Camelback Womens Health

I could not wait to get on Unilocal and review this office. This was the best gynecologist experience I’ve ever had — very professional, thorough, comforting, and kind. I came in for my yearly pap and to discuss birth control. Britney and Jen were amazing! The woman at the front desk was also very sweet and clear in her directions. After having a really bad experience at my first OBGYN that I found after moving to Phoenix, I am very relieved to have found this office!

I have never dealt with a medical professional who was so insulting and unwilling to work with me. She would not listen to my requests or explanations about my own body. This was my first time seeing her, so I found it incredibly rude that she would not hear me out and snapped at me several times. I don’t know why this location refuses to prescribe a patient birth control, when they’re a 26 year old female who is clearly an adult capable of making their own decisions. The first excuse had to do with regular cycles (again this should be my choice and concern not yours). So she refused to put me on anything. I wanted progesterone based, because this is what I’ve always been on and when on a birth control with estrogen, the reaction was awful (headaches, nausea, horrible acne and horrible mood swings). She also wanted to argue with me on this one. My primary back home for eight years has NEVER done this or made me feel inept at choosing my birth control. She certainly did not deny me the option to be on it. I needed to schedule a follow-​up appointment (it took them a day to call me back) and I scheduled this. I asked if prior to that appointment (in two weeks) if I could come get on some form of birth control. To my surprise, I was denied this AGAIN. They gave me no explanation and had no medical reasoning to support the denied request. The schedulers are incredibly rude and act annoyed at any little question. I would not recommend this location to any female if you want to feel welcomed, want to be heard or you’re trying to be responsible. They apparently love to make it very difficult on their patients to obtain the medical care they seek.

I agree with past reviewers that the waiting room wait time is a little frustrating, but when you have an amazing doctor like Dr. Schwartz it makes it worth the wait. She is incredibly knowledgeable and goes the extra mile for her patients. My labor and delivery was complicated and Dr Schwartz stayed on the phone with the lab techs and the nurses in the hospital making sure they were doing everything they could for me. When it got time she was by my side checking in and explaining the process to me until I progressed enough to push out my baby.
I am forever grateful for Dr Schwartz being so respected in the hospital and so knowledgeable. I truly believe that my delivery would have been high risk if it wasn’t for her. I will never go to another doctor.

If I could rate the physicians and practitioners separately from the office staff this practice would have a 5 star review. I have had wonderful experiences with all physicians and NPs here.
That being said, dealing with many of the front desk staff is generally unpleasant. They aren’t very friendly and don’t ever try to make anything easier for the patients. The waiting room time is almost always 30+ minutes.
I will continue to stay with this practice because of the great care from the physicians and NPs, and will continue to work on my patience and tolerance with people who are less than kind.

Have tried multiple times to make an appointment. Every time I call the front desk is nothing but rude and unprofessional. Put in emails and calls but no response from management.
Wanted to go here because it’s so convenient location wise but definitely worth the drive to find a staff that still treats their patients with courtesy and respect.

I have called a total of 6 times to make an appointment and every time I am put on hold as soon as they answer the phone. When I was able to finally talk to someone to schedule an appt, the receptionist was talking to someone else in the background and not paying attention to me. She was short and rude. I get you are busy but this is the type of place where you want to feel important especially because this will be my first pregnancy. If I can’t even get through now, I can’t imagine the challenges later.

This is a horrible clinic with unscrupulous doctors and impolite staff. I was lucky enough that I found out how terrible Dr. Kathleen Schwartz was before my delivery. They are extremely unethical, STAY AWAY!

I do NOT recommend this practice if you are looking for professional, caring medical professionals.
You would be better off going to a FREE clinic.
I saw a doctor named Erin O’Sullivan. After, she recommended I get an ultrasound for my heavy cycles and cramping her office called me and said I needed a biopsy and to make an appointment. I said I was not going to make an appointment for something that serious until I A) know the results of my ultrasound and B) I speak to Erin 0’Sullivan. They proceeded to tell me that she would speak to me at my appointment. What??? I’ve have never been treated that way by a doctor ever. I think the courtesy of a call from her was warranted. I have moved on to Mayo Clinic and I am so happy! There was no need for a biopsy! And, I always get a return call within 24 hours.

