University of Illinois Family Medicine Center

I’ve been going to UIC Family Medicine for 15 years. I’ve had the pleasure of having a great Doctor by the name of Dr. Brian Dudkiewicz for the last 9 years. He is an exceptional Doctor. The office is clean. His nurse Lupe is very professional & couteous at every single appointment. I’ve never had to wait past my appointment time. Dr. Dudkiewicz addresses all of my concerns during my visits. He is very attentive & very knowledgeable. He manages my care exceptionally well. My referrals for other departments, my follow up appointments, my lab results, all done efficiently. When I need refills on medications, Dr. Dudkiewicz & his office fill my prescriptions with my pharmacy in a very timely manner. There have been a few times that I’ve called & left messages for Dr. Dudkiewicz to return my call, he always follow up with a return call in a timely manner. I often tell my family what an excellent Doctor I have. 5 stars across the board for Dr. Brian Dudkiewicz!!!

I am thrilled with the doctors I have seen in this practice. They are professional and actually listen to their patients. I have always been treated very well here and I have been seeing my doctor here for the last ten years.
The only reason I haven’t given five stars is that it is sometimes quite difficult to get a timely appointment.

I am a student at UIC and I have to say making appointments at this clinic has been the hardest thing I’ve had to do during my time here. They take no walk in’s, when I’ve had to make an appointment they said everything was booked for the next 3 weeks, I was told they don’t call if there are cancellations, and that if I want a same day appointment I should call at 8:30am but to honestly not bother because everything is always taken anyway. If you have the chance to go somewhere else, do it.

It isn’t perfect, but there are a lot of good things about this clinic. It is basically one of the only places in the city where you can get a same day appointment for a sick child, so long as you call when their phone lines first open up in the morning. And Dr. Leifer is amazing — she was my doctor, is currently my son’s doctor, and delivered him, and she has been exceptional in all of these capacities. Yes, wait times can sometimes be a bit much and many of the nurses and especially the lab staff are not the most friendly, but overall we have been very happy with the level and convenience of care here, especially in comparison to other health centers in the city.

This is a review specifically for Dr. Evelyn Figueroa and her staff at the 722 W Maxwell Street clinic.
I have been under Dr. Figueroa’s care since 2013 during which time I’ve had a number of general wellness visits, consultations for birth control, and gynecological procedures. The front desk staff is generally very friendly and always gets me checked in very efficiently. The nurses and aides are helpful and efficient in getting the general assessment done before the doctor comes in. There was one occasion where the aide marked inaccurate vitals (I know because she didn’t check them) but I wasn’t upset by this because I wasn’t in for an illness and every business will have a bad employee or an employee who’s having an off day.
My primary review is reserved for Dr. Figueroa who is without a doubt the best physician I’ve ever seen. She is friendly, kind, and has an incredible talent for recalling details about her patients that I would forget immediately. This skill among many other things gives her an excellent bedside manner. When I came in for a few more intense and serious procedures she put my mind at ease, took time to answer all of my questions and address any concerns, and made sure I understood the ins and outs of the procedure.
I’ve not experienced any of the issues that other reviewers are mentioning (that’s not to cast doubt on their claims) but I think it’s fair to say that with a clinic that handles the care of so many patients there will be a mixed bag of experiences. Mine have all been among the best I’ve ever had in a healthcare setting and I would recommend Dr. Figueroa to anyone.

So far my experiences with the doctors have been good. My complaint is about the front desk workers. They kept misspelling my email (forgot the «y» in «yahoo») and didn’t realize even after I called a couple times and complained I couldn’t log in the portal. It’s annoying when I need to log in and they don’t know how to fix that after I have called and complained 2 – 3 times. And then I made an appointment for 10:30am. The receptionist confirmed on the phone it was at 10:30. However, the day before the appointment, they left a voicemail that the appointment is at 2:30 which is completely wrong. Now I have to miss my 3:00 class because they scheduled me wrong. It’s just frustrating!

