Dr. Joyce Lynn Richards, MD

I have been to see Dr. Richards on four occasions and she has scoped me also. I find her a no nonsense Dr and she can be brutally frank. I have had experiences with many doctors over the years and find he to be a good doctor. DO NOT SELF DIAGNOSE YOUR AILMENT WHEN SEEING THID DOCTOR.

Poor office communication, routine paperwork foul ups. Unable to reach her for severe problems following procedure.

I took a housemate / long time friend of 37 years to see Dr. Joyce Richards for an upper gastrointestinal endoscopy. We are quite upset with this very unprofessional doctor. My friend's primary care provider of over 10 years referred her to Dr. Richards because of her various G.I. symptoms. Among several other top to bottom G.I. symptoms, for quite some time, my friend had been experiencing most every symptom of gastroparesis. When my friend relayed her various symptoms and asked about gastroparesis as a possibility, Dr. Richards rudely said, "Oh, so now you're self-diagnosing?" After the endoscopy procedure Dr. Richards reported back to me and said, "I didn't find anything." But then proceeded to state that she found stomach and esophageal inflammation as well as a polyp and an esophageal growth, which she'd removed, (huh, found nothing?) She also took some random biopsy samples in some questionable areas (my friend has a family history of esophageal cancer). She then… proceeded to tell me there was nothing wrong with my friend, was condescending, patronizing, dismissive and rude, and then implied my friend had mental problems and an eating disorder and should see a therapist (which she repeated three times). WTF! Huh? Bad day Dr. Richards? Bad month? Bad life? Where does all this attitude come from! Dr. God on a pedestal syndrome? When I told Dr. Richards of each of my friend's symptoms that I personally witness and heard about, she was continually dismissive and referred back to her suggestion of an eating disorder and therapy. (EXCUSE ME! BUT MY FRIENDS DOES NOT MAKE STUFF UP AND DOES NOT HAVE AN EATING DISORDER!!) She also expressed her disgruntlement that my friend indicated that she is very sensitive to medications (. . . my friend's direct experience that I have witnessed). So, if Dr. Richards thinks that my friend's symptoms are all in her head and says "there's nothing wrong with her," then why did she prescribe Metoclopramide/Reglan, which relieves symptoms of gastroparesis, which Dr. Richards did not even test for. One of Dr. Richards' staff contact persons was short and difficult as well. We were told that whether the procedure was in the morning or afternoon, fasting and no liquids still had to start at midnight. (BTW: Fasting this long is contradicted and found to be unnecessary by many medical professionals). My friend told the staff member that she has severe hypoglycemia and just could not fast for 14 or more hours. The staff member was completely inflexible on this issue and said, "Well then you can't get the procedure." We about cancelled, but at the last minute were called and told there was an early morning opening due to a cancellation. Even so, Dr. Richards was still running an hour or two behind schedule and my friend suffered because of it. How can a doctor be running an hour or two behind first thing in the morning? We were told we'd be contacted by Dr. Richards the following week to report the results of the biopsies. No one called. It took several calls to get the pathology report, which turned out negative for cancer - a welcome relief to hear since it was the only positive thing from this whole distasteful experience. I found Dr. Richards to be condescending, patronizing and dismissive. So did my friend, who came away from the experience feeling offended at being treated in such a way. Obviously, she will not be returning to Dr. Richards. Seems it's past time for this doc to retire. *BTW: The entire staff at the Verde Valley Medical Center, whether at the front desk, operating room, post-op or patient customer service were all wonderful! Kudos to them!

This doctor is what I would call a bonafide quack. She doesn't take complaints seriously and looks at her patient as though they were crazy. Thank goodness I am now seeing Dr. Paslidis and he is rectifying all issues!

I waited 2 hours to see the doctor. She started with a very insincere 'Sorry, I'm running late', like that is how she starts ALL of her appointments. She also took a patient, that had arrived one half hour after me, before me. Very inconsiderate of my time. I did not want somebody who thought so little of their patients operating on me. She agreed and returned my copay. How valuable is YOUR time?