Arizona Arthritis & Rheumatology Associates PC

I absolutely love Dr. Kruetz. I know I have hand issues, not arthritis. He takes his time to explain my issues to me, in layman’s terms and even showed me examples from the internet. I will no doubt need surgery as he explained, and gave me a referral list. He is kind, patient and above all respectful to his patients.

This is the worst office to go to. The staff is unfriendly and unprofessional. I was referred to Dr. Bennet and it took the staffa month tho call me back to make an appointment. I asked for a new referral from my primary abd I didn’t realize I was referred back to the place and Dr Kreutz.
The staff it’s a nightmare as most are disinterested at best and others down right rude.
As I have Whoever’s, I asked several people inn my support group about this place abd they all said DO NOT GO THERE. FIND ANOTHER DR IMMEDIATELY. WHICH I HAVE DONE, I see him after the first outs the year, I only went back today to find out my blood test results. So yeah, I am in remission. And yeah, typ a Dr. Who is a real specialist in my disease, abd not pretending he knows something.

About 10 days AFTER they cancelled my appointment 2 hours prior to the appointment time (the one that had been on the books for 6 weeks), I received a Certified Letter in the mail that I had to sign for. The contents were as follows:
Dear Ms. X,
I regret to inform you that I will have to discharge you from our practice since you have lost confidence in our care and you wish not to see me again. Per our office policy, we do not transfer patients between doctors as we cross cover for each other. We suggest that you find another rheumatologist outside of this practice. We can forward your medical records to them. You can get names of other rheumatologists from your PCP or insurance provider. I wish you all the best.
Sincerely,
Areena Swarup, MD

I have soooo many mixed feelings.
I feel like it’s not fair to review the office when it’s lumped together with the call center.
So the office itself, was pretty great. The actual waiting room experience was nothing special. Except that there were tons of people, but the process seemed very efficient. I was called back a few minutes early even.
The Drs and nurses, were WONDERFUL! I saw nurse Edith, and Dr Caldron. Both seemed like just awesome human beings! I wanted to ask them to just be my Primary Drs! They were so kind and extremely knowledgable and professional.
But, the call center, that you call to make an appointment or really any communication, is absolutely awful.
I still strongly stand by my original review of the call center. But loves my visit with the Drs.

The staff at this facility is just awful. I had an appointment with Dr. Bennett, and I have no complaints with him because he was great. He ordered a blood test and told me to call in about two weeks for the results. I called in two weeks and was told the results are in, but a doctor or medical assistant would call me to explain the results since they are not allowed. She told me someone would call that day. I waited all day and nobody called so I called back later in the afternoon. Again I was reassured that someone would call me that day, as they respond to calls in between seeing patients. I waited the rest of the day with no phone call returned. The next business day was Monday, so I waited all day again and nobody called. I called in the afternoon and inquired as to why nobody was returning my calls and that I’d like to know the results of my blood test. The girl told me the same thing as I was told Friday, and I told her I have been waiting since Friday morning for someone to call with my results. She could care less and told me they’d get to me. Very rude, unprofessional staff makes this a place I’d never return to. I finally got a call late Monday afternoon from one of the office clerks with the results, so I guess being told they could not give me my results the first time I called was not completely accurate. It’s a shame that I had to wait 3 days and make 4 phone calls for them to take 5 seconds and tell me all was normal. Unreal…

The doctors are great but their office staff has BIG issues. Call your own insurance co because they just wont do it. I got my first stmt since appt in March. Today is 9÷30÷15.
I attempted 4 times to get billing to send claims in the way the ins said but they refused.
Their actions made the practice at PV to lose a wonderful doctor and surgeon, Gary Freidlander. All RA patients are suffering due to his quit. PITY

I went to This place and saw Dr. Swarup last year. She only spent maybe 5 minutes with me and never did any exam and told me I did not have arthritis. I went and saw hand doctor as my finger was bending all by itself and the doctor told me I have osteoarthritis and my bones are fusing together. He told me I need to see Rheumatologist and Healthnet has this place and 2 other doctors that I could see. One of the doctor is no longer accepting Healthnet and the other doctor has long waiting list so I called this place and tried to make an appointment with another doctor and I was told I could not switch doctors. I am not going to see the same doctor. The receptionist was very snippy.

