I am giving one star only because I cannot figure out a way to give negative stars. Someone should make that possible, by the way. Caveat: I went to High Desert Gastroenterology in Lancaster, not in Ridgecrest. But I could not find a way to do a Yelp review for the Lancaster office, and the doctor that I saw - Dr. Tyagi - also works at the Ridgecrest office, so I'm still doing you all a favor by writing this review.
AVOID THIS PLACE LIKE THE PLAGUE! Really. Don't go in at all, ever. Maybe the other doctors are competent, but I would highly doubt that. Dr. Tyagi was an okay guy, not unkind, but he has to be one of the most incompetent doctors I have ever seen. I don't write that to be unkind, but he lied to get me in by telling my referring doctor that he was knowledgeable about a particular disease when in reality, he is completely clueless about it. When my life is on the line, I take huge issue with that...be honest, care about the patient and be honest up front. Lying to get someone to come in shows that your concern is only about your bottom line (getting the insurance money and the copay) and not about helping patients. I went there only because I was forced to by another doctor, because I was literally dying. I can say in all honesty that my health was only worsened by High Desert Gastroenterology, my bank account was severely lightened, and the man has no business doing what he does because he knows nothing about certain diseases, and he will tell you as much, but only after he has made sure to wrack up thousands of dollars in medical bills first. The place that they send you for testing is, as my dad described it, like a welfare office. No offense to anyone who has to go to a welfare office, but that's not the vibe that I want when I'm going in for major GI testing. I certainly didn't get the benefit of paying welfare prices...I paid top dollar for that stellar experience.
Also, they cannot figure out how to credit the money that you pay them, so their billing is always a mess, and somehow that becomes your problem. Additionally, you will never, ever be able to get a hold of anyone when you call, so good luck in fixing it. And if you have a question for the doctor or nurse? Good luck with that, too - they will never, ever call you back. But actually, it won't even matter, because the doctor will be completely unable to figure out how to properly treat your condition anyway.
And (yes, there's more) my insurance was billed for things that never, ever happened. I'm still dealing with that. I retrieved my records and the doctor included all kinds of things that he supposedly checked, but he didn't do any of those things at all. I had two office appointments with him and each appointment was 3-5 minutes long, and it is saddening to see all that was sent to the insurance for those three minutes (when none of it happened). If you value honesty and you take issue with having your insurance billed for things that did not happen, go elsewhere.
Do yourself a favor and avoid High Desert Gastroenterology entirely. Really, you want to avoid any doctors that practice in the AV, but that is another story for another day. The right gastroenterologist who will know what he's doing is at Cedars, or maybe even UCLA. Make the drive. read more