I wish I’d come here and read the reviews before scheduling my appt for an annual with Dr. O’Sullivan. I’d had a bad experience with Dr. Nelson with the delivery of my daughter in 2009 (Considering him to manage your pregnancy? Don’t do it. He’s dangerously incompetent.) Due to my not wanting to see Dr. Neslon, I decided to schedule with Dr. O’Sullivan. Big mistake. She is bitter, angry and *unbelievably* unprofessional. This woman is a poor representation of the medical community. She started off by noticing that I’m starting a topical progesterone supplement this month. And so she asked me who had prescribed it, and I told her it was my physician who manages my thyroid condition. She asked me right away if it was a «Naturopath, or something like that?» & I informed her that, it was an MD, Integrative Medicine who had prescribed it for me. She then goes on to ask me what am I trying to achieve. Umm… I told her hormone balance. Duh! WTH do you think I’m trying to achieve? I explained that we had tested my levels and my progesterone level was low. She proceeded to ask me what my symptoms were. Basically, I felt like she was grilling me as to why I would be supplementing with progesterone. Aside from the fact that my freaking blood tests showed it was low? She then goes on to say «Well, the only proven benefit to supplementing with progesterone is sleep. It’s not going to help with weight loss, or anything like that. Generally speaking, if you’re still getting your cycle then you are fine, and I would not recommend supplementing with progesterone. But hey, sleep is important too, so that’s okay.» I’m sorry, but #1 I never mentioned weight loss (I’m already at a healthy weight) and #2 I’m pretty sure that progesterone supplementation is proven to correct a low progesterone level. How about that benefit? So then she is asking about other things and I mentioned that I’m in the early stages of a separation/​divorce. She then tells me how she thinks happy marriages rarely exist, and how she knows maybe 2 happy marriages out of all the married friends she has. Well, that’s uplifting. Thanks, Doc. So a little later in the conversation she goes on to say how awful the dating scene is today, and that «It’s really disgusting out there. These women think they’re okay since they’ve been married/​only with one person for all these years, so they go and have sex with some guy whose slept with 300+ women while you’ve (she’s) been married all those years. And they end up with herpes.» And then she follows that lovely story by telling me «The only people who are dumber than my teenagers are the 40-​something divorced women.» I’m pretty much in shock at this point. So she goes on to say «…So just be sure and protect yourself and use a condom when you’re out there sowing your wild oats». I could not believe my ears. My family life is falling apart, the last thing I’m worried about right now is «sowing my wild oats», and even of I were… what a $&*# stupid and wildly unprofessional thing to say to a patient, or anyone, for that matter. I think she’s the most unprofessional physician I’ve ever encountered. Needless to say, I’ll be finding a new OB.

Dr. Steven Nelson never had much time when my wife and I met with him. He was my wife’s doctor for our first pregnancy and we had lots of questions. Appointments lasted 3 – 7 minutes. At one, I brought a notebook with several questions written out. As I went through the questions, Dr. Nelson gave answers such as, «Google that … doesn’t matter… Google that … Don’t worry about it… Google that one… etc.» He had no interest in giving us information.
We had a difficult labor/​birthing process. My wife’s water broke before any pre-​labor or contractions or anything. We were already 6 days late, and figured the baby was on the way, so we went to the hospital. The hospital gave us a 24-​hour deadline to deliver the baby because of risk of infection. So we went through different stages of induction, and none of them worked, and Dr. Nelson was not present for anything. He spoke to my wife once on the phone to scold her for not being induced days earlier, which was something he had mentioned as an option. He said on the phone she would probably have to have a C-​section because she didn’t listen to him. This was very frustrating because we actually did want to listen to him and get advice from him, but he never gave us any instructions, and when we were at the hospital he wasn’t there, so we went along with the recommendations of the nurses. I feel his attitude toward my laboring wife was completely inappropriate.
36 hours after the water breaking, Dr. Nelson said he would come in during his lunch in a couple hours to do a C-​section. We asked if he could come in sooner. Since the C-​section seemed inevitable, we just wanted to get it over with. Was he upset that we wanted him to come before his lunch?
During labor, my wife’s epidural did not work; she still felt the pain of contractions. This was concerning as she was about to have major abdominal surgery, so we expressed concerns. The staff assured us she would be numb before surgery. The anesthesiologist gave my wife a «spinal» since the epidural wasn’t working. Unfortunately, this only worked halfway. They did this test where they poked the location of the incision with a needle to see if my wife was numb. She was not numb on her left side. They asked, «Are you sure you feel sharp pain, and not just pressure.» «Yes, I feel the sharp pain.» Their solution to my wife’s numbness was to use local anesthetic, which numbed only the surface of my wife’s skin, and Dr. Nelson did the incision. As the other parts of the surgery progressed, my wife was pleading with the staff to stop because she could feel the pain of the surgery. I don’t know why Dr. Nelson did surgery on my wife when she wasn’t numb. I’ve heard from a couple other doctors that they would never perform surgery on a patient who wasn’t numb. They said to me, «I don’t know what he was thinking.» He continued with the surgery while my wife pleaded and cried, and once he got my daughter out, he gave some signal to the anesthesiologist who pumped her with something to knock her out.
On top of all of this, my daughter almost died. I doubt this was Dr. Nelson’s fault, but her first «breath» resulted in her completely blocking her airway with mucus or something. Staff had to work on her for a while before she was breathing on her own. It was traumatic.
After surgery, my wife had a horrible recovery. She could hardly move or walk for a couple of days without a lot of pain, and she experienced moderate pain and difficulty for weeks. My wife’s second delivery also resulted in a C-​section, but the recovery was way faster and better. Every decision Dr. Nelson made resulted in more pain for my wife. The way he handled her organs and uterus; the way he performed surgery on my wife who wasn’t numb, and the way he had a student or intern stitch her up all caused my wife a lot more pain compared to the second time with a much better doctor, Doctor Grayson Guzman. It was as if Dr. Nelson was taking out his anger on my wife.
I suspect Dr. Nelson resented my wife and shared frustrations with his colleague, Dr. Erin O’Sullivan, since she also scolded my wife. At 4 or 5 am on the first night of our stay at the hospital, there was this knock on the door, and Dr. O’Sullivan came in and turned on the lights. We were both in a daze and had no idea who this woman was, but she introduced herself and proceeded to tell us off. «Hi. I’m Dr. O’Sullivan and I work with Dr. Nelson, and just can’t believe that you wouldn’t take Dr. Nelson’s advice. He has a great C-​section rate, and you’re ruining it because you wouldn’t listen to his instructions. It’s your fault you had a C-​section and I don’t think it’s right that it’s going to reflect badly on him. «She said something along those lines and left. Her only intention for coming into our room was to spite my wife. I don’t think I’ve ever experienced anything as rude or unprofessional as the actions of Dr. O’Sullivan that night. It was awful.

