Valley ENT

I cannot tell you the Doctors are bad, but I can tell you the front desk and customer service was a terrible experience at this location. I would use a different ENT location vs this one. I hate writing negative reviews, but this front office was a terrible experience.

Ok, well… I don’t know about the Doctors, but the office staff is killing this practice. We saw Dr. Shah who diagnosed tongue-​tie on my daughter. A procedure known as a frenuloplasty was recommended and we were told the practice would contact our insurance for coverage estimates, identify an in-​network facility, and schedule the surgery. This was March 25, 2016. Called 4÷21÷16 and left a VM requesting status; the machine promised a return call in 1 – 2 days. The message said not to leave multiple messages, so I went in to their office to ask them directly on 4÷26÷16. They said they just received the insurance info and they would call me back that day. That was a week ago. I just left another VM for the surgery scheduler today (5÷2÷16). The waiting continues…

Be prepared to wait an hour after your appointment time before you get in. They will tell you the reason they are running so far behind is because so many other patients before you get there late, pushing everyone back. So why don’t you make that person wait, not the person that gets there 20 minutes before their scheduled appt time? By the way this happened on several occasions not just once, so they are always running behind. Also, everyone in the waiting room was complaining about waiting so long.
Also, had an appointment scheduled on March 9^th 2016 for my daughter for the allergist, scheduled weeks in advance for 8:15am. On March 9^th at 7:35am I received a call from Valley ENT telling me there were no doctors in the office today and wanted to reschedule my appointment!
I bet if I cancelled 40 minutes before my appointment I’d be charged a cancellation fee! How about letting me know before I take time off work and get the kids up early, how about some common courtesy for your patients!
Office staff is rude as well. We continued going here because we liked Dr. Richardson, but this is the final straw. We will go somewhere else from now on and I suggest you do the same.

Absolutely horrible staff. I wish I had read some of these reviews before going here. I cannot even get them to give me blood test results. Don’t bother taking an allergy test here because you may never get the results if my experience is anything to go by. They don’t want to answer the phones but even when they do they act like you are bothering them and send you to a voicemail. They say they will call back but they never called me back. I don’t even care anymore. I just want to never have to talk to these people again.

Valley ENT has the attitude that patients are disposable and easily replaceable. Dr. James Chuang thinks its no big deal to leave you waiting for 45 minutes and then breezes in without an apology with a fast talking attitude. He’s very smart but has zero emotional intelligence for dealing with patients. I’m sorry I did not read the reviews on Unilocal before going to Valley ENT. I hope you don’t make my mistake.

The amount billed for procedures at Valley ENT is way too much. I have had removal of impacted cerumen procedure done on both ears for over 10 years at ENT locations in Minnesota and Texas. I recently moved to Phoenix and found Valley ENT. I had my first and only appointment with them on January 13, 2015. I was shocked when I received the bill. In all the years I have had this procedure done at different ENT doctors I have never been charged a fee for each ear. It has always been one fee to clean both ears. Valley ENT charged me $ 122 per ear for this procedure as well as $ 343 for outpatient/​new patient fee. On April 1, 2015 I went to Maricopa Ear, Nose & Throat PC to have the same procedure done. Their fee for the procedure was only $ 106 for both ears, and the outpatient/​new patient fee was $ 216. I also have to say the staff at Maricopa ENT were much more friendly. Why would anyone want to pay the outrageous medical fees at Valley ENT when you can get the same procedures done elsewhere for so much less? This is just further proof that the entire medical billing process is completely out of control.

Dr Richard talks down to you like she is superior too you. She wasn’t even able to fix the problems. She was very condescending and extremely poor listener. You should have picked a different career in research or something that she doesn’t have to deal with people. I seen prison guards in a movie that has a better personality then her.