I called to schedule an appointment per my doctors instructions AND WAS HUNG UP ON!!! Completely unprofessional. I am in utter disbelief that someone who works in the medical field and in customer service would have the audacity to hang up on someone. Sugar attracts more flies than vinegar.
Can I give them 0 stars?

I would never recommend this office to anyone. I have struggled with Fibromyalgia for years and it’s been kicking my butt lately. My family doc recommended I make an appointment here to help with a treatment plan. I saw Dr. Bhardwaj. DO NOT EVER agree to see this doctor of you’re a Fibro sufferer. She quickly let me know it isn’t really a condition and sent me for x rays that seemed unnecessary and unrelated. The results came back and there were no issues other than mild normal wear and tear on my neck. They told me to go to a pain management doctor and offered no treatment plan or options or follow up. This is probably the worst medical experience I have ever had! Save yourself the grief. Do better research than I did!

Having seen all sort of specialists, rheumatologists and other practioners over the years, I was overjoyed to see Dr. Calderon, who gave me a thorough examination. He almost immediately gave me a fairly obscure diagnosis that is 100% spot-​on. How I spent 20 years chasing the answer and he nailed it in minutes is beyond my comprehension, but I am incredibly grateful.
You will be seen by a PA on your first visit, and subsequent visits mostly by a PA as well.
Only complaint is the office is not set up for those of us with joint problems. The pens are total junk and made it nearly impossible for me to fill out my paperwork, (must press incredibly hard and were super thin so hard to grip) and waiting to check out there is nothing to hold on to for those of us who have difficulty standing and walking.
Despite that, I will consider myself a loyal patient to Dr. Calderon.

I would like to give them zero stars, but it would only let me give them one.
It was not a nice office, nor were they nice to me. I had to go there for an emergency and they told me to wait over a month to be seen. After a month, when I came at my EXACT time of the appointment, they told me I should have come 30 minutes prior to fill out paperwork. They canceled my appointment, even though I was on time, in pain and waiting. Dr. Caldron was the doctor that did not have time for me. they are a huge group practice and will not give you the time you deserve or pay for.

I cannot for the life of me understand the bad reviews. I’ve been seen here for years and have never had an issue with the staff, scheduling, billing, etc.
I am now seen by Dr. Kruetz. He’s awesome! He’s personable and knowledgeable. As an RN, I know many doctors are pill pushers. Dr. Kruetz is not! He’s big on educating patients on other methods of pain relief. From exercise to diet.
Knowing his goal is the same as mine, to manage my fibromyalgia with the lowest dose of medicine possible, is reassuring.
The MA that I usually see is the sweetest woman ever! She remembers that I have kids, their ages, my job… just little things that make my visit seem like I’m a person and not just a number.
The reception desk staff is friendly and efficient.
I’ll continue to be a patient here and I’ll continue to refer friends and family here.

I see Dr Kreutz and he is a phenomenal Dr and really cares about his patients! The front desk staff is so sweet and helpful as well! I have had past issues with extremely rude customer service but that was only with the answering service, and it has only been a specific employee. As long as she doesn’t answer my call, I am really taken care of by an amazing staff!

I should have checked on Unilocal before I even bothered making an appointment at this place. My appointment time was at 9:15 check-​in I arrived at 9 o’clock paperwork in hand which I had already filled out. After waiting for 30 minutes I went to the front desk because maybe someone had forgotten about me. I was rudely told by the woman at the front to please sit down and she will be with me shortly. After almost an hour I was finally called to pay my co-​pay. I then waited an additional hour just to be called into an exam room. After 30 minutes I was finally seen by the P.A.and was told the doctor would be in to see me shortly. By shortly I guess he meant an additional 30 minutes. Dr Bennet literally spent 10 minutes with me and that included an entire body exam. He never apologized for all my time he wasted nor did he hardly seem bothered or interested in anything having to do with my well-​being. What a complete waste of time and money I will be reporting this to my insurance. Do yourself a favor and do not go to this office if you’re looking for a doctor that truly cares about patients. He’s a sorry excuse for a rheumatologist. And his office staff are clearly clueless

