I had my initial cosmetic dermatology consultation with Dr. Ellis which was booked more than 6 months in advance due to how busy their clinic is. I was so looking forward to this appointment since I use Dr. Ellis's Prequel skincare line and watch her YouTube videos. I thought the appointment itself was good, and I left the visit with a 3 month treatment plan.
It went downhill from there. After I left, I realized I didn't have a follow-up appointment scheduled so I called the office to ask about this. I received a message on the patient portal in response stating that if my skin condition didn't improve, I should see Dr. Wall instead since I am Asian and Dr. Wall, also an Asian woman, is the clinic's "Asian skin specialist." In order to see her though, I would have to pay another $250 new patient consultation fee. I was not given an option to follow-up with Dr. Ellis. It felt like - sorry, you're not white, so you can see someone else.
During my initial appointment, I was advised to consider the Clear and Brilliant or PicoWay laser treatment. I went ahead and tried to book this, knowing that the consultation fee that I already paid could be applied to the cost of the treatment. I called to schedule the Clear and Brilliant (they were booked out the next 4 months) and received an appointment confirmation through the patient portal which indicated a provider who I was not familiar with. It turns out this was the nurse who works with Dr. Ellis. I expressed reservations about a laser treatment with a nurse who I have never met, who is not even listed on their website under staff member, and who was initially touted by the front desk staff as having "many years of experience" which upon further clarification ended up being "maybe 2 years." I requested laser treatment by a dermatologist, after all, I thought that was the whole point for going to a dermatology clinic as opposed to any other medispa. Also, $650 for a single treatment is not a small amount of money. I was told that the dermatologists don't perform such a "basic" laser treatment and they didn't think it would matter anyway since it probably wouldn't do me much good (or harm). When I asked for the other laser treatment that had been recommended to me, PicoWay, I was told that it's no longer recommended. By the way, the PicoWay is performed by the dermatologists and the price I was quoted was actually cheaper for the PicoWay compared to the Clear and Brilliant. Apparently, Dr. Wall is able to do all of the laser treatments, but since I did not see her for my initial consultation, I could not request her to do my laser treatments unless I pay another $250 consultation fee for a "second opinion."
Had I known that the dermatologist I would be seeing would not actually be the one doing the treatment, I probably wouldn't haven't booked the initial consultation with her or this clinic. This was not transparent at all during the booking process. When I mentioned this to the front desk staff, they basically said, too bad. In retrospect, I remember the process of getting an initial consultation was quite a hassle since they don't respond to your email/website request for an appointment and when you call, there's no information given except the date of the next available appointment with X, Y or Z person.
I ended up canceling any treatments after this whole ordeal. I was surprised by the lack of transparency from the front desk staff, the breakdown of communication between the staff and clinicians which is then relayed as misinformation to patients, and the seeming unwillingness to follow-up with patient treatment plans or turfing patients to another provider. Overall, my first time seeing a dermatologist was quite disappointing, but now I know better. read more
