South End Community Health Center

I second all of the one star reviews about this place. IT IS THE MOST HORRIBLY RUN PLACE in the universe. Urgent care is a joke

Review of Urgent Care.
I only went to SECHC Urgent Care out of convenience as it’s near my work and I didn’t have the time to get over to my regular provider. Never again.
The Positive:
While check-​in did take awhile, the receptionist was really nice and had great customer service skills, which resulted in me not minding standing there waiting. After check-​in I was only in the waiting room for about ten minutes before getting called in. I really liked the medical assistant who took my vitals and whatnot. She spent a lot of time with me and asked important questions.
The Negative:
My SECHC experience went downhill when the Nurse Practitioner, Deborah Sheldon, walked through the door. She scowled at me upon meeting… a bizarre scowl that kept reappearing over the next two minutes spent together. I don’t know if she has Aspergers but there was something very off about her ability to connect and communicate. She kept looking at me as if I had leprosy or was a bank robber. And yeah, two minutes, that’s about all the time she gave me. The first thing she said to me was «(inaudible mumble about cold symptoms)…what do you want from me?» She seemed so angry and frustrated when asking me «what I wanted from her» that I felt a bit intimidated and didn’t know how to respond, which isn’t helpful at a medical appointment, especially one that is apparently only 2 minutes long. I mean… usually when I go to the doctor I’m feeling horrible and honestly want a pat on the back, some reassurance, and guidance on how to get better. Is that a crazy concept? I didn’t get any of that from NP Sheldon. I really had some serious concerns about my symptoms, but I didn’t get to address them with her. She left the room at one point, seemingly mid conversation (if you could call it a conversation) and reappeared with a useless discharge sheet and a random man in tow behind her. I thought the man worked for SECHC and was coming in to change a light bulb or something maintenance related. Not that a maintenance man scenario would of been appropriate… but nope, it was worse… he was a patient. I guess Deborah Sheldon’s way of signaling the appointment is over is to bring the next patient into the room while you are still in it.
Just a very bizarre experience that was anything but helpful. I’m really frustrated that my insurance is being charged for this. I mean, other than being scowled at and spoken to rudely, what exactly am I paying for? She didn’t even do a strep test, despite me telling her I have an extensive history of strep and sinus infections. I bumped into a colleague on my way back to work and asked if they had ever used SECHC for urgent care. Low and behold, colleague had the same exact experience as I did… with NP Deborah Sheldon.
While I did experience some positives at SECHC, I have to give one star because the most important part of the experience was a complete, shameful disaster. If you are going to go to SECHC, make sure you don’t get assigned to Deborah Sheldon.
UPDATE:
Two days after my appointment with Deborah Sheldon I was able to get over to my regular medical providers office. I was in absolute agony the two days between appointments, the pain in my throat so bad that I ended up self treating (responsibly) with old prescription pain meds from a past surgery. The night before I got in to my doctor’s office one of my tonsils was expelling white curds and blood, which I’ve never experienced before. It felt as if someone had fired a shotgun at my throat. When I went in to my regular medical providers office, she spent the full scheduled 20 minutes with me. In that time she did a strep test. She looked at me as if I was a human being and treated me with respect. She asked me questions. She welcomed my questions and provided me with understandable, non-​hurried answers. In the end when I walked out the door, I felt as if someone had given me a hug without actually giving me a hug. And that is how a medical appointment should be, unlike the experience Deborah Sheldon provided.
I’ll compare the two discharge plans to illustrate Deborah’s failure to diagnosis and treat.
SECHC/​Deborah Sheldon’s Discharge Plan:
*Use Neti Pot and Afrin
My PCP’s Discharge Plan:
*ANTIBIOTICS REGIMEN
*600MG Motrin 3x/​day for at least 3 – 4 days
*Liquid Codeine and Guaifenesin (Cheratussin) 10ml every 4 – 6 hours as needed, max 60ml/​day
*Cepacol Cough Drops for numbing
*As needed OTC cold treatments that do not contain ingredients that double up on ingredients on this list (such as Guaifenesin)
*Warm soothing liquids like soup or tea with lemon and honey.
*Cold numbing foods like popsicles and pudding.
*REST
Sort of a massive difference in the quality of care.

REVIEW of EYE DOCTORS & GLASSES STORE ONLY
This health center offers lots of services
to lots of people of all income ranges.
Expect to see large families with crying babies.
EYE STAFF: I keep coming back for the exceptional staff.
The eye doctors give the most thorough exams,
remembering you by name and life details.
By the time I leave, I KNOW they’ve checked it all.
GLASSES STORE: I ONLY buy my glasses here
because the sole employee is THE most patient,
knowledgeable and detailed glasses fitter in Boston.
I won’t get fitted anywhere else now. He’s spoiled me!
THE DEAL: If you can tolerate the noisy waiting rooms,
the staff is well worth the wait. I’ve come here for years!

