Szawlowski & Schwartz, PA

This place is very disorganized, and you don’t meet your primary care doctor till many appointments before, when you call your placed on hold for long periods of time. I’ve had my blood drawn there and Dr. Sherry Smith didn’t even bother telling me I had high cholesterol levels?! Wasn’t thorough at all… I advise people that already have them switching your PCP. I’ve never had such issues with a PCP and you should feel comfortable and trust them…

Pros:
I’ve met with both Dr. Schwartz and Dr. Szawlowski, and the PCP Sherri Smith :)
I’ve had pleasant experiences with each one of them over the past four years and they are always very attentive and helpful. The office is about 10 minutes from my house and my insurance is pretty good. (I don’t have a doctor’s visit co-​pay)
With my aches and pains; I have been recommended to specialists and physical therapists, (sometimes in the same building) and I like how even the x-​ray and MRI lab is right downstairs!
Cons:
Scheduling and call-​backs. UGH… I don’t know if it’s because the office has a bunch of new patients, but the service is definitely not the same as in the past. It takes a long time to get an appointment scheduled, (2 – 3 weeks from the day I call) before that, it would only take a few days.
I also honestly think that the girls at the front office need to work a little better on returning calls in an orderly fashion, (I usually see 2 – 4 people at the front desk at any given time) and for goodness sakes, PLEASE put some music on while I’m on hold or something/​anything! :P I always think that the line gets disconnected because of the utter silence of being placed on hold. :) Just saying!

Let’s see… where do I begin? First off, I have never met Dr. Schwartz. I am sure he exists, but I couldn’t tell you. I kept getting Sherrie Smith instead, who seemed nice. First thing she did was criticize my weight and tell me I am very over weight, and when I explained that I do work out and I do not eat unhealthy foods, she told me I was doing something wrong and needed to do something else. I was dying to ask what her secret was, seeing as how she was just as large as me — pot calling the kettle black. Second, if you get tests done, expect to call in and harass them in order to get the results. I have had a few tests done, and I have never gotten the results from them, on their own; I have had to call and bug them repeatedly just to get the results. I had an exam done back in December (beginning of the month), and here it is, January 16, and I still have not heard back — I am guessing I’m fine and everything was normal, but no clue. They will have you come in for no reason because they feel it is necessary, charge you the co-​pay, and make you come back for the real tests later. Last, but not least, if you pay your co-​pay with a check, expect it to be cashed about 4 – 5 months later, no joke. Apparently, Dr. Schwartz doesn’t feel the need to have them go to the bank everyday, so every once in a while, he will have them gather up the checks and take them to the bank finally (the staff actually told me this). I wrote a few checks for my appointments last month, I don’t expect them to be cashed until April. I finally switched PCP, because I just couldn’t take it anymore. I went three years inbetween visits because it was easier and cheaper to go to an urgent care clinic or a CVS MinuteClinic than it was to go here.