Dr. Mellman is a nice guy, but as a doctor I would not recommend him. Considering my experience with Dr. Mellman, I now think it's likely that those who rated him so highly must be his friends or relatives, or perhaps staff. I had wondered why some reviewers lived so far away.
I went to Dr. Mellman after reading great reviews, esp about how thorough he was and how he took the time to get to the bottom of the problem behind the symptoms. His office is clean and attractively decorated. He was very nice and personable. I was disappointed, however, that he didn't do anything at all to help me.
He didn't let me list my symptoms, instead he cut me off and said he wanted to take it one thing at a time. Because I kept expecting that after the tests were done I would get treatment or some sort of help, I kept going back. Later, I realized that was a foolish waste of time, though.
Rather than spending the time to figure out the problem, after only a few minutes he said, "I'll be back in a moment" and left the room. After waiting for a while, I looked out the door to see how much longer it would be before he came back. The staff looked at me as if to say, What are you waiting for? and said, "The doctor is with another patient."
"He said he'd be right back."
The staff gave me another look and said, "You're done." She gave me an order for bloodtests.
On another visit, he said he had to get something and he'd be right back. Same story, he left and went to see another patient. That seems very unprofessional, especially because he'd only been in the room a few minutes, not an extended time.
I got a new computer and could no longer receive emails on their system, although I still would receive alerts to my gmail address. Since the alerts were from a NOREPLY address, I couldn't write his office except through their system. I could still send emails through the system, so I wrote that no matter what I tried, I could no longer open their messages, and asked them to please send messages to my gmail.
How did they respond? They sent more messages to me through the system. I kept getting alerts that they had sent another message. I called and told them, but they kept sending messages through the system that I couldn't open. I called again, asking that they either use gmail, postal mail, or call me--because I could not open their messages sent through their system. I heard a voice in the background and then the staff told me: "He says we'll only mail things to you if you provide us with envelopes and postage."
I went back to find out the results of the bloodtests. He started to leave again after only a few minutes, before he had explained anything or offered information or treatment. I said that I hadn't had a chance to tell him my symptoms. He said, "We've talked about a few things." That was very much like saying if you'd mentioned your hand, you'd talked about 7 things--5 fingers, your palm, and the back of your hand.
Then, I had an incident that led me to go to Urgent Care. They sent me to the Emergency Room where they performed several tests. The ER doctor said, "We're done here, but this isn't finished. You need to follow up with a regular doctor." So, I went back to Dr. Mellman, because I was in pain, worried, and hoping things would be better.
He sent me for an MRI. Then he simply announced that the MRI showed that I had a "fairly severe" (as he put it) painful condition. He did not offer me ANY other information or treatment options. I was too stunned to hear about my condition and didn't ask. Later, I called his office and said that I wanted to try therapeutic massage. His staff said that Dr. Mellman said I had to come in (and pay for yet another office visit) and he'd consider it.
So, I'd paid for several office visits and tests and gotten NOTHING but an announcement that I had "a fairly severe" painful condition. Wish I could have met the doctor described in other reviews. I could sure use a doctor like that. read more