I went to the Mesa office.
I will not being going back and would never refer anyone to this clinic. Everything, minus the nice xray tech, was terrible.
When I went in for my initial appointment there was a guy sitting at the reception desk. I signed in (noticing there were three other patients’ names still on the clipboard because they didn’t bother to, in over an hour, remove the stickers to protect patient privacy) and received no greeting. He sat there half facing me, had facing the girl at checkout, carrying on a conversation. He completely ignored the next patient to check in as well. Couldn’t even be bothered to look up. I sat in the waiting room for 10 minutes and neither he, nor the girl sitting at checkout, bothered to acknowledge anyone. While it turns out he was not the receptionist, you shouldn’t be sitting at the first window, being the first impression of a doctor’s office, and refuse to even smile and say hi.
The doctor herself was also lousy. I saw Areena Swarup and felt completely blown off. By the end I was fighting back tears. She suggested a couple meds for sleeping, which I had to remind her about five minutes later and blew me off when I told her I had tried the dose she suggested and couldn’t function on it. She also suggested that I exercise. I kept telling her I was seeing her because I was too exhausted to even get out of bed and that I wanted to exercise (I was extremely active before I got sick last year). Yet somehow exercise is going to help the fact that I am too sick to exercise?
The phlebotomist wasn’t terrible, but definitely not good. When I first got there another woman was saying how the woman wasn’t able to draw blood on her that day. Instead of quickly inserting the needle she did it extremely slow and got a poor stick as it took forever to draw the blood. I have fantastic veins and have had enough blood draws to know this wasn’t my issue.
The last issue I have is the fact that they never even bothered to call in my scripts. It’s now a holiday weekend and I’ll have to wait until Tuesday to be able to get the only potential help from this horrible clinic.
There are plenty of other rheumatologists in the Valley, go to any other one, this place is terrible!

There is a clear lack of organizational process and customer service from my experience with this organization. Ranging from long wait times to being unable to find records even when I sent them myself. I would have to agree with the majority of comments posted here. I was personally told they didn’t care about Internet reviews by their office manager after mentioning the negative feed back I had read. Without going into details I would say keep looking better options are out there.

I tested positive for a connective tissue disorder and made an appointment at this practice. During my appointment it became clear that this disorder was not my doctor’s specialty. After further testing, I was contacted by her assistant with a positive diagnosis of this very serious and potentially fatal disease. I found out that another doctor in her practice has experience with the disorder and attempted to make an appointment with the other doctor. I was told that it was forbidden. Regardless of the fact that the first doctor was ignorant of this disease, and that she already made mistakes in her advice to me, they would stick to their policy. I would avoid this practice because it is not patient centered.

AVOID this money grubbing office. I had an initial appointment which I could not make because my gout was so bad the day of the appointment that I could not walk or drive. I called in and talked to one of their schedulers and she said not to worry about it and to call back to reschedule when I was feeling better. I specifically asked if there would be any rescheduling fee and she said there would not be. I called back later in the month to reschedule and they will not let me reschedule until I pay them a $ 75 no-​show fee. They were not interested in hearing my side of the story and their «records» of my appointment were not accurate. They are all about caring for income and wealth and apparently could care less about caring for patients.
There is a reason they can get you in fairly quickly .,. read their doctor reviews online!

Don’t go here!
You can tell a lot by the front office staff, and here they are TERRIBLE. I’ve never dealt with more unsympathetic people in my life. Not to mention the office is tiny and very dirty! I didn’t even want to sit down in the waiting room. There was a mix up with my appointment date, mistake on their part. I showed up when i was supposed to and the office receptionist basically told me there was nothing they could do because they don’t reschedule no shows!
Perhaps the receptionist was just a simple minded person, maybe she didn’t fully comprehend the situation. Either way i will be finding a better doctors office, hopefully with people who care and are more intelligent than a door knob.

My husband was referred to Dr. Ralph Bennett with this practice by our pcp for extreme joint and tendon pain. After more than one year of extensive and EXPENSIVE diagnostics here was the result:
1) NO diagnosis
2) NO treatment plan
3) NO recommendations for how to manage the excruciating pain
We would not recommend this doctor nor this office.