Dr. Ruth Ann Larson, MD

Dr Larson saw me on time, as usual, and thoroughly examined me. Office help were courteous.

Her reputation as an excellent dermatologist is deserved.

Dr. Ruth Larson is warm and kind and takes time to thoroughly and thoughtfully explain every procedure and process before, during, and afterwards to make sure each patient understands and is comfortable. She has expertise that is important in selecting a doctor but also exhibits and loving, caring manner that shows she truly cares about your well-being. I have referred friends and colleagues and I will continue to do so.

While the physicians in Dr. Larson's practice may be competent, the office staff is rude and disinterested. Dr. Larson must run a tight ship with these people: They are not flexible, and know only to carry out procedure. If you ask the wrong question, they point to signs on the wall. After 20 years of going to this practice, I've left due to the office staff and rude office manager.By the way, it's interesting to me that when you look up Dr. Larson's daughter (RNP in her practice) or husband (GI physician), each has comments about how great they are: signed Ruth L. and entered on the same day. How ethical is that?

Negative stars are called for here. I went in for an annual skin check up. I came out with two giant gaping wounds on my back that got infected by the end of the day. During the initial exam, after I explained that I had had melanoma previously(the deadliest form of skin cancer) , she scanned my body WAY too fast in my experienced opinion. She proceeded to use what is called a "shave biopsy" to basically scoop out huge dallops of the meat on my back (I've had many regular excisions that are far less painfull, less invasive, and heal faster and I still cant figure out why she went with the shave biopsy). During the procedure, the Dr. didnt exactly expound confidence as the nurse corrected her on several occasions.I was given regular ol' petroleum jelly instead of an antibiotic ointment on the good Dr's advice, and by the time my husband saw them they were extremely painfull, and he explained to me they were defanitely infected as they had the telltale red circles around them. … The infection lasted about a month, imagine trying to sleep with two huge infected holes on your back, it was a truly awful experience. Not only did i have problems with the procedures, i even had problems with the Dr.'s billing department. They billed me for the office visit in full indicating my health carrier denied my claim because my insurance was terminated mid-month. I know this was false, as i work for an insurance broker and know exactly how this works. So i immediately called my carrier and they said they didn't deny claim. In fact they had already processed my claim and everything was going smoothly on their part. The carrier was unsure why the Dr. would say this. Basically, this doctor and her staff (including the nurse practitioner) are the most incompentant people i have encountered. I will NEVER see this doctor for anything. I would NEVER trust her to diagnose me properly or trust she would choose the best procedure for my situation. The entire time i saw her, it seemed as though she was rushed and didn't care that i had melanoma before.

Dr. Larson treats the "whole person" and deeply cares about each of her patients.