Philadelphia Institute of Dermatology

Went for suspicious skin tags. Very, very professional staff. Made me feel at ease 100%. Explained everything. Highly recommend the office next to Upper Dublin High School.

I went to the Ft. Washington office to have a skin check 3 months postpartum. The Dr. had a student with her and asked me if it was OK to have them observe. I agreed. The Dr. proceeded to make comments about my body, asking in a shocked tone «you’ve only had ONE child» in reference to my stretch marks. I have never had a Dr. behave so unprofessionally. It was humiliating. I was significantly overweight at the time, just had a baby and sucked up my uncomfortable feelings about my body to do the responsible thing and have a skin cancer screening. I have not had a screening since for fear that another Dr. will behave so terribly.

Staff I’ve met have all been nice and very friendly, but the wait here is borderline ridiculous. I’ve been there twice for full body checks and both have been 40 minute waits. I make sure I don’t have anything planned so it’s not the biggest deal for me, and they are all super apologetic. Would be 5 stars if it weren’t for the wait.

I really can’t understand all these negative comments. I’ve only had great experiences at Phila Inst. of Dermatology — both Flourtown and North Wales offices. Been going there for years. I’ve also referred my friends who have appreciated the recommendation and couldn’t say enough about their services, their bedside manner and responsiveness.

After waiting 25 minutes for the doctor to arrive, I canceled and won’t return. He never showed up. There are a lot of other choices with better ratings to choose from anyway.

Doctors should not take on new patients if they won’t be able to see those patients for months on end after the first appointment. It took me a couple of months to get in to see one of the doctors for the first time. I was told by the receptionist that once I’m a patient, it won’t take that long to get appointments. That was incorrect. Every time I call to make an appointment with «my» doctor, I’m given dates that are 2, 3, even 4 months out. If I have an issue that requires medical attention now, am I really supposed to wait months? The receptionists always ask me if I want to see a physician’s assistant and that «the only difference is that they can’t prescribe controlled substances.» Ummmm, sorry, but that’s not the only difference. I don’t want to see a PA. I want to see «my» doctor. Also, hold times to get to a receptionist to make or change an appointment are upwards of ten minutes. Seriously… hire more support staff, and don’t take on new patients if you can’t treat them in a timely manner.

I went to the Ft. Washington center and although the physicians assistant who saw me was very friendly, she misdiagnosed my condition (twice) and the office failed to even call in the prescription that was prescribed to me on the second visit. At this point I went to a different dermatology group and was correctly diagnosed and treated. I really don’t like leaving negative reviews but if this saves someone else weeks of trouble than I feel it is worth it.

I have severe plaque psoriasis and have been to more then the normal share of dermatologists. This office is hands down the best of I have been to. They have multiple locations which makes scheduling appointments really easy. I see Dr. Schwarz who is amazing! Can not say enough good things about this practice!

Complete waste of my time literally. I went to the one in Fort Washington. Not only have I left messages and they’ve never gotten back to me, I’m prescribed acutane. It’s a huge process: to pick up the drug I have to fill out a test online on ipledge, get blood work, and the doctors has to call in and approve the medication. I’ve taken it before and it was a pain in the butt mostly because of the ipledge portion but the second time was ridiculous the doctor not only made me get blood work done but pee in a cup every time I had a appointment when neither should of been required since I chose to be abstinent instead of taking birth control so whatever I did it. She was so caught up on things that didn’t even matter and I remember thinking she’s either really good or really full of shit. So when I go to my pharmacy to pick up the prescription they couldn’t give it to me bc my doctor never called in and approved it. It was a huge thing I had to change pharmacies. The second month comes around and I get the same doctor I’m pissed but whatever I do what she says and gives her the benefit of the doubt. The way ipledge works is I only have 7 days to do the test and pick up my prescription. So anyways I’m on my 5^th day I do the test and go to the pharmacy. What do you know?! The same things happens as before. My pharmacy called and left a message no one got back to them. SoI call the office and I’m on hold for an hour I let it go and figure maybe they’re busy I call again I’m on hold for an hour again, this is the 6^th day. So I go in after calling again and waiting another hour, now it’s the 7^th day, They aren’t busy. I’m waiting for over an hour when some lady comes out who’s a «manager» and actually said she could refuse me service bc I wasn’t buying her bull she wasn’t listening to me and was completely patronizing me in every way… Aren’t I a patient this isn’t fucking seven eleven. Basically to sum it up the Philadelphia Institute of Derm is the Walmart of doctors offices. Too big, no personal connection, everything gets lost in the shuffle, didn’t walk out with what I came for. I am completely disgusted with the doctor and their «manager»

These Skin Cancer specialists think it is acceptable to have a standing practice of making new patients with suspicious moles wait 2 months for an appointment? Their smarmy receptionists who answer the phone have all the concern of the cable company– no, as a public utility with competition the cable companies actually care more than this office.
I also pay for expensive laser treatments, but I will go back to New York City for those.
This is a repulsive practice, the doctors should be ashamed.

