Job's Peak Internal Medicine: Russo Judith DO 1520 Virginia Ranch Road, Gardnerville, NV 89410

"Note: in this review I keep referring to my doctor as a doctor even though I know she's a physician's assistant. It's just less confusing for me to type "doctor." I apologize if it comes off as disrespectful in any way; that's not my intention. I'm here to offer some constructive criticism for this office. I have no issue with the people who work here. I think they're great, and they do their jobs wonderfully. The issue I have is with a policy that I feel is unreasonable. The policy: a patient can't be more than 6 minutes late to their appointment, or they'll be rescheduled. I'm unable to drive, so my step-dad is the one who takes me to my appointments. We always give ourselves plenty of time to get there, and we're usually early. However, this time there was unexpected construction on the 395, which caused a slowdown. I'll fully admit that I should've called the scheduling lady the moment I saw this. I'm accustomed to being early, so ironically, I wasn't paying attention to how much time we were losing due to the slowdown. This part is my fault. So I ended up being 10 minutes late, and my appointment was rescheduled. One of the medical staff explained to my livid step-dad (I'm sorry about him, by the way -- he was just reacting the way that any parent would) that the reason for this policy was because appointments were 20 minutes long, and if I was taken in late, it would throw off the doctor's entire schedule for the day. This part is understandable. I don't know if the policy was implemented before or during the pandemic, but it seems like a clever way to prevent crowding in the lobby. The part that I'm having trouble understanding is that whenever I've arrived early or on time, I was typically waiting in the lobby more than 6 minutes past my appointment time before I was called back. This implies that my doctor is allowed to be late, but not me. Maybe it would be explained to me that doctors have to make more preparations than normal between patients due to Covid-19. This would be understandable too, but even if this is the case, I feel that common-sense fairness should be inserted into the policy by allowing patients to be as late as their doctors are. 6 minutes is really unforgiving...and unusual, to say the least. 10 to 12 minutes would be more fair. Another thing to note: the person who explained the policy to us kept claiming that I was 20 minutes late. I have to reiterate that I was only 10 minutes late. This person had entered the situation by the time it was 16 minutes past my appointment time, so naturally they misunderstood what was going on, and for some reason they rounded to the nearest 10. I realize it doesn't matter, since any lateness beyond 6 minutes is "very" late according to the policy, but I didn't appreciate being told that I was twice as late as I actually was. I'll continue going to this office because I like my doctor, and as I said, I have no issue with the people who work here. It was an unfortunate situation combined with an unreasonable policy that caused me to write this review. I consider myself lucky that my appointment was only a follow-up for a minor health problem. I just hope that patients with a greater need to see their doctor haven't been affected by this policy. Thank you for reading."