Dr. Ma was recommended to me by a coworker. When I arrived for my first appointment, I waited 45…read moreminutes in the waiting room (putting me a half hour past my appointment time). After being taken to a room, I waited a further 30 minutes. I try to make doctor appointments on my day off, because I know they can run behind if a patient takes longer than their scheduled time, but if I had been on my lunch break I would have been in a situation. Dr. Ma spent a lot of time with me asking questions and going over my medical history, and initially I felt like it was a productive appointment. THEN. He began asking me if my boyfriend and I were getting married, did we live together, what church did we attend, etc. I'm all for integrative medicine, but it felt entirely inappropriate for an initial visit. He begin rattling off a list of books that I could read to improve spiritual well being and eating habits (vegan diet books). We also discussed the anti anxiety medication that I have been on for several years; he asked if I had considered going off of it, I replied that I had done so once with very negative results, and he said that it sounded like the medication should be lifelong for me. I should mention that this entire time he was taking copious notes and rarely made eye contact due to the note taking.
On my second visit, again the wait. I was led into a room almost an hour after my appointment time, and waited even longer; so long, in fact, that I was beginning to wonder if I had been forgotten. The doctor finally came in and seemed super on edge. Not angry, just distracted and hurried. I'm sure he had had a very long day but it was as if he couldn't finish one sentence before starting the next. As we're going over the issue I'm being seen for, he begins to talk about taking me off of my anxiety medication. Really? On my last visit we agreed I should be on it continually. I couldn't believe that wasn't in the notes he had been so busy taking that he could barely look at me. Again he began talking about his favorite books...had I read them, had I ordered them, etc. That was it for me, I didn't go back. Clearly some people appreciate his medical skills, since he was recommended to me, but I can tell you the care is not worth the wait.
Overall:
*THE WAIT
*Will want you to go on a vegan diet. Pushes lots of books/pamphlets regarding that diet.
*Recommends lots of self help/lifestyle books. That's fine, except I never asked for any recommendations and wasn't interested in them, yet they were mentioned multiple times.
*I spent more time listening to the books I should be reading to improve my life than talking to the doctor about what was going on with me. His active listening skills need a lot of work.