Dr. Kirstner has NO bedside manner. I met him briefly before my emergency gallbladder surgery, but he seemed unconcerned and hurried. I was scared and could have used a positive experience to make the surgery easier. He used Staples for the incisions and left them in more than 2 weeks. He also seemed a bit phobic or prejudiced against larger patients. He could lose a few lbs himself. I think he needs to retire. At this point, he is simply going through the motions.i would not recommend him. read more

I can hardly believe this Dr is still in business . I am disgusted that any hospital would allow him to do surgeries. He is the nastiest human being I've ever met. I was assigned him as a surgeon after a night in the ER at Banner Baywood. He refused to explain the procedure, he was rude, short and condescending. My gut told me not to use him. Thank goodness I listened to my instinct. The nurses and anesthesiologist practically cheered when I fired him. He was a jerk to everyone. During my entire stay in the hospital not one staff member had anything nice to say about him. After I got home from the hospital he already had a $400 bill waiting in my mailbox. FOR DOING NOTHING !!! He plays dirty. He even confronted us after we fired him. I will report him to every site possible. I already reported him to the hospital and I am in the process of finding out how many complaints he has against him on the medical board .. I have never in my life experienced such a terrible bedside manner .. In case you or your brainwashed office staff see this, NO ONE LIKES YOU.. Sorry you paid for medical school because you picked the wrong profession. You need to humble yourself and beg for forgiveness to those you have mistreated, but you have obviously been getting away with this far too long !! Hang it up buddy ! Do your homework folks ! read more

My 33 year old brother was brought in to Desert Banner one week after iliostomy surgery (He got a bag) for emergency blockage on Thanksgiving day. Never mind that Dr. Kistner had the rudest bedside manner I have ever seen. Forget the fact he refused to do anything to medically assist my brother, just made sure he was kept alive until his regular surgeon returned 5 days later. The kicker was that while I was sitting there watching, the doctor stuck his finger in the (newly stiched) stoma and levered it hard up and down, then side to side. He then pushed the entire stoma down into my brother's belly and up. Since he had splashed excrement everywhere, the doctor quickly drug a washcloth through the mess while saying "This looks very troubling" under his breath, and quickly walked out of the room while slinging the cloth against the wall. No explanation or talk of a plan. We were so amazed at his lack of regard for the other humans in the room. My brother was in pain after that examination so I tried not to dwell on Dr. Kistner being a jerk. Later in the day my brother noticed upon bag change that the stiches were ripped and excrement was coming through the new tear, not the stoma itself. No one had touched him after the doctor and he was too sick to even get up to urinate; he hadn't moved. When told about it when he finally came back 3 days later, Dr. Kistner roughly said "You need to talk to Dr. Sahai about it. I see nothing wrong." Dr. Sahai ended up removing his stoma, re-cutting the intestines and doing another stoma. Had to redo the whole thing because this baffoon of a doctor basically ripped the stoma off of his abdomen during that brutal exam. We have pictures and video. Don't let Dr. Robert Kistner touch you. read more

I had my appendix removed earlier this year by this doctor. It was the worst experience of my life. Not that a surgery should be a good experience at all but this doctor did a Frankenstein job stitching me up. The staples were the route he decided to go even though I had a big stomach and could definitely shed a few pounds for a healthier life style. But regardless this doctor used staples that as you can see by the pictures didn't even cover the entire wound. As a matter of fact I have a later photo that shows the staples had indeed torn through my skin and were now in the middle of my wound. So the pictures you see that I have posted here are the aftermath of this doctors job. I was going to let this go and just move on with life regardless of several lawyers urging me to file a medical malpractice law suite against this doctor. But then I received a bill in the mail for $2,640.00 from this doctor. So I called and left a voicemail informing the doctor how disgusted I was with the job he did and that there was no way I was paying him anymore money for doing it. I informed him that if he indeed sent me another bill that I would be filing a complaint with the Arizona Medical Board and then also pursing a medical malpractice law suite against him. Well guess what... He didn't care. He instructed his billing department to move forward with billing me. So now I will be creating a website online to inform the public more about this doctor and my progress with my complaint and my law suite. Please email me privately for that website address. Do yourself a favor and run from this doctor. Do not let him operate on you. Or you only have yourself to blame if you do. As for myself... I now have a scar on my stomach the size of a silver dollar. This should not be the case... I will need plastic surgery to reduce the scarring. read more

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UPDATE: This is very delayed however I have since spoken with Dawn in Dr. Kistner's office. She seriously went to bat for me with the insurance companies and has taken care of the bill. Time and patience would have served me well instead of flying off the handle at the front end of the issue. Thank you Dawn! read more

