Avoid this MD and his office at all costs. I came in for shoulers, then knees. For shoulders, his opinion was, because he could not figure out a clear solution, he pushed me away by telling me to go back to the prev. MD who was evasive and negative, despite the fact that I explained this. I had come to Dr T. for a second one that could be more clear with a strategy for pain reduction. The motto of his practice is "specialized, innovative, Compaasionate". For my appt the message was more like my issue was not going to be a good payday for him, and an exploritory arthroscopy clearly is not a money making proposition. He talked about some of the surgery he does that is mostly a clear cut diagnosis, no joke, and mine was not. Anything else is wasting his time. The next MD I saw for my shoulders was willing to do a surgical eval.
Next time I came in for my knees, and his attitude was sarcastic, "what can I do for you" was elaborated to mean in a round about way that because he couldn't operate, I was going to have to live with this pain...anything but " specialized, innovative and compassionate".....I didn't have bone on bone O.A. so all he could offer was cortizone in ONE knee at the time and gave me a scolding for too agressive icing of the left knee. When I tried to get Hyularonin injections, the Insurance would not cover it because there was no clear notation of equal severe bilateral pain and weakness in both knees in the chart notes, and my appeals with insurance coverage was denied 3 times for the left knee, so I had to wait and eventually paid out of pocket. His only reason was that the x-ray did no show enough evidence, yet he DID no order an MRI, which could have shown what might have been causing some of the pain not indicated via x-ray. And maybe because of the long wait, the injections did not work.
I tried hard to get him and his staff to follow up and be more informative and proactive - I had to be pushy just to get some basics - an order for the MRI on both kness (they only ordered for one ?!?!), comparison to an earlier x-ray from 5 years back, and better indicators of pain and weakness in the chart notes.
Apparantly, there was too much time taken with phone calls and these questions, demands of appt time beyond the bare minimum, and with clearly no immediate surgical option, he sent a letter representing himself as spokesman of muir orthopaedics and it said I could not be treated for care at any of the Muir Ortho facilities. He and the evil CEO, KC Campion, cancelled my follow up - a badly needed cortizone shot for the left knee, an important appt for the proceedure with Dr Michlitsch for the shoulders, and my upcoming appt with the highly recommended and one of only 2 or 3 MD's there with a high degree of skill, experience, and good bedside manner, Dr. Knight, for what I hoped would be a good 2nd opinion on my knees. Its possible that the operations manager, Monica Begor also had something to do with this decision.
It comes down to money, and if they cannot make money off of your and your insurance company easily, its a burden on thier system. "Compassionate" ?! read more