Robert Gurney, MD

None of Dr. Gurney’s treatment worked for me. i gained so much weight with spironolactone (prescribed for my alopecia like condition. He did a biopsy and the results were written like it may be alopecia or telegenic effluvium, not sure which one. Basically inconclusive results). Wanted to get laser done for my birthmark and he referred me to Reston dermatology center and the dermatologist I met there seriously doesn’t know anything. I told him I don’t want to use hydroquinone as it can cause cancer and I am allergic to it too. But the Reston Doctor kept saying he will prescribe me hydroqunione and I have to use it after every treatment. I was so damn scared after talking to him, I never turned back again. Basically either of these doctors paid any attention to my concerns and was only interested in getting a fee. So after all this ended up pretty much bald in the front and extra 15 pounds on my waist and hips. Now stopped spironolactone and using natural DHT blockers, hair loss is reducing but no new hairs yet. Look for some dermatologist who cares about your health and not just money.

I am going to try and be as objective as possible. I have received good direct care from Dr. Gurney. He has taken care of several skin blemishes for me and has helped to control my eczema with pharmaceuticals. Dr. Gurney has told me I will most likely need to use this medicine for a long time, and that it is a very common, widely used, and very safe drug. I have been following Dr. Gurney’s regiment for a year and the treatment has been very effective.
My issue is with his business practices. For the past year, I have been seeing Dr. Gurney every 90 days for an appointment and to get my prescription refilled. There really isn’t much to the visit. A quick, how am I doing and then he writes the script. He does not take vitals or ask any pointed questions. No more than 5 or 10 minutes. Now after a year, I asked to have the script refilled without a doctor visit (or the $ 50 co-​pay). My request was refused, and I am told Dr. Gurney is a «specialist», and I need to see him to get the script. Effectively, that is $ 200 a year (from me, no telling how much the insurance company ponies up) just to get a prescription refill.
I have since gone to my family doctor and he has written the same prescription for me as part of my annual physical. He gave me 4 renewals, effectively, I have a year long prescription for the drug that Dr. Gurney said he needed to see me every 90 days before refilling.
I am ok with seeing a Doctor once a year for a prescription refill but not every 90 days.
I am sorry good care does not equate to business integrity. I’ll be looking elsewhere for dermotology needs.

The worst doctor in the entire world. I saw him numerous times as a teenager and he loaded me up with tons of pills. He only saw me for less than 5mins each time too. This doctor was the one who gave me generic accutane, which later gave me colitis. This guy ain’t not doctor, he is just a antibiotic/​chemotherapy salesman! Does not care about your health, only lining his pockets with your insurance’s money!

Watch out — this is a skin biopsy mill. Dr. Gurney tries to biopsy everything because it generates revenue for him. He has biopsied a wart and tried to biopsy my bug bite. When I refused to allow it he yelled at me for putting him a corner between medical care and finances.

DO NOT SIGN «patient Registration Form» of Gurney office!!!
There is a sentence in this form that says:“I am agreeing that the amounts and charges set forth in any statement are fair, reasonable and accurate”. that obligate you to pay what ever the charge.
This Form with this fine line force you to pay any amount that they wanted, and if you cannot legally dispute it.
Robert W gurney has a precedent conviction for «Obtaining money under false pretenses, a felony, pursuant to Virginia code 18.2−178» see link below.
DO NOT GO!

I whole heartily agree with all the other patients that have been rushed off and expected to pay for work that was merely not done or not up to medics expectations. The office manager is in on this «doctors» master plan to rip off everyone and Rush people through the door. They will take your insurance and rob you without information on your visit. AVOID AVOID AVOID BEWARE!

I just paid $ 531 in court fees and a bill– I called their office 6 months ago to inform them that I was waiting to pay the remainder bill from a mole-​removal procedure because I wasn’t sure how they’d want to proceed to FIX the large, horrendous, itchy, painful scar on left my back from his «work» removing a mole, the office manager said «Oh my, i’ll have to talk with the doctor and call you back, sweetie». The next correspondence I got was from his attorney with an even larger bill and a court summons and their utter refusal to even speak with me. To get the slug of a scar removed from my back I’m going to have to sue them for damages I guess.
To recap: I called to ask them how to proceed getting their work corrected, was told she’d call me back, they went about suing me instead of talking to me.

Don’t know about the physician, but beware of his staff! My daughter visited him this year and when our insurance (Blue Cross-​Blue Shield) applied his fee to our deductible and didn’t accept the claim, rather than simply explaining that, the staff member who contacted us was rude, curt to a point of contempt, and downright obnoxious (see other posts regarding the same). We paid the fee immediately, but even in doing so, got the bum’s rush to get off the phone as soon as the card charge cleared. Dr., if you are even aware of Unilocal,please take note that there are actually folks out there who are committed to meeting their financial obligations and shouldn’t be treated poorly by an professional staff while doing so. I am recommending to my wife and daughter to stop using this office and find another.

