I've had a good experience so far, but there is room for significant improvement, especially with the blood work/labs process (not the technicians, just the process).
PROS
-- I give very high marks to Dr. Daniella Iribarne, the doctor I worked with during my initial experiences with One Medical. She's great--5 stars. One Medical is lucky to have her. She knows her stuff, has a good bedside manner, and seems to actually care about her patients.
-- Front desk staff and labwork technical (Carlos) were professional and friendly in the office. Staff gets 5 out of 5 stars. The rules around lab work appointments and operational things like that are not their fault, and they are likely unable to change company rules. I don't want my review to be a knock on the people themselves, who were all exceptional, professional, and helpful. However, I do want the company to take a look at operations and tighten up to offer a better process to patients that is more in line with the fact that this is a paid concierge service. I have only good things to say about all the employees I dealt with. Great job everyone!
-- The Brickell office is clean and much nicer than your average doctor's office. You are not stuck sitting in the waiting room if you have a pre-scheduled appointment. I give it 3 stars for the cleanliness and quick processing. Comparatively, at Forward (Brickell office), they give you fancy snacks, and you don't have to sit in a waiting room at all; zero time wasted and zero exposure to waiting room germs, so that's a really tough act to compete with.
-- Parking validation (yay)!
CONS
-- They do NOT do pre-scheduled blood work! So you may have to come in and wait for an hour to be seen for the blood work. Professionals have busy schedules; not allowing scheduling and expecting people to wait for hours is silly. Not the kind of high quality their target consumer, who can afford to pay for a conceirge program, would expect. Patients shouldn't have to travel to the office in hopes that you may be able to "fit them in". This is very SLOPPY One Medical, tighten up. Patients have better things to do than sit in a waiting room, no matter how clean it is. Guess what, I don't want to sit there being coughed on and losing time. The blood work situation has me annoyed (leaving me an hour of time to write this review in the waiting room), so I am giving the labs system one star. Company needs to improve this and allow for pre-scheduled lab appointments (again, not a knock on the employees themselves, who were all great and just following a bad company policy)!
-- When I messaged on the app for help rescheduling an appointment, they (offshore staff, AI bots, not sure?) failed to respond in a timely manner. I received a response after the appointment was already finished, which is a bad look. Do not offer an app and blow up the app with all these "we are here for you" and "welcome", messages and then not deliver on your customer service promise with appropriate and timely follow-ups to patients using the app (Forward is similarly disappointing on the follow-ups and app, using AI bots for most things).
OVERALL
In comparison to Forward (a similar but pricier out-of-pocket medical concierge program), for now, Forward wins in terms of more high-tech client-centric onboarding and patient rooms, no gross waiting room, they send you a welcome give, and the in-office experience is fast where it matters (no gross waiting rooms, labs drawn on the spot with no wait), and slow where it matters (you don't feel rushed by the doctors), which is nice for busy professionals paying for convenience and perks. However, Forward does seem to have diminishing returns on those months when you are paying for the service but not using it, and they don't do a good job of integrating with your actual insurance provider. One Medical is only $200.00 a year, and you are paying $150.00+ a month for Forward, so there's a big price difference as well that you have to weigh in line with your budget. I wanted to try One Medical in hopes that they'd do a better job linking up with my insurance and compare, overall, to the value received at Forward to objectively pick whichever is better. The jury is still out. I will update this review after a few more experiences with One Medical. So far, I give it a solid OK/GOOD. 5 of 5 stars to Dr. Iribarne. If it wasn't for her and the great staff, I'd give One Medical 3 stars overall. I haven't worked with the other doctors, so I can't speak to the experience there, but if you can get Dr. Iribarne, then you will be in good hands.
One Medical is a good option for a slightly more elevated doctor's office experience. You'll get great staff and a very clean office conveniently located in Brickell. If you are looking for a more high-end white glove experience, it's probably worth it to spend extra for Forward or another more pricey service (though Forward has its own CONS list and certainly isn't perfect). read more