My Health Family Practice.

If you have a family member you care for, do not bring them here. Miss Michelle Ruhnke prescribed medication and treated a patient with a controlled substance as an “as-needed” plan, without regard for whether that was an ethical treatment approach. She prescribed whatever she chose. When the state changed its bylaws, she made no plan for any of her existing patients regarding new treatment options or substitute medications. Instead, she waits until the patient reaches their refill time frame, the exact moment they need the medication that Miss Ruhnke convinced them was helpful to their treatment and became apart of the patient daily life, to inform them that she can no longer prescribe it because she is not qualified/certified to do so. She then puts full responsibility for next steps onto the patient, offering no guidance, plan or referral for what they should do next. She also contradicts what her own office staff tell patients about why this is happening, so patients can’t get a straight answer. When pushed for guidance, she shifts all responsibility onto the person who came to her, a licensed “professional,” for help. This isn’t a minor scheduling inconvenience. Cutting a patient off from their medication they have been convinced by a licensed “professional” was needed to have a sense of normality in the existence of life with no warning and no plan can have real consequences. I’d think carefully before trusting this practice with your care or a family member’s. As far as my family we will be looking into this matter from a legal standpoint moving forward.

*Edit* Michelle is working hard to make positive changes to how the practice is run and to fix the issues I outlined below. My most recent visits went more smoothly, and referrals and prescriptions were handled immediately after my visit. Here's hoping these changes continue! I added one star due to these recent developments. I wish I could give Michelle 5 stars, but honestly even though you can tell she does care about her patients, the actual practice itself it not run very well. I originally chose Michelle because I wanted a private practice that wasn't owned by a private equity company (very, very difficult to find) so that the practioner was more free to do what they felt was best for the patient and wasn't forced to see a patient every 15 minutes (which is why most doctor offices run HOURS behind schedule). My first visit with Michelle was awesome - she listened to my concerns, spent time getting to know me, she did tell me a bit about herself and her journey to opening her own practice which I did appreciate because it made it feel like she really wanted to establish a patient-doctor relationship. We did discuss the HRT pellets that her practice sells, but I told her I wasn't interested in those and she didn't push me. I have seen her multiple times over the past few years since she opened up and although the in-person visits themselves are always great, always on time, it's when I need something else other than an appointment that things get difficult. I had to request a referral multiple times over the course of several months before I got what I needed. This was a referral for a somewhat severe health issue, so having it take that long was really not great. My husband is having the same issue with a referral he needs for a dermatologist. Getting prescriptions filled can also sometimes be a bit of a chore, especially if it is a new prescription or it needs to go to a different pharmacy. Again, we have had times where we had to request items multiple times. Often times no one answers the phone, and I think we have only ever gotten an actual call back after leaving a message one time, so we don't bother doing that anymore. We just call multiple times until we can get someone on the phone. Getting blood work results is also a time consuming process and involves having a telehealth visit with Michelle, which she always is running late for. Last time she completely missed my husband's appointment and ended up giving all the results to me because he had to go to work. Now I have put in a request on their online portal for an appointment and haven't heard back even though it has been several days. I love Michelle, but that office needs a true office manager with real experience running it so they can get these issues ironed out. If they can do that, this would be a five star practice! I also want to add that everyone I have interacted with in this office are sweet, sweet people. Never have I encountered any rudeness from a single member of staff, and I really do value that as well.

YES! Finally a Doctor who listens! My initial appointment was an hour long. She wanted to know everything, not just one symptom per visit. I am in awe by her staff! If you have a medical issue that requires a call back—they will 100% call within the hour. They actually answer the phones, it’s not an answering service! I could go on and on… I’m a frequent flyer to doctors and it’s hard to find one who’s still in it for the practice of medicine, this is the Doctor to choose!!

They dropped the ball. I scheduled to get my labs done this morning (Saturday) at Quest and showed up to find out the office never sent my orders! I even called the office on Friday and spoke with Catalina who said she sent my orders and confirmed I needed to fast before my lab draw. I checked my patient portal and there’s no orders in there either. Not a good look and very frustrating. I will be finding a new provider with competent office staff.

No other Dr cares about you like Dr. Ruhnke. She spent real time listening to my needs and gave me more information than all my doctors combined. So many different perspectives, it’s as if the other doctors who spend 4 minutes with you just don’t care and see you as a number. Great service should be shared nowadays.