Synovation Medical Group - San Diego

I am extremely grateful for the assistance I am receiving to manage my 24/7 pain. Mr. Derek Wright, PAC, has been very helpful, he’s a great listener and is serious in helping patients. ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

My husband got five star treatment from the doctors and staff at Synovation. He had acute pain in his left glute and they were friendly and helpful with x rays and ultimately cortisone shots to relieve the pain. Now he is pain free, and we owe the folks at Synovation. This has been a chronic and persistent problem for over two years and they took one day to handle it. He will definitely be going back if this problem arises again. We want to thank the friendly professionals at Synovation, specifically Dr. Richardson and his staff, for their excellent care!

Make sure to see Dr Richardson for injections. See Courtney for your PT needs.
The PEP Program is recommended. Good benefits to help manage your pain

Dr. Richardson is a great doctor. He listens as well as suggests a host of treatments. Hard to get a message to him thou.

They are super nice and helpful. They are great team!

Wonderful office and care!

The doctor is friendly, respectful and helpful.
The office staff is disorganized and terrible at communication! My authorizations for medical equipment still haven't been submitted 2 months later. I scheduled an in-person appointment, and got a call a few minutes beforehand (when I'm already down the road) that they were changing it to a phone appointment. Thanks for the heads up, not like gas costs money. Since I'm already here, i drive around for 20 minutes looking for the office, which i can't find even though I've been here before - apparently I drove past it 6 times but it has a new name. These guys changed their location and didn't tell me - they're now 10 miles south of where I am. Their answering machine says they're closed for lunch.
My appointment was supposed to be 48 minutes ago, and I'm just sitting in my car outside of an empty office building.

Again, the doctor is very nice. -_-

**GET A PATIENT ADVOCATE IF YOU ARE REFERRED HERE, YOU WILL NEED ONE**
I escorted a patient to this FARCE of a pain management facility.
They straight up abuse patients via neglect. Dr. Richardson didn't even bother to show up for the initial consultation to establish a pain management plan. The next visit my patient had scheduled, the doctor was over an hour late. No notifications, explanations, or apologies. I observed him treating the patient like an addict and in a manner that is mentally abusive. While there, I observed abhorrent behavior from the office staff to existing patients. They really have no regard or empathy and do not admit fault.
Several peoples' appointments were cancelled without notice. These people are disabled, have limited mobility (in most cases) and are obviously in pain or their PCP wouldn't have referred them. One would think the office would be staffed with workers who are educated and trained in how to deal with emotionally spent, suffering patients. Not the callous, willful abuse that I observed on multiple occasions.
This particular patient that I escorted to this facility was a man, and he was in tears, feeling hopeless, helpless, and abused after we left.
Yes. I said abused. As a health care worker I know what that accusation entails.
A full investigation should be launched into this place.
They will disregard patients' issues, not return calls and keep their patients, who are in pain, in fear of being removed.
However, they seem to be very streamlined in the billing department.
They forget to put in prescriptions but never forget to bill.
REPORT TO MEDICAL BOARD!!!
The fallout is palatable.
Reprehensible
Disgusting
Unprofessional
MALPRACTICE!

Wow!! This place is absolutely unprofessional and disgusting behavior by the front desk. I showed up to my appointment 5 min late after the office gave me the wrong address. The woman at the front desk told me one moment. 3 min later she tells me there's no grace period your appointment is cancelled and you need to reschedule. Ok so I ask her when she tells me an appointment is available this Wednesday but doesn't give me the time. I sit down and wait and ask for her supervisor because now she's being very rude. I asked her what time is the appointment on Wednesday. She says I need to speak to her manager. I was in tears. I have a spinal injury and suffer from very bad chronic pain. Her manager gets on the phone and berates me yelling in my ear. Her name is Tara. I just want to book my next appointment and be done with this. So Tara says to book the appointment. Then this woman at the front desk tells me that appointment is no longer available and she's smiling while I'm balling. Unfortunately, I'm leaving to LA so I won't be able to get an appointment. I have no medication. And I am an in excruciating pain. And this woman laughed in my face. Very rude. Very unprofessional. No care in the world here. Go somewhere else!

The Synovation office personnel are horrible. I give them a 1 because it won't post if you give it the 0 or negative number they deserve.

I am disabled and have to use a walker to get around. I showed up at 11:48 for an 11:45 appointment. I was late because they have very little parking and the few handicap spots were full. I had a long and painful walk to get upstairs to the 2nd floor.

