While Dr. Gaddam has a good bedside manner and seems very intelligent, this office leaves a lot to be desired. Mainly, their follow up is crap and my appointment took up several hours of my day.
Setting up my initial appointment was way too difficult. My initial draft included the details, but I'll spare you all the back and forth and say it took almost an entire month for them to "receive" the referral. It was sent by the referral management team the first week of November and I was notified they would contact me directly within the week. When they didn't I followed up by the 8th day, I called but nobody answered. That's a running theme, nobody answers the phone.
I left a detailed message with my information, the referring doctors info and that I was trying to find out their openings in the next several weeks. I got a message back from Cat, who was very professional, basically saying they didn't have a referral for me and to contact the originating doctor. This basically happened three times and the referral company was frustrated and said this was a constant problem with this provider.
Since I have dealt with that specific representative for referrals in the past without issue, I believed her and asked if I could be referred elsewhere. Hey, guess what? Endocrinologists are basically unicorns in this area. Anyways, she eventually went straight to the manager and I finally got a call from Precision Endocrinology during Thanksgiving week.
I made an appointment for the first Friday of December. They called me several days before with a reminder. I called and left a message asking them the cost, but never received a call back. They charged me at the visit, but based on insurance coverage, it looks like they charged me incorrectly. It's been 2 months and I still haven't received the updated bill.
I was asked to arrive 30 minutes early to the appointment, but knowing I wouldn't make it from work quite that early, I downloaded all the paperwork from their website and arrived with it filled out and ready to go. I arrived at 1:45pm for my 2pm appointment. I was taken to the exam room just before 2:10pm but didn't see the doctor until 2:42pm and then was told to stay for tests. I finally left well after 4pm.
I had been concerned about the Google reviews stating how rude the office staff is, but that wasn't my experience. A little too hands off and not super interested, but nobody was even slightly rude to me. The Quest lab they have at the office is staffed by very friendly and helpful people. That billing took about 6 weeks to arrive, so slower than the average location for sure.
I was a little uncomfortable that I could hear the entire consultation next door. I definitely heard the patient more clearly than the doctor so it may have been that he was hard of hearing and talking loud. Regardless, not very soundproof or private.
Dr. Gaddam appeared to be listening, but I had to repeat myself several times. This may be related to the fact that she uses a medical scribe, not sure since I don't have a lot of experience with those. I was also frustrated that they didn't seem to have all the lab results and information from the referral.
She seemed sympathetic and was quick to tell me my symptoms were the result of 2 different conditions. She said one was gastrointestinal and suggested I try an over the counter medication for 7-10 days. The rest of the symptoms seemed to be my thyroid and she ordered several tests.
She was right that they were 2 separate things as one of the symptoms (the one that didn't seem to match to the other specialist) seemed to be fixed. So she's clearly smart.
However, there was no follow up instructions given by her or the staff, no phone call, no email with the results, nothing sent to my PCP (despite the fact that I verified 3 times that they would). I was surprised when she didn't instruct me to setup the follow-up, but considered she might want to see the results first. After 9 days, I called and left a voicemail with her medical assistant about getting the results and finding out what the follow-up process would be.
She actually called me back while I was at work and left a message saying that Dr. Gaddam said both results were in normal range "so everything is fine." Knowing the symptoms, no everything is not fine, but whatever. I guess it's good news that I don't need to continue seeing an endocrinologist but damn, were they ever going to tell me?
I called back and asked her to confirm the results were sent to my PCP, no call back. Three weeks later, I called to confirm they had sent the results since I had an appointment with my PCP, and I still couldn't get confirmation.
There are worse offices out there and it's very convenient that they have a lab in the building. Dr. Gaddam also seems to know her stuff, but this place is a huge pain. If you're local, you won't have much of a choice, but don't make plans after your appointment and be ready to call constantly. read more