Worst clinic experience I’d ever had!
I thought I’d gotten lucky when I was able to make a same day appointment. Then, I received a call back saying that the appointment was erroneously made (how???), and that my appointment would be pushed back to the next day (they just assumed I would be free and booked the appointment). After much back and forth with the receptionists then with the manager and insisting that they really shouldn’t have screwed up this horribly and jerked me around when not feeling great, I was told to just come into the clinic and wait in order to be seen.
So I went. And waited and waited and waited. While in the waiting room, I witnessed a nurse threatening to call security on a woman who was clearly distraught because of a serious health scare she had in the morning. Sure the lady was yelling, but if I had had the symptoms I heard her describe, I’d be dead scared and yelling to see my doctor too.
I finally get into a waiting room and was checked in by a nurse. Waited some more before the doctor came around. I understand that family medicine doctors cannot possibly have every single ailment memorized, but at the same time, please don’t read off a computer screen and tell me, «Well this here says that if you have Symptom X, you should get Treatment A, and if you have Symptom Y, you should get Treatment B. But since you have neither, you should go get a CT scan just to be safe.» This gives me absolutely ZERO confidence in your ability as a doctor.
Whole experience took about 2 and a half hours…
On the plus side, I got my flu shot, and this experience has spurred my search for a regular primary care physician…

I have officially left the University of Illinois Family Medicine Center! I also wish I could give a rating of zero! The previous person to write and show love to the UICFMC, had an experience completely unlike mine. I had been with UICFMC for over 15 years. I was there before Dr. Tiemstra began practicing there and he took over for the Doctor that I had. before he moved on to other practice. Dr. Tiemstra had been my doctor for about 10 years.
On 7÷27÷15, I called UICFMC to make an appointment to see Dr. Tiemstra, because I had intense pain in my neck, (that was later diagnosis as a pinched nerve). I was told that he was booked for the rest of the month, and wouldn’t be available throughout the month of August. I was advised to call at about 8:30am to inquire about, if Dr. Tiemstra had any cancellations. I called every morning for the rest of the week (including Saturday). I found it hard to believe that there were never any cancellations, however, they advised me to go to the emergency room, for which I told them that I couldn’t afford it, it is a $ 500 co-​pay on my health coverage plan. I did go to the Urgent Care Unit, on 7÷31÷15. That was a major joke! They wouldn’t even allow me to sign-​in. I was told that there was only one doctor on hand, and at about 10:00am, the room was packed.
On 8÷3÷15, I felt that I had no choice but to make an appointment with another doctor, because my own doctor, for whom, I was among his first clients when he began working here, wasn’t available to see me. I truly feel that UICFMC website is bluntly lying about «Same-​Day Appointments.» I was never able to make a «Same-​Day Appointment,» I had to go over two weeks to wait and see another doctor, with a pinched nerve! I excepted an appointment for 8:15am, on 8÷18÷15. On 8÷10÷15, I was in such intense pain, that I drove myself again to the Urgent Care Unit, again, they refused to let me even sign-​in, and told me to go to the Emergency Room, because I needed an MRI and that I might have neurological damage. I asked that individual if they were a Doctor or even a Nurse?, because I need someone to examine me. The only thing that she did was threaten to call security. My long standing question to this, is why did every time I called, I was referred to the Urgent Care Unit. I informed UICFM about my experiences. They were too busy not believing rather than understanding the fact that the Urgent Care Unit does not work!
On my 8÷18÷15 appointment, I found it extremely discouraging and disappointing. Dr. Hickner never physically examine me, all he did was asked me questions. He seemed more concern about the fact that I am diabetic rather than his diagnosis of me having a pinched nerve. The only thing that he advised me was to take purchase some Aleve. He didn’t even bother to tell how many I should take. He did tell me to continue to do as I was doing: either applying ice or a heating pad to my neck and aspirin. Apparently, I was doing all the right things already because they were my only means of relief, however, I didn’t actually begin to recover until I talked to one of my daughters, who is a Doctor, who had received her Masters Degree from UIC. She was the one who recommended that I hang upside-​down. Upon doing this at least twice a day, I began gaining some relief and began to recover. My daughter practices in New York. She told me that she personally didn’t think the General Doctors at UIC were very good, and made recommendations for a new Doctor. I didn’t even consider her recommendations until the next horrific experience, which began about a week after I finally recovered from the pinch neck. Finally, regarding the experience with Dr. Hickner, I felt appalled over the fact that all he did was prescribe aspirin without examining me. It was like the old joke, about doctors prescribing aspirin for everything. There never was mentioned any fashion of follow-​up, and I forgot to ask for a flu shot, especially in light of the fact, that for the 15+ years that I had be coming to UICFMC, my annual check-​ups have always been in August.
I return at a later date to post part 2 of my horrid experience with UICFMC. I literally made a transition from recovering from a pinched nerve on the left side of my neck to gout in my right thumb.