Doctor Gurney himself was a nice man, but his office staff is some of the worst people I have dealt with. The woman at the front desk fraudulently overcharged me for a visit, and had a major attitude when I asked them to reimburse me. Not worth the experience.

I’m with others who have had bad experiences. The lady working in the office with a lot of makeup seemed to enjoy having me run around for pre-​authoritizaiton from my GP. Rude, rude, rude.
Dr. Gurney never looked at my acne up close, just sat and wrote prescriptions and none of them worked. He told me he had nothing else to offer. It’s like this guy is completely out of touch with modern medicine.
I keep expecting this guy to retire but he’s still chugging along. One of the worst doctors and offices I’ve ever been to.

Total Joke of a doctors office. The 2 women at the front desk are total witches and cannot be bothered to help you. They over charge you and treat you like you are bothering their doing nothing. 260.00 they just charged my husband for 5 minutes all because he didn’t have his insurance card with him. I called and tried to give them info over phone and they were nasty and said no, you pay 260.00. He is a drive through dermatologist. Go find a real one that takes more than 1 minute to look at your skin too. The only thing I have ever gotten from that place is a headache. They are a bunch of morons running that office. They have lost a long time family of patients as of today.

We had a great experience:
Arrived early and he actually took us in early. This never happens @ a dr’s office.
Gave us an rx for dermatitis which showed improvement on the first application.
He was very nice, took his time, offered off advice for avoiding skin allergies.
No parking dramas like @ medical units near Reston hospital.
I found him on Angie’s List with great reviews.
So glad we tried him.

I have a lifelong difficult to treat chronic skin condition that other dermatologists were struggling with. They referred me to Dr. Gurney so that he could have a shot at it. He was able to control that condition with medication and he gave me considerable knowledge of things I can do to help control the condition. The doctor has a lot of experience and knows what he’s doing. Appointments are easy to obtain. The doctors is also cost conscious and tries to prescribe medications that are inexpensive.

Dr. Gurney was my dermatologist for more than 20 years. I thought he was OK, kind of liked him. Then I had a problem with overcharging on a bill ($ 500 for an allergy test that took all of two minutes and wasn’t covered by my insurance). I gave him another chance as he’d been my doc for so long. But I was overcharged again for some other minor procedure, and this time I wasn’t able to pay in full at the end of the appointment. One of his staff called the next day and acted creepy/​threatening on the phone. I sent a check but never returned. I have to wonder what is going on with him and his staff. Way to lose a long-​time customer, Dr. Gurney …

Saw him again today after a phone call, he gets the job done and has me out very quickly. I have seen him a couple times a year for the last 5 years to treat sun damage. All good in my experience, Mike

I can also only say good things about Dr. Gurney, yes, he is fast, but he knows his stuff, so far he was always spot on and even helped me with one issue I had and no one else was able to help me before.
I know what people mean about the office staff, but just be friendly and don’t take things personally and you will be fine. You get an appt. right away. I am very happy and lots of my neighbors go there too!

Wish I would have seen this before going.
Front desk staff is unpleasant and not accommodating. I asked to have my prescriptions called into my pharmacy, and she refused. They were clearly not busy, just not helpful.
I also recently received a hurried and incorrect diagnosis to an issue and spent the weekend miserable while taking strong antibiotics I didn’t even need. The doctor is easy to get an appointment with because he rushes you out so quickly. He is practically writing you a prescription when you walk in the door before even seeing what the issue is.
On another visit, I was given a printout by the receptionist explaining what was wrong with me before I even went in to see the doctor. I had to then sit in the waiting room with a scary diagnosis and no one to discuss it with at that moment.

I went in to ask about an issue that had been bothering me for some time. I was able to get an appointment very quickly and did not have to wait at all on the day of. The doctor was very thorough and professional, but I can understand how some people may have felt rushed. I asked lots of questions and he was happy to answer them, but he is not a small talk kind of guy. At any rate, I really liked Dr. Gurney, would definitely go back. His office staff is nice and everything is very efficient.

Please just trust all the other 1 star reviews. If there was option to give 0 stars, I would give him –5.
Listen to the ‘naysayers’ who are trying to prevent you from getting robbed and go somewhere else where you Might just have to wait a week or so to get an appointment because the doctors are busy actually being doctors. Never thought I’d leave the doctor’s office feeling like it was all a scam.

Dr. Gurney’s availability is excellent. He takes an appointments with little to no heads up. Unfortunately his chosen treatments did not have effect and once I pointed this out his staff rudely refered me to another dermatologist rather than work with me. I was stuck without a doctor while my health worsened and I became more ill while still following his prescribed treatments. My new dermatologist has provided me with a new treatment and I am now in much better health. Dr. Gurney disappointingly gave up. He seemed to forget the Hippocratic Oath of avoiding therapeutic nihilism.
If you do see him, he is relatively pleasant, but short with his diagnosis and explaination thereof. Which would be fine if, in my case, the chosen treatment had an effect.