Hawthorne Clinic and Research Center

"Had my first expierience with both Dr. Monsul and with getting Botox. It was excellent; both with the result and with the doctor in answering all of my questions and then with his gentle touch. Would highly recommend and will be returning."

"Hawthorne clinic has all new staff and it is a pleasure to go to the office. Everyone is very helpful. The office is clean and the wait times are short and sweet now. Dr. Berkes has so much knowledge and she has awesome bedside manner. If you've been struggling with allergies and have given up hope I recommend you give Dr. Berkes a chance to help you with your allergies. You will not be disappointed! Dr. Monsul is a great doctor and surgeon. He thinks outside of the box and helps his patients however he can. Dr. Monsul does botox injections too. He is a surgeon so he knows exactly where to inject to get the results I want vs the nurse practitioner I was seeing who did not do as good of a job."

"I’m not one to leave negative reviews, but I had such a bad experience from start to finish with Hawthorne Clinic. Dr. Berkes is wonderful so these negatives are in no way about her. I’ve been to the office before and had a loooonnnggg phone conversation with reception when I set up my appointment. I was put on hold many times without any warning. That’s basic phone etiquette... if you need to put someone on hold, you tell them before you do so. I was asked for my DOB at least 5 different times. I started to wonder if whoever i was speaking to was actually listening. I got passed to a couple different people on the phone without warning and had to restart my spiel. More than 15 minutes into the phone call, we still hadn’t gotten to the part where we schedule the appointment. In all, it took about 20 minutes. I wasn’t even a new patient. Professionalism was not a strong suit for any of the staff i spoke with on the phone... but i kept my appointment anyway and came in because Dr. Berkes has been my and my family’s allergist for many years. On the phone I was told I must return my new patient paperwork one week prior to the appointment. I reminded them I’m not a new patient but I’ll fill it all out. I sent it back using their patient portal online and i faxed it just to be safe. Both were done a week prior to my appt. I never heard anything from the office so I assumed they got it. They would have called if they hadn’t received it, right? I arrived 10 minutes early. The receptionists are both on the phone with a patient so I signed in and sat down in view. They had the patient on speakerphone; the patient was telling her story about all the issues she’s been having. Reception didn’t give an ounce of empathy and trudged through the phone call. They collected personal info from the patient still on speakerphone. Luckily, I’m not the type of person who would copy down another patients info, but I easily could have. When i called to make my appointment, I remember being on speakerphone too... I hope they weren’t being as careless with my information as they were with the lady I had just heard on the phone... The front desk never greeted me even after they hung up with that patient. A young man brought me back in an exam room and said i needed to fill out paperwork. I said i submitted it on the patient portal AND faxed it. He checked with the front and said they didn’t get it...?? Fortunately, i had also printed it out and brought my paperwork with me to the appt. In preparation for the allergy testing, they need to draw a grid on each patient’s back where they test different allergens to see what each patient is allergic to. While the grid was being drawn on my back, the young man used a regular pen that felt like a scalpel digging through my back, line after line. (I thought there was a special kind of pen or marker for that?? The last time I had it done, it did NOT feel like this.) Three hours later, even though the ink was wiped off, my back has a perfect outline of the entire grid in bright red from the pen scraping/scratching through my skin. Then i saw Dr. Berkes and completed the exam. She was great and personable as usual. While i was checking out, the receptionist took my credit card for my copay. She appeared to be training/new and was having a hard time completing the steps to submit my payment. Nobody explained what was going on or why it was taking so long, and I just stood there... waiting. Then she says “ok” and just looks at me. I ask if there’s anything else they need and she says no and goes back to what she was doing. I asked if I could have my credit card back and she looks at me blankly and says “i gave it back, didn’t i?” She rifles through some things on her desk and finds it already buried under some papers. I still don’t know how that happened. Visits with Dr. Berkes have never been like this before for me or my family so I’m wondering if it’s because of recent staff changes or something. Even though Dr. Berkes has been wonderful over the years, I don’t see myself going back to Hawthorne."

"Dr Berkes was rude and unhelpful in trying to get answers. Was annoyed by questions and over billed my insurance provider despite the fact she knew what the allowed amount was. Insisted on being paid upfront when I had insurance to pay for the treatments. Keep looking if you want a doctor who cares and is not only concerned with her own agenda."

"My initial visit the nurse came in to give me an Allergy test, I told her I could not because I was on antihistamines, but she never asked me if I was - make sure to let them know this, the front desk receptionist never checked my benefits to let me know whether it would be covered under my insurance. Next visit the front desk receptionist said the Allergy test was covered under my initial visit and I would not have to pay for it. After seeing the doctor she had made me take the test later on and I received a bill in the mail that I had to pay $600 out of pocket. When I checked with my insurance company they said each office codes their testing differently and there was nothing they could do. I was very disappointed in the care I received, most doctors office will let you know whether it will be covered and how much the deductible would be. I called the Silverstein Institute in Sarasota, their Allergy Nurse Susan Land was outstanding ...its important to go over this information with the patient. Dr Berkes needs more capable staff who look out for the well being of the patients and go over insurance and deductibles before testing. Their financial billing department did not return my call either."