Just say no to visiting Dr. Erin O’Sullivan. She has a beyond negative bedside manner. She may be adequately informed but her lack of empathy towards the customer is unsettling. She has several negative reviews on both Unilocal addresses for this practice. They are spot on. It seems she has a penchant for targeting people’s most sensitive topics for some really inappropriate and unfeeling comments. Could this be a bad habit, emotional obtuseness or is it condescendingly deliberate? Unless you are super thick-​skinned, you probably don’t really want to find out.
From reading all the reviews you can be satisfied with the experience here if you choose your doctor with care and don’t epect much from the Camelback location’s front desk. I have been going to this practice for over 6 years. No matter who they seem to hire at the 32^nd Street front desk, they hate waiting on the patients on the phone or in person. The nurses are nice, the PA’s are nice and blood test lady is awesome nice too!
I think working in the medical field is increasingly challenging. I am grateful for the high quality care we receive in this country. It’s such a better experience if you feel someone actually cares about you. You will have to do some work to consistently find that experience here.

The doctors and nurses here are very good (Swanson doc, Lisa nurse) but the all the staff are just so unprofessional and not here to help. Hope the staff get there stuff together.

Another amazing delivery by Dr. Nelson. I feel blessed to have had such a great Dr. deliver my two babies. I will be back for number three.

Dr. Schwartz has caused me several years of pain and suffering due to her poor decisions regarding the birth of my daughter. She instructed hospital staff to not enter my room for several hours during painful contractions (she admitted this to me). Then, when she finally did arrive at the hospital and allowed me to begin pushing, my daughter’s head was stuck in the birth canal. She instructed the nurse and my husband to hyperflex my legs (the nurse would not comply, so I had to hold my own leg), which caused an open book fracture in my pelvis which went undetected. I could not sit or walk without extreme pain. I could not nurse or care for my baby. When I arrived at her office crying in pain, her nurse assistant told me it was hemorrhoids (!) and sent me home with pain killers and suppositories. My fracture was never examined or treated. Six years later I have suffered chronic pain and now require surgery to fuse my hip.
I am considering legal action, but am torn between letting it go and moving on. At least I can warn others to make a better decision about their healthcare. She is too busy for you at the very least and incompetent at best. Please consider my story in your decision. Thank you.

Excellent customer service and I love Dr. Schwartz. She is definitely not «touchy-​feely», but she is extremely knowledgable and takes excellent care of her patients. The MA’s and all of the N. P’s are wonderful as well. I can say that everyone I encountered throughout my pregnancy and postpartum time truly enjoyed their job.