The comment on my post proves what I am trying to say.
The «owner» would rather spend time trying to get negative reviews removed and write lengthy replies rather than spend the time doing what their patients need. They don’t want to spend time doing prior authorizations but they do want to take time to fight with their patients.
What the person who replied to me said is that insurance companies across the board don’t cover the medicine I was prescribed, well how would they know that if they didn’t take the time to even call my insurance company. I called my insurance company twice and asked if the medicine was covered under my individual insurance and both times I was told yes, but it needed prior authorization. My pharmacist even took the time to call my insurance and see if it was covered and he was told yes, but that the doctors office needed to call and prior authorize it (which takes about 2 minutes). I spoke to 2 different nurses and both refused to do it– telling me that the mail in was the only option. They just refused to do it even though it is super easy and would have saved me tons of time and money. They spent more time explaining to me why they wouldn’t do it than it would have taken them to just do it.
Also, I DID make an appointment for my follow up appointment while I was in the office and the earliest they had available was over a year away. I called back a few times every few weeks to see if there are any openings and there are never any. By the time I could get back in the rash I have on my chin and nose could leave permanent scars.
I’m so done with this place! What a lack of professionalism!

I’ve been going to the same dr. at this practice for years, only because I don’t go very often. Really like the dr but this is by far the worst managed office in terms of scheduling and after my last experience, I won’t be going back. I waited 50 mins for a scheduled appt which was only so that I could get a prescription refill. I had another appt 70 mins later, told them 10 mins before I had to leave and still didn’t get to see the dr or get my refill before I left. This sort of thing happens more often than not at this practice so I will be finding a new dermatologist.

I took my almost 4 year old daughter here at the recommendation of my pediatrician. My daughter had molluscum contagiosum, which is a wart virus, that needed to be treated. I love my pediatrician group so took their recommendation. I’m not sure if they had better experience with other doctors but I found the doctor we saw, Dr. Margetes, and the practice in general to be sub-​par.
Dr. Margetes treated my daughter’s warts with what she called ‘beetle juice.’ She explained that the treatment itself would not hurt but that she had to cover each wart with medical tape and that I was to peel it off 4 hours later. She explained that removing the tape would probably hurt my daughter and to have her sit in the bathtub first to loosen the tape and then peel them off. My understanding was that the warts would harden and scab over. 4 hours after the treatment I tried to put my daughter in the bathtub however the water caused all the treated spots to sting so she wouldn’t even sit down. I tried to gently use a washcloth up and down her leg but she started crying because it hurt. I started peeling the tape off one piece at a time (my daughter probably had about 25 – 30 spots treated). My daughter was crying and shaking because the spots and the removal of the tape hurt so bad. Many of the spots were dripping blood down her leg; it looked like the medicine had eaten small holes in her skin. I was very upset because of the pain she was experiencing and because of how terrible the spots looked.
After I removed all of the tape, stopped all the bleeding and put band-​aids on the really bad areas, I called the practice to speak to the nurses. I wanted to make sure this was normal and to understand how I should treat the area, especially the open sores that were now oozing blood. My call was on a Friday at around 3:30. I left a message with the nurse line and then called back to speak to the front office staff to ensure that a nurse would be calling me back before close of business. They assured me this would happen. I received no call back from the nurses. I then called the physician emergency line to speak with the physician on call. I left a message with the answering service and waited for a call back. I received no call. In fact I received no call back from them all weekend. Saturday morning (the next morning) I ended up taking my child to our pediatrician. My pediatrician informed me that this was normal but that he was terribly sorry this wasn’t explained to me. He also couldn’t believe they treated that many warts at one time. He said normally they just treat a few at a time.
I finally received a call back from the nurses on Monday, but no call ever came from the physicians. However, even the call from the nurses was too late, 2 days had gone by. I did call the main office and speak to the office manager about my experience and she was very apologetic. However, I will not be returning to the practice and cannot recommend this practice to family or friends.