North & South Adult Family

Pros

• The level of care at the Clinton office is absolutely through the roof.
• The staff are very kind, caring, and compassionate.
• The medical providers listen and are genuinely caring.
• Patients are happy with Clinton as their primary care provider.
• Dr Barrett is great.
• The Clinton office is highly recommended for good medical care from doctors who genuinely care about patients.
• Secretary Tiffany is great.

Cons

• The Northern Light clinic has gone downhill in the past year.
• All staff are traveling nurses who don't know patients or take them seriously.
• Patients feel unwanted and like a hindrance to the staff.
• There is an assertion that staff push patients through for money.
• The online appointment system is broken and redirects in circles back to reception.
• The registration desk does not register new patients.
• Patients are told appointments may not be available until February due to online account requirements.
• People are kept on hold for long periods (e.g., 15 minutes).

Review

A patient's view of Northern Light over the past year feels like two different experiences coexisting in the same organization. On one hand, many voices express disappointment and frustration. They describe a drift away from the kind of personal connection that used to feel genuine, replaced by a sense that staff - especially traveling nurses - don't know them or take their concerns seriously. There is a palpable longing for the days when a physician felt truly present - someone who listened, asked questions, and treated care as more than a transactional process. In particular, there's a strong ache for Dr. Barret, who is remembered as genuine, empathetic, and visibly concerned. For some, the absence of that familiar, steadying presence has deepened the sense of drift in care. A recurring sentiment is that care feels rushed or performed more for revenue than for patient wellbeing, and the result is a frustrating perception of the system as "pushing patients through" rather than guiding them through with care and attention.

The nostalgia for a regular, consistently compassionate physician grows louder in accounts that recall Jordan, who some describe as a bright exception - great to talk to, attentive, and a contrast to the more impersonal approach that followed. Jordan is remembered as someone who listened and didn't rush to push a patient through a series of steps simply to complete an appointment. This memory stands in deliberate contrast to other recent experiences where patients feel they were treated as tasks to be completed rather than people with unique concerns. The sentiment is not simply about personal affinity for a doctor; it's about the fundamental quality of the relationship - trust, time, and genuine engagement - that makes medical care feel humane.

At the same time, there are clear, very specific grievances about how logistical processes are handled. Several reviewers describe a frustrating, circular path when trying to set up a new patient appointment. An online system that fails to function as expected becomes the gatekeeper to care, with patients being shuffled from Clinton's front desk to registration, then to scheduling for referrals, only to be told they don't register new patients there, and back to where they started. The experience culminates in a long hold that ends with no appointment available for months, leaving patients feeling stranded. The note that "it's August," with the implication that the system might be operating on a different clock than the patients' needs, underscores a sense of brokenness and disorganization in the administrative side of the care ecosystem.

Yet within these same accounts, some readers find a wholly different reality - one where the care delivered is still deeply valued. A subset of experiences highlights care that feels "through the roof" in its kindness, compassion, and attentiveness. In these views, the staff and medical providers are described as genuinely caring, attentive, and capable of listening in a manner that reinforces trust. For these patients, the care they receive from clinicians is a bright counterpoint to the administrative frustrations, and they express gratitude for the physicians who do listen, respond, and treat them with real regard. The contrast is striking: while some patients feel adrift in a sea of system issues, others insist that the core medical care remains strong and that the clinicians' dedication still shines through the chaos.

Within these narratives, specific staff members emerge as especially noteworthy. Tiffany, a secretary at Clinton, receives frequent praise for being dependable and effective, with patients noting that if she says she will call, she does - an assurance that is deeply meaningful in a system that otherwise feels strained. Dr. Barrett (often spelled Barret in the accounts) is repeatedly mentioned as a physician who stands out for being caring and genuinely engaged with patients' well-being. The Clinton office is repeatedly recommended by those who have had positive experiences, with one reviewer explicitly endorsing it as a place to find good medical care from a doctor who truly cares about patients. The recurring theme here is that, even amid broader organizational challenges, individual staff members and a particular site can still deliver the warmth, reliability, and professional attention that patients value.