The check in people are completely incompetent. They take forever to check you in. They do not ask why you are here, what your symptoms are, and do not instruct you on where to go. Once I got to the nurse she told me they should have directed me to the eye clinic.. At this point I had already waited a good 15 min.. Only to be put back on wait..

If you are paying for high (or even medium) quality care then make sure you get the value you’re paying for and DO NOT COME HERE. I made the mistake several other people made and got my healthcare here for 2 years because it was conveniently located for me. My notes are:
1) I hope you’re not in any hurry to get your medical issues resolved because you can expect a month’s wait before each appointment, even a follow up. If you’re looking for a referral you can expect another month or two to schedule that appointment. To review, that’s 2 – 3 months to get an appointment with a specialist.
2) While the staff is friendly, they are extraordinarily inefficient. I recently came in for an 8:20 appointment to get a dermatology referral (they won’t give them out over the phone or email), I arrived at 8:10 but didn’t even get checked in until 8:45 and didn’t get out until after 9:20. That’s over an hour just to get a referral.
3) You have to pull teeth to get any treatment. On my first visit I asked my doctor to screen me for some medical conditions that run in my family and he flat out said No! I had to ask 4 times before he agreed to run the tests. On most of my other visits the theme has been the same, I’ll come in asking for a treatment and they always give me the run-​around about how it’s too expensive (even though my insurance will cover it). Be strong, they’ll usually cave if you ask them 3 or 4 times but they can be pushy. Just remember that if you want to schedule a follow up you’ll have to wait a month or two before getting your treatment.
4) PCPs are hard to find, I’ve only actually seen my PCP once. Every time since then I’ve seen a medical assistant or nurse practitioner, even if I specifically ask for an appointment with my PCP and assured he’ll be there. My first PCP left the institution though apparently none of his patients were notified. Another was on vacation during my appointment, even though I scheduled it a month and a half in advance specifically to have an appointment with him. Each time the nurse practitioner comes in and lectures me about how «I really need to try to schedule my appointments with my PCP». They’re even worse about giving out treatment, they’ll actually cut you off mid-​sentence: «Can I get antibi — No.»
I recently switched to a new provider. I got an appointment with my PCP scheduled for the next day, got that dermatologist referral with a 2-​week wait time and 2 prescriptions in under an hour. And that was on my first visit. It has completely changed my view of healthcare, in that I can actually get some.

Every time I always hesitate to schedule an appointment at SECHC due to long waits, lack of knowledge of referral sources, and in general, a lower quality of care. I only go to the center because it is very close to where I live.
I have premium health insurance that I pay a LOT of money for each month, so I think it is fair to expect premium care. Perhaps this is not realistic, or as my experience might suggest, I am not the target patient demographic. So I was disappointed to see that the person who would be seeing me would be an RN only, as I expect an MD who has received years of training given the level of insurance I am paying for. I have nothing against this person or the RN profession, but I am expecting a premium trained physician given my level of insurance and what I pay each month for it. This was for an appointment that I made several months in advance. No one from the clinic even called me to let me know that my originally scheduled doctor had left several months back, and that I would be seeing an RN. Additionally, I am disappointed at the «revolving door» policy I’ve experienced at the clinic. Every doctor I have been matched with has not lasted very long at the clinic (first Dr. Jennifer Lo, then Dr. Hernandez) which causes complications every time I need to get prescriptions filled, get a referral, and so forth, which is a challenge when the doctor keeps changing and cannot call in new prescriptions so I need to keep going back unnecessarily.
This most recent time, I made sure I arrived well in advance of my 6 PM appointment, and I even left work early as a result. I was disappointed that the staff did not have any respect for my time, especially when I made sure to respect theirs. I kept being told «I’m the next one» and this was for over an hour before I finally decided to teach the clinic a lesson and walked out despite assurances from the manager that I would be seen immediately. The manager tried to be helpful, but was too focused on what her CEO would think, as opposed to trying to proactively come up with a solution to the quality of care issue, which I think is the deeper problem. I think I need to find a place that respects my time as much as I value it — I accord everyone else the same respect with regards to their time, and I expect to be treated the same.
My goals for this appointment were to get a referral for an endoscopy, and to refill my prescription. Because I was not able to see a doctor, I am not sure if these will be accomplished, but I expressed my deep disappointment and hope that I will still be granted my referral and prescription fill especially in light of the fact that the staff had no respect for my time. I will not take NO for an answer given how I was treated, nor will I come back and get any more of my time wasted in order to accomplish these fairly routine things. Please keep in mind that because I have premium insurance, the clinic gets premium rates for any services you bill to my insurance. One would think that a clinic like this would like to keep more patients such as myself who offer significantly higher billing rates for the same amount of work, time, and procedures done than other insurances that they might accept.
After the staff took my vitals, when it became clear that I was not going to be seen anytime soon, I told the staff that I’m going to teach them a lesson today and simply walked out. I am researching other options for getting my care. I am going to let everyone I know hear about my experience today so that they can decide whether SECHC is where they want to receive their care.