I had a very good experience here today, so I thought I’d show some Unilocal love.
I called this morning at 8:30 to make an appointment. They got me in at this location at 1 PM.
I received very efficient and effective care with Dr. Tiemstra and the staff at 722 W. Maxwell. The receptionist I dealt with was cool and friendly (lady with long black braids). The two nurses I dealt with were professional and sweet. Dr. Tiemstra was polite and listened to what I had to say. He showed a good bedside manner and quality care. I was in and out in less than 40 minutes, which was an appropriate time frame for this particular visit of mine.
Thanks everyone!

I wish so badly I could give a zero star review here. Overall, take your business elsewhere. Find a small community clinic that accepts your insurance. Don’t give them your money. Don’t give them the chance to essentially steal your money and leave a mark on your credit score. The ratings on here are horrible, but I guess they get enough business that it doesn’t matter. I honestly wish people would go somewhere else and give a more deserving practice and institution their money.
My main issue is them essentially hustling money out of me, but looking back there were about a dozen issues there. I went in for a visit regarding a sore throat. They did not charge me upon leaving, which I figured was because I am a UIC student and have never been charged before. Fine. So a month or two later I get a $ 30 bill in the mail that is due about 4 days later. I mail it as soon as I could. Then I started receiving calls from their repayment department. Fine, I gave them my credit card information over the phone thinking it would solve things more quickly. A few weeks later I get another call where they have no record of my previous payment. I demand they look into this, as I do not want to get billed three times. They never call me back. I get ANOTHER call a few weeks later and I am furious, but am assured that a payment will be processed immediately that day and receive an apology. The payment goes through on my credit card for $ 30 and I think this is finally over. Then two months later I get a letter in the mail saying I owe over $ 100. I can only assume that they are trying to hustle me.
The medical care is less than good as well. They are very rude at the desk. I had a sore throat and was forced to wear a mask for over an hour in the waiting room only to have a swab lodged in my throat so hard it made me gag horribly (and spray oral secretions all over the lab — because that makes sense to make me wear a mask but let me hack all over everything). The NP I saw was rude, basically rolling her eyes at me — but at least she ordered some tests and followed up with me.

I once came to this clinic when I fractured a bone in my foot. When I made the appointment, I told them why I was coming in to see a doctor. They neglected to tell me that they had no X-​ray machine so I then had to go to the west side to get x-​rays (with a broken foot). The doctor who wrote the order indicated the WRONG foot. Of course it took two hours to undo the mistake. That was the last time I tried to use UIC for health services even though I live within walking distance. Crazy!

UIC Hospital is way worse than this clinic. I am writing a review on their medical release records procedure. On the release form, it says **There may be a fee for copies**. What it really means is **There IS a fee for copy** and that isn’t exactly a small fee either since they allow a 3^rd party to handle those copies and charges. For just 3 years of regular checkup records, they robbed me $ 51.93. The most expensive pieces of papers I’ve ever bought. Absolutely ridiculous.
Warning: **STAY AWAY FROM UIC MEDICAL** anything all together if possible.

Every time I call for a appointment, it never goes through. When it does, sometimes, they do not put it down on file so when the appointment day comes, they say that they had none for you that day. Its very disappointing to have to call multiple times for one appointment and if so they might not even put it down on their computer.

I took the blood test during the spring break of this this year. And I was too busy to go back to check with doctor about test result. I called many times to request for my blood test result. It has been one month, and no one contacted. What kind of hospital it is? Ask u to test but never give ur result? I assume that’s reason why maxwell has plenty of appointment available but Taylor st one is full of appointment.