Taken together, these reviews sketch a complex portrait of Northern Light - a system capable of extraordinary care and equally capable of creating friction and disappointment. The strongest threads of praise celebrate clinicians who listen, take concerns seriously, and treat patients with kindness and empathy. The most persistent complaints concern the administrative and logistical machinery that should support those clinicians: ineffective online systems, confusing referrals, inconsistent information about where to register new patients, and lengthy waits on hold that end without resolution. The juxtaposition of "excellent patient care" with "broken processes" suggests that the core medical relationships may still be strong in some offices, while access and continuity of care are fraying in others.

In the end, the experience appears deeply personal and highly variable. For some patients, Northern Light remains a place where compassionate physicians and dedicated staff provide life-affirming care that keeps them hopeful about their health. For others, the sense of being heard and valued is overshadowed by frustrating administrative hurdles and a perceived loss of continuity. The mixed feedback highlights a fundamental truth: great medical care thrives on strong, ongoing patient-provider relationships, but those relationships are formed and sustained not only in the exam room but in the ease of scheduling, the reliability of frontline staff, and the consistency of the systems that connect patients to the people who care for them. If there is a path forward, it likely lies in restoring continuity - both in clinicians and in how appointments and registrations are handled - and in recognizing that the warmth of a single physician or staff member can't fully compensate for a system that feels opaque or unresponsive to patients' time and needs.

Places of Worship

• United Methodist Church (0 miles)
• Sidney Second Baptist Church (5.7 miles)
• General Conference Of Seventh-Day Adventists (6.6 miles)
• Riverside Bapt.-Pishons Ferry (7.1 miles)
• Burnham Baptist Church (7.6 miles)
• St Joseph Maronite Catholic Church, Waterville Maine (8.6 miles)
• Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (8.7 miles)

Cafes

• Tim Hortons (1.1 miles)
• Starbucks (8.3 miles)
• Jorgensen's Cafe (8.7 miles)

Transportation

• Maine Outdoors (3.7 miles)
• Elite Taxi (5.4 miles)
• U-Haul Neighborhood Dealer (7.4 miles)
• Maine Central Railroad (8.1 miles)
• Oakland Taxi (9.2 miles)
• Enterprise (10.4 miles)

Restaurants

• Purple Cow (5.4 miles)
• Cheung Lee Express (5.8 miles)
• Big G's (7.4 miles)
• Ming Lee Chinese Restaurant (8.2 miles)
• O'Brien's Irish Restaurant & Pub (8.2 miles)
• Five Guys Burgers & Fries (8.2 miles)
• Governor's Restaurant (8.2 miles)

Parks

• Mill Island Park (5.5 miles)
• Quarry Road Recreation Area (8.6 miles)
• Lake George Regional Park (9.6 miles)

Pharmacies

• Fairfield Pharmacy (6 miles)
• Central Maine Pharmacy (7.9 miles)
• Waterville Home Oxygen (8 miles)
• Gas Petal (8.2 miles)
• Walmart Pharmacy (8.5 miles)
• Walgreens (8.6 miles)
• Elm City Pharmacy (8.7 miles)

Physicians

• Four Seasons Family Practice (6.6 miles)
• Waterville Family Practice (8.4 miles)
• Kennebec Medical Consultants (8.4 miles)
• Kennebec Medical Assoc (8.4 miles)
• Aurora Healthcare Waterville (8.5 miles)
• Elmwood Primary Care (8.6 miles)
• Kennebec Eye Care (8.6 miles)

Hospitals

• Maine General Medical (7.9 miles)
• MaineGeneral Health (8.6 miles)
• Maine General Medical Center (8.6 miles)
• MaineGeneral Medical Center - Center for Health and Rehabilitation (8.7 miles)
• Guadalupe Acupuncture Clinic (10 miles)
• Inland Hospital (10.2 miles)