When I showed up, there was no other patients in the lobby waiting, and no doctor waiting. Still, I was told my appointment was cancelled. I was furious. I showed them my walker and the girl at the counter didnt care. No understanding and no sympathy. It's difficult to get around on a walker and to be treated with no respect or sympathy is infuriating, especially at a doctor's office that caters to disabled or injured people.

I would encourage anyway who is disabled and who has difficulty getting around to never go here. I've waited for their doctors for 30-40 minutes each time I go....AND THERE WERE NO PATIENTS AND NO DOCTOR this time when I showed up 3 minutes late. No one was inconvenienced, except the disabled 65 year old man.....me.

Extremely disrespectful office, and I suspect the # of handicap parking spots is illegally low.

If anyone has any suggestions on how to share this situation with a State of CA or Federal organization who can make a difference, then please share it.

Bad experience. First time, we arrived at 8 but doctor showed up after one hour later, he was nice but seemed he has to finish it sooner, he provided three referrals but we didn’t get any calls from these referrals not sure if they did their referral works. Second time, we arrived at 7:45am, after they opened at 8am, 10 mins later we were told our visit should be in Chula Vista office, said someone called us yesterday. We didn’t get any calls from their office yesterday even I showed call history. Very disappointed, we wont return back.

If I could give it 0 stars, I would!

While I appreciate the experience of Dr. Richardson, trying to reach his office staff for anything is next to impossible. They allow text but they do not respond to them nor do they call back from messages left on their voice mailbox. Right now, I am running low on Lyrica & cannot get in contact with a human & no one has ever sent me a link to the patient portal. What is going on Synovation Medical Group, why don't you communicate with patients??

On a side note, Dr.Richardson made me wait an hour & 10 minutes in his small waiting room on the 1st visit & he was 2 hours late to our next phone appointment.

My pain is the focus but if you won't communicate to patients, how am I supposed to feel??

****TODAY**** I call in to their office to try ONE MORE time to get them to call in a refill for Lyrica to my pharmacy. My suggestion is hire nicer people to answer the phone. I had to repeat myself 4x as the woman still did not get what I needed & then would not help me. So, I have only 2 days left of 100 mg Lyrica, if something happens to me, I am calling 911 & putting Synovation Medical Group as libel if I get hurt due to not having this simple task completed. I have been trying for a 9 days, plenty of time time get them to call in the refill but they still cannot seem to handle it, so I am done!

2nd Update:
Synovations new response was to discharge me, funny how they keep blaming PATIENTS for their internal issues. The office & company are both a total disgrace to the healthcare industry.

Waiting for their response...

What an unprofessional office. Dr. Dairo seemed nice during the appointment, but obviously didn't care or didn't pay attention regarding what I told him about medications I have taken for pain and which ones don't work and which ones do. This is obvious because he was going to prescribe me medicine that doesn't work for me. I saw the pending scrip and proceeded to attempt to get ahold of the doctor, his PA, and the office 7 times in 2 weeks using the app, text messages, and voice-mail. Not one response. This place really lived up to their 1.9 star review. Stay away from this office. They don't seem to give a damn about the patients and only care about getting that insurance money.

The ABSOLUTE WORST PLACE! I spoke with the office and they doctor. They both said that they will be able to prescribe opioids but when it came time they said they don't prescribe opioids. After 2 months of telling me they do. They also canceled my appointment they night before and never told me.

They canceled my two appointments excused Dr. went to surgery finally I complained to office manager she give me appointment then Forget to sent my pain medication order to pharmacy. no phone answer when I called the office . I have to go back to office to remind them to send my order again to pharmacy’s.

I have been a frequent patient for more than 5 years, but today TARA the office manager was not nice to me, she doesn't care to listen to what the patient concern is. I hope she checks her attitude.

