Let me start by saying Dr. Chirinos's office staff was wonderful, super friendly, answered all my…read morebilling questions, returned my calls promptly, and helped me set up my appointment very easily.
Dr. Chirinos himself was a very friendly older man, he took the time to look over my medical history that I had brought with me, he asked me questions to get a better idea of what was going on, and spent a lot of time explaining the many things that it could be. He did everything you'd want a doctor to do.
So why the 3 stars you ask?! Well here's why:
1.) My wait time was a lot longer than I expected (like 45 mins) considering I was the only person in the office when I arrived that morning, and they took someone else (who arrived after me) in before me, that drives me absolutely crazy. I could see if the person was going through something serious, but from the convo we had while he had his 5 minute wait, he seemed perfectly fine to me. Just saying...
2.) Although Dr. Chirinos did take the time to answer and ask questions, at the end he suggest I get a procedure Esophagogastroduodenoscopy (EGD), where he would look around in my tummy to see what was going on, maybe even take some samples to test as well. Sounds good right??? That's what I thought too..until I found out how much this "simple" procedure costs. Let's just say I have a deductible to meet and I would've have been paying a lot out of pocket, not exactly $ I have lying around. To the credit of Dr. Chirinos, my insurance plan isn't his responsibility. I get that. What I didn't like was that when I asked if there were alternative testing we could try, or even alternative medicine I could test out before going through with this, I got a polite N-O and was told to call back when I could afford the procedure...
Now I'm no doctor, but as a medical professional whose specializes in GI issues, I would have at least expected to be given 1 or 2 other options besides the EGD. Is that too much to ask?! Me thinks not!
Either way, I will most likely be going to see another specialist before coming back here, If they all try to give me the same story, I will come back and let you know. If you don't see an update to this post, let that be your answer.
The moral of this story: If you have the $$$ to do expensive procedures Dr. Chirinos is your man, if you need other more budget friendly options first before jumping in head-first, you may want to look elsewhere.
