Dr. Joel A. Falk, MD 201 West Guadalupe Road, Gilbert, AZ 85233

"Caused an ongoing medical problem from a botched surgery that I've suffered for a few years. Unsuccessfully attempted to correct it (painfully and in a far more invasive way than other docs I might add) where another doc had no problem. He was also extremely arrogant, impatient, cold, and talked over me many times. Frankly, I don't believe the positive reviews calling him great or nice are true."

"If I could give this guy 0 stars, I would. He delivered my first baby and I had a horrible experience so I ended up doing a home birth with a midwife for my second baby and the difference between these two experiences is day and night. Once you go to a midwife you realize how little doctors know and how little they care. Not only did he not know how to measure me and the baby properly (and kept relying on ultrasounds), but he also had terrible bedside manners, telling me that if I didn’t push, I would end up with a C-Section. Do yourself a favor and find a midwife or a birthing center. Doctors just care about delivering the baby as quickly as possible and getting their money. A midwife is trained to be there for you throughout the whole process and it makes a BIG difference."

"I absolutely love Dr. Falk and his assistant, McKenzie! He was recommended to me by my sister-in-law who has been using him for years. He was very friendly and he truly cares for his patients. He was with me the whole way with my third pregnancy and he even came to the hospital on his day off to come deliver my sweet girl! I don't know any other doctor who would have done that. I definitely recommend going to him!"

"Dr. Falk was the on-call doctor for the delivery of my daughter (my regular OB, Dr. Christine Brass-Jones was out of town) and my experience with him was extremely unpleasant. I am a strong proponent of natural/unassisted birth and had I had the option financially, I would have done a home water birth with a doula and midwives, not delivered at a hospital. Unfortunately, I wasn't given that opportunity with any of my 3 children and I have had at least one part of each birth be a bad experience (all delivered at Banner Gateway), but nothing tops the treatment (or lack of) I received by Dr. Falk. I had been laboring at home since about 7:30-8pm and then I came to the hospital around 12:30am with strong steady and close together contractions (every 3-5 min lasting about 1min). I had my birth plan with me, the nurses reviewed. I did not want a hep-lock placed per my birth plan (which was okay'd by my regular OB) and I signed the refusal form for it. When Dr. Falk arrived and saw that I did not have a hep-lock placed, the first words out of his mouth were asking where it was and after the nurse explained how I did not want one and signed a refusal form for it already, he proceeded to bully me with nasty words about what if I started bleeding and what kind of mother am I to do that to my baby, all while I was having contractions a minute apart and almost to the point of pushing. To get him to shut up I just agreed to it though it very much upset me that I was being forced to do something I did not want when I had had no complications during any pregnancies or my previous deliveries. Then when I was ready to deliver my daughter, after a few pushes he had the nerve to tell me that if I stopped screaming I'd get more productive pushes (please note I was entirely unmedicated and not numbed and my daughter ended up weighing basically 10lbs (9lbs 15oz) and her head circ was 15inches, so ... yeah). After she was delivered, he was extremely rough while stitching me up, not gentle or compassionate at all, like the other (female) OBs had been with my previous deliveries and once he finished, he gave me an icy "congratulations" and left. He stitched me so tight that I had complications with healing and it took much longer to heal than the typical 6 weeks. It was by far the most horrible experience I have had in any of my 3 deliveries and unfortunately has totally turned me away from ever using a male OB, whether or not I ever have any more children. He was ON CALL for my OB, Dr. Brass, and wouldn't even respect the wishes that were agreed upon by her and her patient in the birth plan. When I told him that she okay'd it after he first asked, he said, "Well she's not here, is she? I am." Just a horrible, horrible man to treat a laboring woman in the final stages of labor right before delivery that way and I am extremely surprised at how many reviews I've seen on here of women saying how nice and compassionate and the best doctor he was for them. I did not see that man. The Dr. Falk I saw shouldn't even be allowed to practice medicine."