In January I had an initial consultation with Dr. McKenna. He was great and diagnosed my issue in literally 10 seconds after which he scheduled me for a minor in-​office procedure. He was busy the next few weeks with procedures and a golf tournament so we had to push the procedure out about a month. I was fine with this initial delay.
After the initial delay, each of my subsequent appointments for the procedures were cancelled at the last minute. This was a major inconvenience since I had to work around these appointments only to have them cancelled with very little notice. So after two months of delays, I asked a practice staff member if there was another solution or any way they could guarantee that Dr. McKenna could keep his next appointment with me.
I was told they could not guarantee that Dr. McKenna would keep any upcoming appointments but that they could schedule the procedure with another Valley ENT physician Dr. Richardson that week. All seemed well until I was told I would have to pay for another consultation fee of $ 45. Since I already had a consultation and the 10 second diagnosis and Dr. McKenna had charted the issue, this made zero sense. Especially because they were switching physicians due to their own scheduling issues. I was already inconvenienced numerous times and now they wanted to charge me extra!!!
After some discussion I told the administrator (Angel I believe) that the only way I would come in was if they waived the consultation fee but that I’d be happy to pay for the procedure fee. At first she said no but she finally relented after I said I may as well just see a different ENT practice if I was going to be charged a consultation fee again. I was told to come in for the procedure and that I wouldn’t have to pay the consultation.
When I showed up for my scheduled procedure, the front desk person told me I owed a consultation fee. When I told her about my situation, she went and spoke to someone in the back and that because they had me scheduled with a different doctor, I would have to pay a consultation fee again even though we had already gone over the fact that I was told I wouldn’t have to.
To me the practice should have provided better service and not look to be charging me twice for a consultation due to their scheduling issues. It shouldn’t take over two months of delayed and cancelled appointments to have a simple in-​office procedure. It was clear to me the practice didn’t care about providing good customer service. Instead of being able to charge me for a procedure at a higher billing rate, they were more interested in collecting their consultation fee on top of the procedure. Because of their actions they lost the procedure fee and any future business from me. Sorry Dr. Richardson but your office staff cost you money.
Bottom line — DO NOT use Valley ENT. There are many other ENT groups that care more about their patients and provide better customer service.

I’ve been going to Dr. Chuang for a couple years and he is one of the nicest doctors I’ve been to. He takes the time to explain everything in simple terms and allows plenty of time for me to ask questions. And if you are a parent, they have a designated space in the waiting room for the kids to play and watch a movie. Overall, a great experience on every visit.

I visited Valley ENT, Dr. James Chuang.
Positive: Office is clean and new, wait time was reasonable, got in to see the Audiologist for me hearing test. She was very knowledgeable and up to that point everything was fine.
I meet Dr. Chuang, and he seems to be a sharp Physician with excellent knowledge of Tinnitus, which I suffer from. We begin talking about solutions, and he offers to have me visit their hearing aid in-​house service, even though I am «borderline» for the hearing aid. Mentions it no less than three times — which i finally said «no,» I don’t want to go that far just yet. I show medical records of my treatment from my past, we agreed to prescribe Xanax for now and the follow up in 6 months.
I verify with Virginia, the MA that appointments are scheduled and medicines sent to my pharmacy. Everything is GREAT!
Get to my pharmacy, no record of any call-​ins. Next day, call to inquire — Doctor changed from Xanax to an OTC medicine, which we specifically discussed I had tried and didn’t work. On the phone, Doctor makes a THIRD change from OTC to Klonopin, which I’ve also used to little /​no effect. Dr. Chuang tells me through Virginia (MA) that Dr. Chuang is «sorry for the confusion,» but he won’t prescribe XANAX. I tell her I need to move on then, thanks for your service — and Virginia goes to talk to Dr. Chuang, coming back in 5 minutes saying «we can’t do that.» I cancel all other appointments with them, receive another call 5 minutes later that they wouldn’t give me anything (because I canceled all the other services but still requested the Doctor do something short-​term to help me.)
So I ended up with a $ 135.00 hearing test, and I still have to find a Doctor that can help me. Unbelievably disappointing that Dr. Chuang would agree on the plan, fail to follow though or contact me why he had changed his mind, and instead try to sell me on expensive hearing aids instead of what worked for me. Revoking the prescription for Klonopin at the end was simply throwing salt on the wound, and frankly childish.

First time here, in fact first doctor to see here in Arizona since I just moved here from Chicago. There was definitely a lot of paperwork that had to be filled out, so make sure you come early because I’m normally fast with filling them out and this took me 15 – 20 min. The waiting room is decent especially the chairs. I came an hour early because I didn’t want to be late in an unfamiliar area. I waited 30min and was asked to come in the back. It took doctor 5 min to come into the room if that. Dr. Chaung is one of a kind. Very funny and completely realistic and understanding when it comes to patients. I came with a strep throat and he told me he was 99.9% sure it was strep, so doing the strep tests wasn’t necessary especially that it would cost more to do this test when it wasn’t necessary. Perfect for me I don’t want to spend extra money if I didn’t have to. He is on the patients side when it comes to money. He doesn’t want the patient to spend more then they have to and that is the best part about this doctor. He’s very energetic and expresses himself very well. I would even say he is enthusiastic. He did a great job explaining everything to me, check everything and made sure I didn’t have any other questions before he left. Best part he has good bedside manners and shook my hand. Believe it or not when doctors shake the patients hands it really means a lot and it shows respect. Even though it was a 40min drive it was totally worth it. I knew I need antibiotics and I wanted to get them and leave I didn’t want to spend much time in there. It was perfect. Thanks so much! Wish there were more doctors like him.