I was referred to the MRI center by my physician for a lumbar spine scan, waited 1 – 2 weeks for my results/​a call from my doctor. Unfortunately I did not get one and had to call the clinic myself, left a note. A week later I get a call from my physician telling me there’s nothing wrong with my spine, she’ll be referring me to the Sports Medicine Center (SMC) and that I should schedule an appointment with them.
My appointment was for the ⁴⁄₆. On, ⁴⁄₂ I got a call saying the SMC could not find my referral case and I should look into the matter. I called my PCP and left a note for my physician, they promised to look into it and asked me to check back the next day to see if my referral was in the system. When I did call back the next day, customer service told me the exact same thing (asking me to check back on Monday, the day of my appointment). I called early Monday morning and my referral was still no where to be found. After talking to the supervisor, they managed to get my referral into the system but it was still «pending». Regardless, they asked me to proceed with my SMC visit and just inform SMC’s front desk staff about the issue. I did exactly as told and SMC had to decline my appointment as «pending» referrals take 48 hours to show up in their system. I found out that my PCP knew about the 48 hours criteria but FAILED to inform me about it. They even went as far as telling me to proceed with my appointment instead of rescheduling it. Why on earth would you do that? I’ve been fairly patient dealing with UIC’s terrible healthcare system since January, giving everyone the benefit of doubt. However, it ends here. No amount of apologies are going to make up for this screw up.
Thanks for wasting my time UIC. Thanks for hiring incompetent individuals. Too bad the only insurance I have is CampusCare.

Terrible customer service in billing. So rude and hard to deal with. If you have a problem with your bill, good luck communicating with the billing staff as they cut you off and tell you they can’t help you.

This review is for the staff and receptionists at the Family Clinic on Maxwell street. They need serious inservice or a better training with customer service and holistic approach. Most people I have talked to after having campus care for 2.5 years are that they are rude, ignorant, and they don’t seem to care much for patients. Most of the doctor and RN I have seen are responsible medical providers, but I can’t stand for their lazy staff. Also, they need to fix their referral system as it constantly makes mistakes and thus delay patients’ care, which can be life threatening. UIC health system needs to get its acts together to provide better quality care for the outpatient patients population and patients in general!!!

My rating is based on lack of communication by the administrative staff. After making an appointment, they neglected to mention they stopped taking my insurance. On another visit, the blood lab workers went home sick (which is fine) but no one mentioned it to me even though my appointment included blood work. I’ve also asked for call backs from a nurse to ask about whether I needed to fast, and no one called.
The doctor I use there was fine.

Dealing with the UIC system is like dealing with Comcast. Very Kafka-​esque, and the only recourse customers have is to write poor Unilocal reviews.
I hurt my knee playing basketball on May 2, 2014. I felt a pop and figured it was a ligament. I saw a doctor at UIC on May 8, 2014. I just asked to be referred to an orthopedics physician because my insurance requires me to get a referral in order to see a specialist.
The doctor said I may need an MRI, and that she would follow up with me in a little while. She said I should keep using my knee and if I did need surgery, it was nothing urgent. I trusted her opinion because she went through medical school.
A week or two later, she called me to ask if my knee still hurt. I said it did. So she referred me to get an MRI on June 1, 2014, one month after the date of injury.
On June 2, 2014, she called me to say that I have a partial tear in my ACL and that the cartilage in my knee is torn. She said she would refer me to an orthopedics specialist, which is the ONLY and EXACT reason I went to her in the first place a month earlier. She said she would set up the appointment as early as possible.
On June 4, 2014, I received a call from orthopedics. The nurse (or phone operator, whatever her position is) asked me what my problem was. I told her that I have a partial tear in my ACL and torn cartilage. She asked how I could possibly know that. I said because I got an MRI and my PCP told you to call me. She had no idea about any of that. I have no clue how she got my number in that case. The operator said that I should have had surgery in early May and that «no doctor is going to want to touch this now.» Then she told me that no one in orthopedics would be available to see me for about two months.
Today, June 5, 2014, I called UIC orthopedics to see if I could set up an appointment myself and bypass my primary care physician. They scheduled an appointment for me next week.
I try (and in this case failed) to keep these reviews short, so if you are reading this, please know that I am leaving out details regarding multiple 30-​plus-​minute hold times on the phone, multiple instances of incompetence, etc.
This is the worst experience I have ever had with a doctor. I will be switching as soon as my insurance allows me. You are better off going to the ER.

They are way too slow. And, even if you have insurance you can expect to be improperly billed. The staff that work at front desk are extremely incompetent.