My Primary Care Doctor was there till I recently switch because I moved. My first visit was incredibly thorough with in house lab work just to evaluate my health. I learned a lot from the results which I found enlightening. They provide custom tailored healthcare that makes you feel like you aren’t just another body going thru their doors.

Don’t know if the docs are actually any good, because I’ve never see one.
Picked them at random because they are close to where I live and are in my HMO — I have to select a primary care doctor to even be in the plan. call for appointment and am told that it’s a two month wait. So, I make an appointment next year and I come down with a UTI.
Call HMO to ask about urgent care. They can’t find one near me, and suggest I go to BMC the emergency room and pay the $ 100. For a UTI? WTF. I mean, I suppose it’s an emergency, though not by my standards, and not for no $ 100. This is a simple prescription for antibiotics, not life-​threatening. Also, went there with my friend with a concussion and waited, waited, waited, waited, waited. 4 hours. Nice triage.
No BMC for me!
So I decide begging might work. I SECHC, where I supposedly have an appointment two years from now, wait on hold for 15 minutes to beg. When I finally get a human, aliv, e albeit so rude and bored it’s the opposite of a bedside manner, she says, Oh, we have an urgent care. But it’s only between 8 and 12 mon-​thurs (well, I guess it can’t be that urgent if it waits for your urgent care to be open, now, can it?). Ok, fine. I give up expecting to be treated like my non-​emergency and yet urgent situation is important, I just need antibiotics.
I take the morning off work, walk over there, wait in line, stand in front of bored receptionist waiting to be acknowledged. Finally a busy, smart office manager deigns to speak with me and gives me many forms to fill out, etc. Wait around some more. Finally see a nice nurse (maybe a NP?), who is the first person who has looked directly at me and spoken to me as if I wasn’t an idiot/​problem. Phones scrip for antibiotics to CVS.
Get recurrence about two weeks later. Call to ask if they can just refill the scrip instead of making me take another day off work to sit on my butt waiting for someone to notice that I’m alive. Wait on the phone for 20 minutes, leave a message which is not returned. Call back again, am put on hold until I have to go to work, give up. Call at the end of that day, am put on hold and wait for 15 minutes, then it hangs up on me. Call the next morning, am put on hold, wait for 20 minutes. I’m about to call and, when they ask to put me on hold, say, «YOU MAY NOT!!!». Actually, I’m just going to switch doctors. I’ll probably have to take the train out to Newton, but I need a doctor who at least pretends to care.

The facility is clean, the doctor was friendly and informative, and I was seen promptly. There was almost no one here when I arrived which was good, because the telephone/​receptionists made a mistake last month with my insurance. This needed to be corrected before I could see the doctor, and surprisingly, was handled promptly within 7 minutes.
I saw Dr. Thomas Sterne: 5 stars.
He also will call me with the results of my blood work for convenience.
I then saw a lab technician/​nurse to have a routine blood draw. I jokingly said that I am a baby with needles. I sensed her tension go up an she insisted I lay down for the draw, just in case… I’ve never had a vasovagal response or feinted, but I complied. After I stood up, I pretended to start to feint, at which point she finally broke character and laughed.
It was childish of me, but hey, you’re only as old as you feel.
I’ll be back for my yearly preventative!

I take my daughter here for Pediatrics. I miss Dr. Maypole. He is the best Pediatric doctor I have ever met! New doctor is nice and She is very thorough. The staff is great! I didn’t give five stars because I wish the kids play area was cleaner. I hate letting my daughter play there. It looks like it has never been clean. Do not get your ears pierced at the doctors. I learned my lesson, the hard way. I had to remove my daughter’s first piercings because they were both really uneven. Go to Claire’s! The plus is that this place is next to Flour.

