After today, I will no longer be a patient of this practice and Dr. Khalfayan, and I caution others to seek care with another business. Preferably one that actually values their patients and makes any attempt to prioritize them. I am a veterinarian and can say that none of the patients I encounter are ever treated in the ways described below.
For appts. I must take an entire sick day from work, driving over an hour each way to attend. Today I hit a minor delay before leaving, so while en route I called to ask if they would still take me despite being about 10 minutes late, but for an entire hour they did not answer the phone! When I arrived to the office 10 minutes late, there was a gigantic line, which took an additional 10-15 minutes to process. I was told it was too far past the grace period and they could not make any exceptions to still see me after pleading my case, so I was turned away. This is despite their inability to answer the phone, and inability to process a line of people promptly! I should mention that in prior appointments with them the wait time has been as long as 45 minutes after being checked in. What does this say to the patient? That OPA Ortho can perform terribly at their job, but as a patient you aren't allowed to suck even a little or you get kicked out. The arrogance is palpable.
Immediately after my knee surgery, I had an area of extreme (10/10 pain) on my upper thigh that was not expected. I called in on an urgent basis, but did not hear back from anyone for 48 hours and it was only the medical assistant not one of the doctors. That is egregiously long to hear back for a serious post operative concern! I had undue amounts of emotional stress over this issue given its unknown nature, in addition to the terrible pain. It turned out that the tourniquet was too tight on my thigh and caused unnecessary trauma. It continued to be intensely painful for over a day. When I saw Dr. Khalfayan for a checkup appointment he seemed rather unconcerned that it even happened! Very poor marks for a medical establishment, and quite frankly they are lucky I have not pursued malpractice claim against them for it.
Around 8-9 days post-op I had a sudden new intense painful swelling of my knee, which is not something I had been briefed on to expect (they generally said swelling should peak around days 3-5). This was concerning (for things like a potential infection) so I called in to the office after hours line early morning and spoke with a consulting Doctor who wasn't sure so they said they'd have Dr. Khalfayan's team call me back with instructions. I didn't hear back for the entire business day. I called first thing the next day but didn't hear from anyone until after the office had closed. So from the time of my original call to speaking with someone who could address the issue it was over 36 hours.
About 3 weeks post-op, I had symptoms potentially consistent with a blood clot (thrombosis) including increased pressure in my knee and a very cold foot. This is something that requires rapid assessment as thromboses can become very serious and/or life threatening. When I called in to report the concern early morning, I didn't hear back from the office until almost the end of the day, when they advised that I should be seen immediately. Given how late it was I had no choice but to go to the emergency room, where I incurred enormous fees. If they had responded in a reasonable time frame, I could have potentially been seen in their office the same day, which would have been the best and most affordable place to be seen.
Lastly, their billing department also seems to be incapable of correctly sending a claim with all the surgery charges to my insurance with the $5,500 that I paid upfront (out of pocket) for bone marrow injection included. The goal is to have my insurance review the bone marrow procedure to see if they might cover it, but insurance will deny the procedure if not sent as a batch claim with the other CPT codes. I have repeatedly requested they do this, but it still has not occurred.
Throughout my pre and post-op appointments Dr. Khalfayan has demonstrated that he has absolutely no interest in how meniscal injuries occur. When asked about how my injury might have occurred, what biomechanics might have been contributory, how I bear weight, what muscles might be weak, etc., his response was simply "It's probably just bad genetics". Seriously? How does one become a specialist without having a better grasp of how the disease process is occurring (aka pathophysiology), so that they can work with patients to help prevent future reinjury?! It seems like a no-brainer that this should be part of what he covers with patients. Instead, he only has an interest in fixing things once they go bad. As a doctor myself I can't imagine having such a short-sighted view/understanding of a condition that I am treating. I truly hope for his patients' sake that he does better in the future in this regard. read more