My son was seen here. Lots of stuff for the kids to be occupied with, while waiting. They have a playground outside and a giant chalkboard inside. The wait time is kind of long but not uncomfortable. The doctors are great here. The front staff, not so much. They don’t welcome you with a smile and pretty much want you to fill out the paperwork and let them get on with their jobs. I would still take my son here just for the doctor.

Practice is 4.5 STARS! But DR. MCKENNA SHOULD RECEIVE ZERO stars for bad business practices! If you care about ego, status and popularity then go for it. If you care more about the ENT issue you or a loved one may be having then CHOOSE ANY DOC BUT DR. MCKENNA, or find a different ENT practice. My husband and I came the 1^st time Aug 2012 for my step-daughter’s breathing issues. Saw the nurse practitioner who was great! She diagnosed the issues and recommended treatment. Next appointment was with Dr. McKenna since he would be performing the treatment. He came in, took a brief look, re-​confirmed what the NP already determined and sent us to his nurse to schedule an appointment. Standard doc… friendly, knowledgeable. Nothing special that would wow you. We requested a Thanksgiving surgery to accommodate a 10 day recovery time and insurance requirements. She said she would call us with a potential date. I must have called her 6 times, leaving messages for the next 3 months. She finally called me back about a week before Thanksgiving and said that Dr. McKenna couldn’t secure a hospital time so we would have to delay and wait until 2013. At this point we could not schedule the surgery again until Aug 2013, again due to insurance requirements which we should not have to be so inconvenienced by because of their mistake. We have a 5 year old that needs help breathing for goodness sake!!! So finally we go back to the office on Aug 6, 2013 with a 4:10 appointment. At 5pm we asked how much longer we would have to wait and the nurse told us there were 3 people in front of us which would probably be about another hour wait. We were confused as to why there was such a long wait time and she looked at us like we were stupid and asked if we were new because most regular patients know to call before hand to see how far behind Dr. McKenna is. Apparently Dr. McKenna is know as the ROCK DOCTOR and is very popular for ??? what ??? being popular among rock stars? Not ENT patients??? I don’t care about a rock doctor! I care about my step-​daughters issues!!! The nurse also went on to brag about how great of a doctor he was and how he doesn’t just hop in and out of patient rooms, which was the exact opposite of an experience that we encountered. Dr. McKenna has very bad business practices if he expects patients to wait for him for unreasonable amounts of times and is extremely impersonal. We immediately changed doctors, scheduled a new appointment and drove an hour back home. Dr. McKenna I would like 4 hours of my life back please… if your rock doctor status could be so humble.

The office is very hidden could not find it. I call the office to get the direction but I was on waiting for 15 minutes and after that instead of giving me the direction they ask for last name and date of birth and so on… After she find me on the system she told me that I have to reschedule! I was even 15 minutes prior to my appointment but she said that there would be no time for paperwork. The office staff girls are very rude even at the point that I went to get the paperwork to save time for next time. They are very ignorant and impolite! They were very closed minded to my address challenges and all they were saying was, do you want to reschedule. So Sad!

Valley ENT does a great service to the medical industry. Their staff and medical personal are extremely helpful and friendly. I saw Dr. Richardson at the Valley ENT located in Ahwatukee. She was very personable and thorough. With the medical industry plagued with absolutely terrible service this place is definitely the exception. I just can’t recommend them enough.

My 2 year old autistic son was sent to ValleyENT by his pediatrician to have tubes put in his ears.
We called on a Tuesday and got to see the doctor the same day. The staff was kind of snobby but it wasn’t too bad.
The waiting room has a big playground right in the middle! How awesome is that?! The wait wasn’t very long to see the doctor.
Dr. Chuang is who my son saw and he was wonderful. He was friendly and explained everything in terms I understood and answered all questions I had.
We were scheduled for surgery that Friday.
The surgery to put tubes in was quick easy and almost painless.
To make a long story short… maybe its too late for that… I would recommend ValleyENT to anyone, old or young.