Unfortunately there is a word limit on these reviews, and the complaints about Dr. Ragona and the way he runs his practice are nearly limitless. First is a common complaint found on every single Dr.'s review site on the web. Your wait time for an appointment is nearly 2 hours on average, worse yet there has been many occasions, after you find yourself sitting for hours on end, a secretary or nurse will come over and inform you that he hasn't even showed up that day, and it's time to reschedule. Also be aware that if you find yourself on one of the nearly non existent occasions that he is there and running according to schedule; if YOU are even 10 minutes late, rescheduled!! Doesn't matter at all how many times you waited for him on previous visits, it's not about you, it's when he feels like working. And when he does work, expect every dangerous and unproven drug being forced upon you whether your comfortable with it or not. God forbid you have side effects, because then once again you'll find yourself subject to be ignored and rescheduled. At one point my wife was in a minor car accident and only needed a mild painkiller, instead she was prescribed an incredibly strong and dangerous opioid. She was literally in and out consciousnesses all CHRISTMAS EVE. We had to see another Dr. because as usual, he made himself unavailable. When the new Dr. seen what she was prescribed, he was very un-nerved and told her she was lucky she didn't overdose on one of the day's recommended dosages, let alone the other 3 prescribed. Furthermore he apparently paired that drug with another that are known to interact negatively together. I'm trying to stay within the word limit, so I guess the next useful advice is, according to him (or his "dedicated" work ethic), his facilities do not seem to have the correct equipment to treat anything! He's an internist but claims to not have the equipment to diagnose or treat anything that his professional title would suggest. In fact, I recently drove from my home in Chicago to an appointment in Joliet at his office to get a simple check up and blood drawn. When we were about ten minutes away, we called to politely inform them we were running 5-10 minutes late. We were told that would be fine and thanks for calling. When we arrived, He absolutely refused to see us, first stating it was because we were late, and then we were told that he doesn't deal with Chronic pain anyways. We were a little shocked because we were not there for anything to do with chronic pain. The nurse then went in the back, and she did do her best to try and get us in the appointment that was scheduled for us. She came back and said my wife had mentioned I had a stomach ache when she made the appointment. An internist that doesn't deal with a tummy ache!? That's considered chronic pain without hearing the patient's symptoms? We then nearly begged to keep our appointment because at least we could get the annual blood work done. Once again she went in the back to try and help us obtain what we had scheduled, what we drove 40 miles one way for, as well as my wife taking a half a day off of work for, and she came back and told us his response was, "There's an immediate care center down the street"!! As we sat there in the waiting room waiting for the nurse to run back and forth with each new excuse, we literally watched the next 5 patients come check in, each starting every introduction with, "I'm sorry I'm so late."! So instead of just simply finding a new Dr., I decided to write this review to hopefully save someone else the time of waiting, being treated unimportant, and possibly being prescribed a wrong medication. In conclusion, Dr. Brian Ragona is in the wrong field. His true calling is working at 1-800 doctors so that he can tell you everywhere else to go. read more