I have just been reading some of the horrible reviews on Dr. Robert Kistner, although I hate to even give this man the title of Doctor. He does not in anyway deserve that title. My only reason for writing this now is because I have read of two more bad reviews since my daughters surgery and I'm afraid that another person will be effected by this guy. It's my hope that someone will read this and spare themselves the trouble that we and so many others went through. My daughter waited in at Mercy Gilbert ED for close to 9 hours with appendicitis before they even moved her to a room to wait longer for surgery. She went in at 9am, was diagnosed at 1:00pm by CT Scan, offered pain meds, which she refused and maybe that's why they didn't take her pain seriously, and then was moved to the "waiting area" for surgery at 6pm. By 8pm they told us she was going to go into surgery, then she was bumped three times for more urgent cases. She did not go into surgery until 11:45pm and we were told it would be a 45 mins procedure. 2 hours later we still had not heard a word and not one person came out to update us. I walked back myself to the OR area, which upset the nurses, to ask what was going on. They advised me someone would come out in a second. A nice young nurse came out to let me know that she was still in surgery but she was doing fine. Finally, 30 minutes later this unprofessional dr came out to talk to us. 1. he was rude as all get out. 2. he asked us if she had ever had her appendix taken out before?!?!?!? I'm not a doctor but...what??? How can someone have their appendix taken out more than once???? He proceeded to tell us that when he put the scope in all he saw was a stump where her appendix should be. He literally took out a pen and drew a picture of it on his scrub pant leg. He ended up having to take a small piece of her colon out because there was infection all around. He kept insisting to me and my daughters husband that she must have had her appendix "partially" removed previously in maybe another surgery. We told him that the only other surgeries she has had were three c-sections. He says (not knowing we work for and are personal friends with my daughters OB) well maybe he took it out during one of her c-sections and didn't tell you! Ummm NO! he most certainly did not!!! I also later found out that after surgery he had to take my daughter to radiology to make sure they didn't leave a sponge inside her because they were off count!!!! This is something he NEVER told us... to this day. Bottom line this guy is a liar. What happened was, because my daughter was bumped three times for more urgent appendectomies, her appendix burst, which required him to have to remove part of her colon because of the infection that spread after the appendix burst. We are not the type of people who would sue or cause a seen but we were not given the respect or the trust to just tell us the truth. Instead, he avoided us like the plaque that next couple of days and when he finally did come see her, my younger daughter heard him talking to the nurse outside the room saying "this mom thinks she knows something". YES MR. Kistner I do know a thing or two. I can usually smell a liar from a mile away. Again, we decided not to proceed with any kind of lawsuit because we know how this works, he documented in her chart ways to cover his ass. He has been doing this for a long time and hopefully this will help it from happening to someone else. One of the worst parts of all this, when we complained to the hospital and tried to file a complaint, we were told by the lady that maybe in the future we should "google" (her words exactly) the surgeon before we agree to surgery. Really?? I guess this is something I will be doing in the future because crazy me, I thought that hospitals hired competent surgeons to perform EMERGENCY SURGERIES so patients didn't have to worry and "google" the surgeon at midnight. Stay away from "DR" Robert Kistner..... read more

I am so frustrated with this office and their billing practices. Just like another reviewer, I went into Mercy Gilbert for an emergency gall bladder removal. Mercy Gilbert is in my network and my insurance Blue Cross/Blue Shield paid for everything regarding Mercy Gilbert. However, Mercy called in Dr. Kistner to do the surgery (of course I had no knowledge of this--and even if I did, how would I check if he was in my network or not...I was under anesthesia!) Apparently he is NOT in network and when my insurance paid him accordingly, he sent me the bill for over 4,000 dollars! I called Blue Cross and they said this is not uncommon, and that the Dr. will, in most cases, write the difference off. So, I called the office and they promptly told me that i was responsible for the balance and they did not write off anything. I tried again and again to work it out with Mercy Gilbert, Blue Cross and Dr Kistner, but no one would budge. My insurance finally paid a bit more, but firmly stated that the Dr. was being unreasonable because most Drs write it off. Under duress, I finally agreed to pay $100 per month. Fast forward 3 years, and out of the blue, they send me to collections! Unbelievable! The worst part is, since he is an oncall doc, you really dont have a choice if you use him or not! So what good does a review do? Most likely you will be in an emergency situation and be unable to state that you want another physician; one who is in your network! I believe it is very calculating that he works on call and out of the network, that way he doesn't have to accept the amount that the insurance allows for his procedure and he is able to brow beat and threaten patients to get the rest of the money! Unethical! read more

Dr. was rude and short before surgery and did not explain the surgery. Also charges too much for services and will not negotiate with insurance. Very rude and would never use him for anything. Wish I had had a choice in surgeons because I certainly would not have chosen him! read more

Dr Kistner's billing process is completely fraudulent. He does not contract with any insurance company AT ALL. He refused to take any discounted amounts from insurance companies and you have to pay the rest. I did not have a choice in choosing him, I went through the ER and was given him. The office manager Dawn, stated it was my responsibility to find out who was covered under my insurance company. I explained to her, He knew we were covered by Cigna because he was standing there when another person asked me about it. She stated he is not allowed to say who he is covered by or who he is not covered by. Well considering he is not contracted with any insurance company he should have said something if it is supposedly my responsibility in an emergency situation where you were in the ER to begin with. DAwn basically stated it was my fault. They sent a bill and then expected the FULL amount to be paid in less than 2 weeks. Who has that kind of money?? She didn't once offer a payment offer or say to me to contact my insurance company and get back to her etc etc. She just stated we shouldn't have accepted the service if he wasn't in network. I also agree with Jamie T on 4/20/2012. read more