Haffie David A, DO

I know that Dr. David Haffie has many satisfied patients. I urge more of them to write reviews as it tends to be the dissatisfied who write the most. When that happens, they become the noisy minority and Dr. Haffie ends up with a much lower rating than he deserves. Crap happens to everyone from time to time. For all those people know, it may have been completely out of Doctor Haffie’s control. Sometimes, as is often the case on review sites like Amazon, the dissatisfaction is due to a person simple being an, uh, arse orifice.
I have been a patient of Dr. Haffie for two years and it has been a very excellent experience. I had my previous family doctor for almost 10 years and should have dumped him long before that. He was not a bad doctor — he knew his business — but he would not slow down and listen. He worked for Arch Health Partners in Poway and THEY overbooked him and pushed him to keep the numbers up. I kind of think he wanted to slow down, but he could not for fear of reprimand from his own superiors. Therefore, I’d sit in the waiting area for up to an hour per visit only to have him breeze in and breeze out of the exam room before I barely had a chance to say diddly.
But at El Norte Medical Center, Dr. Haffie has ALWAYS given me all the time that I need for him to fully cover my concerns, answer all of my questions and build a complete diagnosis. He builds up a rapport with people and uses that to help his diagnosis because he actually gets to know you and all of your unique foibles.
When done with the exam, Dr. Haffie always stops and asks, «Is there anything more before I go?» Now THAT is a family doctor I can keep for life (pun intended).
P. S. — If have never experienced any problems with the office staff.
P. S.S. — Every doctor I have ever visited in my 56 years of life has run late from time to time. It’s the nature of the job they do. Some days it’s due to an emergency or a problematic patient. More often it is a result of overbooking which is not the doctor’s fault when he does not own the practice, as is the case at El Norte Medical Center. In addition, due to crap medical insurance payout, enormous overhead and out of control malpractice insurance costs, Family doctors don’t make bank anymore. They have to see a lot of patients to just cover costs. I do not blame them for being late from time to time. Nobody is perfect. Not even me, for heaven’s sake!

please do not choose this doctor i had orthostatic hypertension walking into that office and he pretty much told me to drink water. Now i have severe migraines and a painful head rush everytime i stand. I explain all my symptoms well and all Dr. Haffie did was nod and take no further action. I HATE DOCTORS LIKE THIS. IF YOU DO NOT HAVE A SOLUUUUTTIIOON PLEASE REFER TO A SPECIALIST not just take matters into your own hands and do absolutely nothing. I will report this doctor to the joint commission of health acreditation and also to the American Board of Family Medecine and I am currently seeking real proffesional medical assistance.

I wish I could give a negative star rating. The office people were friendly. I arrived a half hour early at their request to fill out paperwork. As a l first time patient I was ok with that and left my office extra early to be there on time. I was let into the exam 3 minutes early… I was thinking I had found a great Dr Office. As the girl who took my BP and temp left the exam room I asked her what she thought about Dr Haffie and she said he was great. I was looking forward to talking to a doctor for the first time in quite a few years.
But then I proceeded to wait an additional 45 minutes before even seeing this guy. He walks in with no apology, no explanation, no nothing. He took no time to review any of the forms I spent 20 minutes filling out and instead decided to ask a couple questions about allergies to medicine and if I was taking any medication. I was irritated by his tardiness, and I am sure it was apparent, but I was not rude by any means. After all, I still wanted a productive visit. He asked me what I was there for and I told him I wanted to establish care, I wanted a plan to be healthy, and I had a spot on my side my girlfriend asked me to get looked at. He asked if I had blood labs done recently (which I had done 3 months prior through work… documented on the forms) he asked if I had recently had a tetanus booster. I said I had not (which was also on the forms). And he basically said that was about all he could do. He didn’t even mention my high blood pressure reading or the fact that I am a little overweight for my height and could benefit from losing a few pounds. I basically saw him for less than 5 minutes and then he was basically scrambling to get out the door.
I do not usually write reviews and I like to give people the benefit of the doubt, but this interaction genuinely irritated me if for no other reason than I left work 2 hours early. I work hard and now I am going to need to play catch up tomorrow because I wasted that time today. I understand when people get behind schedule. It happens to all of us who work by appointment. But Dr Haffie (who is probably in his 50s or 60s) seemed like an awkward teenager who couldn’t look me in the eye after being late.
TO DR. HAFFIE: BE A PROFESSIONAL, APOLOGIZE FOR BEING LATE, AND THEN CONTINUE TO GIVE EXCELLENT MEDICAL CARE. HELL, MAKE SOMETHING UP AS AN EXCUSE IF YOU HAVE TO. YOU COULDA BEEN SAVING A LIFE BEFORE YOU SAW ME. I COULD UNDERSTAND THAT. YOU COULDA BEEN DEALING WITH A SERIOUS ILLNESS THAT NEEDED EXTRA TIME… NO PROBLEM. YOU COULDA JUST BEEN SPENDING EXTRA TIME WITH SOMEONE WHO GENUINELY NEEDED YOUR MEDICAL ATTENTION AND REASSURANCE. I WOULD BE OK WITH ALL THOSE EXCUSE AND MORE. JUST DON’T WASTE MY TIME WHILE I WAIT AND THEN WASTE MORE OF IT BY SAYING NOTHING AND DOING NOTHING WHILE IN THE EXAM ROOM.
Thank you Unilocal for giving me a place to vent… I feel a little better now.

I love Dr. David Haffie. He is very down to earth, will listen to you as you explain your symptoms, will check, double check, wil explain to you whats going on. Often doctors show up, look at you, and then write a prescription. He writes a prescription and always asks that i follow up with him and update him on my results of the meds or whatever i am doing so he can see the progress. The staff is patient, even on crazy days… on the phone they can at times be a bit sharp but thats expected with the high volume they have. No walk ins, but you can make same day appointments… this guy does book quickly… HE IS ALSO A TRAVEL DOCTOR!!! So go to him for consultation on travel vaccines, meds, etc… Plus he is near a Starbucks… so i get one after… good times…