Dr. Thomas Neal Schriefer, MD

I couldn’t have been more surprised at the friendliness and down to earth attitude he had. He was very complementary and interesting and explained to me about my illness. He is very uplifting and complementary. I enjoyed his knowledge and his friend is very much I couldn’t have asked for more Person I could actually see myself. I bragged on him to my family.

I have been seeing Dr Schroeder for years. I was referral by my Neuro-ophthalmologist & I have never seen anyone else since. He was a very calm and well listening to my medical issues. Instead of other doctor would just disregard the patient complain. He was a passionate and kind doctor. I really appreciate his expertise and medical knowledge.

Dr. Schriefer at the Caron Clinic in Minneapolis MN. He was to give me an EMG test in regards to my arm and neck. My experience: When Dr. Schriefer greeted me and took me to the exam room he had me walk in front of him down two halls to the exam room while he barked directions to me on where to go from behind me. This seemed extremely odd and clumsy for all he had to do was walk ahead of me and lead me there. I have never in my life had anyone do this to me going to their office or exam room. In hindsight I feel this was so he could evaluate how I walk, and was to be the uncomfortable first step of an uncomfortable meeting. Once in the exam room he proceeded to ask me some questions about myself. One of the first questions he asked me was if I work, retired or on disability. I am on disability and let him know. I could see and hear his attitude change at that point. He was very condescending in his tone and line of questioning. He then asked me why I was on disability and told me I… look healthy. That statement and his tone said everything I need to know as to why I was getting this attitude from him and was very deliberate. The disabilities I have are not outwardly obvious. He kept this line of questioning going about my personal activities that had nothing to do with my issues. I felt extremely uncomfortable and under attack with this interrogation. At another point when I described some of the pains I have in my back and chest he told me he would be looking at my heart. I have been having these pains for many years and I am sure the many doctors I have seen in the past would have a better understanding of my conditions and history than he would have since this was the first time ever meeting me and he did not know my history. His unsolicited on the fly opinion was not an uninformed opinion and was not his role in the appointment to offer opinions. I have had at least 5 EMG’s in the past and never has the one administering the test given me an opinion on my issues. I should not have had to explain myself to Dr. Schriefer which I found myself doing from his line of questioning. It was not his place or purpose to evaluate my disabilities. I found his actions very inappropriate, unprofessional and demoralizing. His line of questioning had nothing to do with my appointment and appeared to be more for his own personal agenda. To me it was obvious he had some prejudice towards me. I wanted to leave at this point but the test being done was important and I did not want to miss it, so I was trapped with him and quit honestly a little in shock by this attack. A word of advice to anyone seeing Dr. Schriefer, see to it that you always have a third person present to help prevent this from happening to you. Do not be alone with him. This was the most uncomfortable and demoralizing appointment I have ever had with a medical professional. I have had constant high anxiety since leaving the clinic. I went into his office feeling good and I left with my anxiety through the roof. This Doctor does not know boundaries, has no self-awareness, self-control or tact. It is obvious to me he let his personal prejudices and emotions get in the way of his responsibilities and care of this patient. If he cannot leave his prejudices at the front door of the clinic he is in the wrong profession. That is my opinion. The next day I called the Caron clinic looking for a manager to make a complaint with. I was told they would have someone get back to me. This did not happen so I called back and spoke to a manager named Jennifer. She let me know she was not the manager for this Doctor and she would have his manager, Sara, get back to me. Again this has not happened, in over two weeks now. It appears they do not care what happens to the patients or what they might have to say about their treatment. This too seems to be very unprofessional and bad policy for a medical clinic to treat their patients this way. I am not impressed with the Noran clinic with their treatment of me or the Dr’s treatment. It appears if you have something he is prejudiced against he feels entitled to treat you poorly and berate you and the clinic does not care. I once had respect for medical professionals in general but this has damaged that trust and respect. Obviously I would NEVER recommend Dr Schriefer or the Noran clinic to anyone because of my experience.

I first met Dr Schriefer this past summer at an office visit in Lakeville. I found him to be friendly and reassuring. He has a good bedside manner. He doesn't push treatments but rather recommends avenues to try to make a correct medical decision.

Dr. Schriefer is very compassionate and he truly shows his patients that he cares. He personally calls with any results and he is willing to squeeze patients into his schedule. He is very kind-hearted, and he is a great listener. I would recommend him to any patient. Despite my bad diagnosis, I feel like I am going to be just fine under his care.

First time ever seeing a neurologist and this unlucky chance meeting with this man has scarred deeply me for the rest of my life. I have had constant head and neck pain for a while now and a string of doctors appointments which led to a referral to see a neurologist. Upon being called into the examination room and waiting a bit for him to see me I was expecting to finally see what has been causing my pain. The moment the door opens and I see this man's face I could just tell that it just was not his day, maybe he got up on the wrong side of the bed? Maybe he's stressed? I don't know. Barely introduces himself and asks me what I'm here to see him for. I go on and explain all the symptoms that I am experiencing and what he thinks. The whole time that I am talking I can just feel this man getting angrier and angrier and agitated, I literally physically feel threatened by his presence, I look over to my interpreter (yes I had an interpreter, but I did not need her, English is my second… language), she just sits with a look of discomfort and growing uneasiness. This neurologist sternly replies to my words with simple disgust and in a condescendingly disrespectful tone that, I quote, "have you thought that maybe your [pain] is being brought on by you talking too much?", I was beyond shocked then, before that he says I "talk too much" and should not talk "so much". He then goes on to say he'll order up an MRI and schedule it for another week and I should come back. That was it. He nearly explodes out of his stool/chair and bolts for the door! I do not know what caused this man to lose his professionalism in such a way as to make me feel like I was in immediate danger and so disrespected in my life. Go back to get the MRI? No! I plan to contact Allina Health and and his clinic (Noran Neurological Clinic) and file a formal complaint against this "caregiver" and the way he treated me, his patient. I'll have a formal statement from my interpreter who was also present. I've gone and reviewed his online patient reviews on many websites, 25 plus years of medical experience and not a single complaint. My experience with this neurologist will be his first complaint, but I also strongly believe that he has mistreated and disrespected patients in the past as well as before the appointment I was warned that this individual had a bad reputation among non-native English speaking patients, I just did not believe it.

From the front office staff to Dr. Schriefer's bedside manner, you can't go wrong. He doesn't claim to know all the answers but seems truly interested in trying to get to the bottom of things and is positive. He also responded quickly to testing results and his staff checked in the day after. He also listened to something I wanted to try--specialists don't always do that. Great experience overall.