Left in tears, a single injured mother. Tara Thomas extremely unprofessional and abrasive. I saw my Worker’s Comp primary dr and he inquired about my neck injection status with Dr. Richardson. I have not heard back from anyone regarding that and the primary assistant, reached out to Dr. Richardson‘s office to inquire the status. She came back into my room and said that Dr. Richardson‘s office has never put in any request for my injections because I am denying them. This is untrue. I have asked for these injections ever since my primary dr recommend them. This is my second pain management doctor, trying to get them done in a year. So he said for me to go in person to go figure out what was going on or to wait for my next appointment which would be in another three weeks, having been in pain for over two years now I decided to go in person to Dr. Richardson‘s office same day. I called his office to let them know I was on the way and that I would like to speak with the office manager regarding my case because things are not clear and that I am extremely frustrated and would like to figure this out. They said they would send a message to the office manager and then I could come down in person. When I arrived, the office manager was not there and I said well why was I not told that before I drove 20+ minutes to get here ? The other office front woman couldn’t give me an answer to that so she messaged the office manager Tara Thomas, she then got Tara on the phone and gave me their office phone to talk to her. The office manager, Tara Thomas was beyond unprofessional from the very moment she had an attitude with me and I asked her from the very beginning do you need my information to pull up my chart? Which is common practice in a medical setting especially if you’re trying to handle a conflict , she said she didn’t need my information because she’s not in the office and she can’t look it up. What can she do for me in general , so I went on to explain that I’ve been seeing their office since March and that Dr. Richardson requested the neck injections and since then there’s been a lot of confusion with having the right information to contact the Worker’s Comp. company and things not being communicated correctly and now I’m being told that I denied injections which I did not , that someone is reading the report wrong. It says that I denied EVER having neck injections and that if you continue to read the report it says patient is interested in injection therapy . Then she told me that the authorization wasn’t given but request was put in and I was confuse so I asked, wait do you have my chart open? I was confused because she just told me she couldn’t look at my chart, so how are you telling me something was put in if you can’t see my chart? Then she goes off on me and says do not talk to me like a child and I said I’m not talking to you as a child I’m talking to you as a frustrate patient that has been in pain and how are you able to tell me this when you just told me you didn’t have my chart ? I again asked sincerely because I keep getting told different information from this office. So then she proceeds to yell at me and says that she refuses to help me , that I am no longer a patient and to get out of her office and hangs up on me. I’m concerned moving forward with a provider who’s front office staff would treat injured patients this way , yellow lights dont turn green they always turn red and so I asked if my primary work comp dr had another provider to refer me. Tara also refused to give me her name when I asked for it. So I got it from the front office representative, who handed me the phone. I left in tears as a single mother my goal is to get back to work to provide for me and my son. The sad part is as I really enjoyed Dr. Richardson when I met him. I have now been referred to a new pain specialist.

This place doesn't deserve any stars. If you've had the misfortune to be referred to this office and you're reading this review, call your primary care and/or insurance and get a new referral for somewhere else, there's a million pain doctors in San Diego.

This place is a joke. This is not a legitimate pain management office and "Dr." Henry Richardson is not a legitimate pain management doctor. Let me not forget to mention the exceedingly dumb name this place has.

I had to wait 5 weeks for my 1st appointment here. 5 weeks. That's outrageous and unacceptable. I'm in extreme pain that whole time, did they care? Nope.

After filling out their ridiculously long new patient packet, I had to wait about an hour and a half to see Richardson. He didn't care about what I had to say about my pain. He was perhaps the most disinterested doctor I've ever seen. He didn't listen to me at all and at the end he recommended an epidural for my back, which I did communicate to him was not my primary area of pain.

"Dr." Richardson caused me a great deal of additional pain during the epidural procedure, on top of what I already deal with everyday. He did not care to make sure that I would have any comfort or relief. He scheduled a "telehealth" appointment for 2 weeks later.

I had to wait 3 hours for this guy to call me for this appointment. 3 hours. I informed him that the epidural didn't help, caused me additional pain, and that I felt that I wasn't being heard. I informed him that I've been in pain management previously and did get to a point where I was receiving somewhat effective treatment. Richardson laughed at me multiple times and was incredibly dismissive. This is not right.

"Dr." Richardson is a cold, callous, uncaring individual who honestly should not be a doctor, and definitely not a pain doctor.

I have submitted a complaint to my insurance and also the California Medical Board about "Dr." Henry Richardson. I strongly encourage anyone reading this who also feels that they have been mistreated by this scumbag to do the same, it can be done very easily online or over the phone.

Don't bring your business to this office or this doctor.

This place seems to have a cookie cutter approach to your health care!!
Plus both of the times I was had an appointment was over 45 minutes late. When you try to call the office they will not answer best to leave her number and even then call back will literally take well over 40 minutes each time. ( From a call center not the office.) Did not do a referral for me which they said they would. Late or wasting time wanting for a call.
The only good part is the physician was nice and front staff was nice but nice doesn't get you feeling better. I was in a lot of pain and they wanted to reduce my medication without giving me a good alternate or alternative. Don't go here unless you just want to be forced to get injections and just be treated exactly like everyone else and not an individual.