 PM in the afternoon and they are allegedly open until 5 PM. I then tried the administrator’s number — no luck Finally, I left a message on the answering machine of the procedure facility asking for a call back. I certainly expected a call back prior to the end of business hours in that they were open for at least another 40 minutes. No one called.
I did not receive a call back until afternoon of the next day. By then with time to think about my negative experiences with the facility, I simply allowed them to leave a message on my machine and never bothered to call them back.
With all the great orthopaedic offices in the Tampa Bay Area, I would have to recommend bypassing this zoo!
Oh and yes, I have no back pain now and I didn’t undergo a costly procedure!

I see the doctors there as a patient, which are brilliant. Just don’t expect the office staff to get you very far. On average, I wait one to two hours passed the appointment time to see the doctor. You wait in the lobby for about an hour passed appointment time, then they move you to a lab/​room where you get to wait an additional hour. The rating would be higher if they didn’t stack patients like lumber and make you sit and wait on them. As a professional, I can’t understand how this level of inconsideration to patients is not corrected.
I guess in the end, you want to see good doctors; there is an aggravation where you wait forever because the ADMIN staff can’t effectively or efficiently schedule.

Very slow … gf has an appt which they are extremely late for … crazy!
I took a friend here not even for me and we actually reported to them a female was in the washroom and making very concerning noises. Eventually a male staff came over and tapped on the door not even loud enough for a mouse to hear. He proceeded to shrug his shoulders and walk away … thank god she was ok
My friend was called into a room from the waiting room where she proceeded to wait another 40 minutes. A procedure in her middle back … she had a slip and fall that apparently caused the muscles to let go of the vertebrae… I asked her if she felt better she said no worse and that wasn’t the area that was even causing the issue. She also reported this to the surgeon and she said I tried to tell you it was more in my tail bone region … An assistant came in and bent her leg in a strange position which almost made her jump off the table in pain … The surgeon has now decided maybe they worked in a wrong area…
ARE YOU KIDDING ME??? No one will touch my back surgically unless they are 250% they won’t paralyse me or make me worse

I took my mother to see Dr Gerges because she has a sore lower back and knee. She had chosen Dr Gerges out of her insurance book (probably the closest to our home), not by anyone’s recommendation. In hind sight, that wasn’t such a good idea. At first glance, the office (entrrance #4) is dark and gloomy. The waiting room has low ceiling and dark floor and dark furniture making the place not look as bright as other doctor’s offices I’ve been to. The 2 staff members at the front desk is not friendly; they’re just going through the motion.
After filling out some lengthy paperwork then a short wait, my mom was was called into the examination room. The tech, or whatever she is, asked mom some general questions, ie. where’s the pain, then left us to wait. At least 20 min passed before the Physician Assistant (PA) came in and asked my mother the same questions that were asked plus a few more. He did a small examination of the areas where she has pain (shoulder, lower back, knee and big toe) and told her that her shoulder needs to be X-​rayed, then told us to wait for the doc. So we waited and waited and finally a technician came to get my mother to get an X-​ray. At least another 30 min passed before the Dr Gerges came to the examination room. He asked questions and did an rough examination, then told my mom she needs an epidural, and that would be done on another day. Before leaving he did inform my mom of the risks associated with getting the injection and asked her if she has any questions.
While checking out we were told that my mom would need a urine analysis. For what I have no idea, but she complied. We waited and 10 min later was called in. I didn’t follow my mom this time. She then came out and told me that she was told to wait in the lobby for a prescription. She didn’t know what script is needed and neither did I. We waited for 15 min but then decided to ask to know what we’re waiting for. The woman at the reception desk said she would find out, but it didn’t look like she ever did. 10 min more passed until I spotted the person who called my mom in for the urine analyst so I ran up to ask her what are we waiting for. She seemed confused for a min, then turned to another lady to ask if my mom needs to wait for anything, then asked us if we’ve scheduled the next appt, then said sorry for the confusion but we don’t need to wait for anything. Really?! We waited for almost half an hour because you don’t have your facts straight? We could have sat there forever before knowing that we can just go home. *sigh*
I supposed all doctor’s offices are a waiting game, but this one also seems really disorganized and uncaring.
Out of everyone my mom saw today, I’d say the PA and the doc are the most thorough and semi-​caring, everyone else were either indifference or had terrible attitude.
We’re considering taking my mom to another office for her injection.
Arrival time: 8:35am
Time we left: 10:45am.

Wonderful staff of amazing Physiatrist’s, Neurologist’s, Physical Therapists and my Clark Kent /​Superman Neuro Surgeon aka Dr. Kolwaski.