This place will make u upset every time u come because the wait times are excruciatingly long and nobody here gives a crap about it. The front desk is defensive and rude from the start. I have come here multiple times and waited upwards of two hours. Not exaggerating, and not a soul in that office ever apologized. Drs to be fair are good but u will end up bald from pulling your hair out from frustration if u go here.

Not impressed. This is the 2^nd OB/​GYN I have tried in Phoenix and I really am not thrilled with the level of healthcare professionals in this state at all. I don’t mind a doctor being direct or to the point (Dr. Erin O’Sullivan) — that’s me, but I don’t appreciate her talking about her «babies» referring to her deliveries when I am having a pelvic exam. I don’t have kids (says on my intake form –why don’t you read, DOC?) and I think it’s rude that she doesn’t try to find a common discussion point other than babies. This was the same case with the previous OB/​GYN in PHX. I was so spoiled before I moved here. I was with a GYN for 16 years who cared about a woman’s health vs. just talking about babies. What’s worse is she was a recommendation which goes to show that maybe people settle for substandard care in this state.
If anyone has a GREAT GYN — (I am done with OB/​GYNs) please message me since I’m ready to fly back east to see my previous one! Strike 2!

I was told about this place by a good friend in the medical field. I made an appointment with Dr. Steve Nelson.
Dr. Nelson was attentive, patient, and kind. He told me my options, was very sensitive towards my situation, and was a caring and giving person and physician.
I would recommend Dr. Nelson and the Camelback Women’s Health group to women of all ages. My experience there was 5 star and Dr. Nelson is my doctor from here on out! Dr. Nelson rocks!

My first visit to Camelback was a couple of days ago on the recommendation of a good friend. I was fed up with the questionable, indifferent, and invasive and yet incomplete treatment at my old gyn office. My friend told me so many great things about Camelback over the last couple of years, yet I still stuck with my old gyno thinking things would get better and that their methods were probably the same as every other facility’s anyway. But three years and five invasive and useless colposcopies later, nothing had changed.
Well, you know how they say that sometimes you don’t realize how bad things truly were until you experience the difference? They’re right.
I saw Julie Bergdale, NP supreme and all the hype on Unilocal about her is true. The most striking thing besides her kind, smart, funny and compassionate demeanor is that she actually listens, truly LISTENS to you and absorbs your info, even the subtle bits. She wanted to know all about my health history, my concerns, and habits. For the first time since I moved here from CA, I felt like I was going to be cared for properly by my gyno office! (I left my truly awesome gyno of 18 years, Dr., Gerardo Bustillo, back in CA and so regretted it. But now, I think I may have some hope of a great experience again.)
I had to wait longer than at my old place, but that’s no biggee because it’s only due to Julie spending quality time with each patient. And for that, I’m HAPPY to wait! What good is efficiency without quality? For the first time in three years of living in AZ, I got ALL of my many questions answered. Not danced around or dismissed, but answered intelligently and thoroughly. I’m the kind of a patient who knows my body well and takes the time to read books and studies and asks questions, so I need an office that not only doesn’t mind but that prefers well-​informed patients. Julie decided to do a full metabolic panel, plus CRP, plus cholesterol (amazing) and a hormone panel to boot based on my family history. This should really help establish a nice baseline from where to work. Sensible.
Why this was never done at my old office, I do not know. The staff and doctor absolutely hated questions, and as she reminded me many a time, placed the weight of their decisions on predetermined, one-​size-​fits-​all protocols. My last phone conversation with my doctor, (a full 3.5 weeks after a mysteriously painful and stressful biopsy episode that threw my period off by two weeks) was very sad indeed. The gist of it? Apparently everything is the patient’s fault at her office, even when monsels solutions may be mixed wrong and cause reactions… Very disappointing, yet not surprising. Nothing had changed. That’s when I knew I really had to leave.
But not to worry. They say many times out of adversity comes understanding and positive change. After coming to Camelback, I know now that my last bad experience served as a painful wake-​up call to me about my health and being more proactive and engaged moving forward. For the first time in years, I have high hopes of great care for the future. If the NP is this good, I believe this bodes well for the doctors.
Over all, excellent!

I have been seeing Julie Bergdale, RNP, for about four years now and I can honestly say she is my favorite doctor I have ever had the pleasure of working with. She has great bed (table?) side manner and always makes me feel comfortable. Going to the gyno can be as unpleasant as visiting the dentist or making a speech in public, but Julie always puts me at ease.
I have recommended her to two of my friends, who also enjoy seeing her. Two thumbs up to Julie and the staff at Camelback Women’s Health!