I have been going to the SECHC for over 6 years now and its time to change. I started going there for prenatal care with my first pregnancy at an early age. The OB/​GYN side is awesome and never had a problem with them. Specially Pat and Margaret, they are awesome nurses. The doctor Julia is the most caring of them all.
My only problem with this clinic has been with the customer service received by the receptionist and telephone operators. It seems like everytime I call I have to wait about 20 minutes for someone to pick up to only get transferred to a dept where noone is answering to only have to hit the 0 over and over again.
At times of appts I have been waiting in line for anohter 15 min while the receptionist do whatever else (not with a customer) only to be serviced by someone that is on a personal call while getting all my info. Making an appt seems like a journey, and the knowledge is not as expected.
This is my second pregnancy and am looking to move clinic to some place where I can get quality service.

Been seeking direction from Unilocal for a while, and it’s high time I started contributing. AND, hate to start on a negative note, but as my latest experience with South End Community Health Center (SECHC) is fresh, I wanted to deliver this fresh review, which in a sentence would be: if you need a doctor, don’t go there. I signed on at SECHC just a few months ago, with high hopes and a desire to go to my neighborhood health center for care. With (knock on wood) no serious health issues, I quickly got my new GP up to speed, including the background/​history on a couple of «maintenance» prescriptions, one of which is for ADD. For that prescription, he insisted that I see a psych doc one floor up. Long story short, refill time comes around for two things: a ‘scrip with my GP and a ‘scrip for the ADD. GP says he’ll only write the one, have to go to psych doc for the other. Told to come in two days later for both, neither can be found. Email (’cause I can’t talk to these guys in person without an appt) and head of mental health says he’ll walk the request down to the psych doc. Get a call days later saying c’mon in, the ‘scrips should be waiting for me. Call to make sure before making the trip in, and nothing can be found. Back and forth. Go in today, two weeks after the initial request for prescriptions. The psych doc wrote a prescription for the general medical maintenance thing, and nothing for ADD (after 3 attempts,) and he’s not in to ask what’s up. I have to wait 90 minutes for a ‘walk-​in’ appt and pay an insurance co-​pay to ask my GP how I can get these prescriptions, ’cause I’m now OUT of both. He says he thinks he wrote the one he was supposed to, but doesn’t know where it could be, then he writes the ADD ‘scrip which he had previously insisted I get from the guy upstairs. When I see the head of mental health and say I can’t do this every three months when refill time comes around, he says «you’ve got your prescriptions now… what’s the problem?» I explain all over again the two-​week odyssey and he says «so what, it’s a mistake.» I couldn’t have done any more than I did to try and get simple prescriptions, and the series of «mistakes» simply reflect the arrogance of this place and the lack of desire to do it better.
The therapist I also was asked to see in order to get the ADD medication: GREAT, and I’ll miss her. The nurses, and check-​in staff: also GREAT. I’d go back to see all of them in a minute. But I also need to occasionally see a doctor, and SECHC seems totally uninterested in asking the docs to step it up. Guess they’ve all got their degrees and salaries and don’t need to deliver the same high-​quality services that the rest of the staff do, and if one doesn’t like it, one can go elsewhere. As anybody who’s looked for a doctor recently knows, there are a lot of other people in line behind me, and they couldn’t give a rat’s arse if I’m satisfied or not.

I’ve only been once so far since changing my PCP to someone here (who I didn’t see, btw). Things were good, people were nice, I got a tetanus shot no questions asked, and they were helpful with insurance and stuff. Good show. The one thing that wasn’t awesome was that I received a referral to go to ART (advanced release technique or something) for my pain in the arse leg/​hip problems that prevent me from running. This is a problem because, shocker, ART is not covered by my insurance and is, unsurprisingly, expensive. So, I’m back to square one with my stupid hip bursitis and guys, all I ever really wanted in the first place was a big fat shot of cortisone into my bursa sac. Alternative therapies are nice, but for God’s sake, give me the normal stuff for now.
Anyway, other than that not working out, which wasn’t really their fault, I have no complaints so far.

I’m receiving my prenatal care here. Here’s what you need to know if you’re considering the same:
The clinic is a bright and clean place. The doctors are generally caring and amenable to all of your questions. The registration desk generally projects a bummed out, uninformed attitude about you. So, be patient and be informed on the co-​pay situation with your insurance before you arrive. The nutrition portion of the prenatal program is somewhat patronizing. The pamphlets they give you — read those. Even if the diagrams sick you right out.
I’ve never had to wait long to get an appointment, even a last minute appointment when I had a problem. The OB/​GYN office generally respects your time as a patient and keeps appointments flowing right along.
Parking can be tricky, but throw an extra quarter in the meter so that you can stop by Flour Bakery next door afterwards. I think this lends to «treating the whole person.»