My family had the unfortunate experience of meeting this doctor today, because a Charge Nurse did her job in trying to support the patient's rights to know more about his/her plan of care. We have never met such a poorly behaved doctor or a physician with absolutely ZERO or NO bedside manners.
Not only did this doctor shout at the charge nurse with an Asian name at Northwest Medical hospital. By the way, he did this with us standing next to her and at the nurse's station where other healthcare workers, family members were looking on. He remained seated in front of his computer and continued to state that he was too busy at the moment to speak to us or her (the nurse). She persisted a little and said that we only had a few questions about the patient's fever, blood culture and plan of care. He then noted, quite reluctantly, that he was the infectious disease doctor and was not the attending. Clearly he did not want to be interrupted when he took the time to tell us that much. We (the family) then asked why his services were needed and that's when he said they found a bacteria in her blood and he gave the patient antibiotics; then he walked back to his seat. Standing there in total shock and disbelief, we (the family) made sure he understood that his behavior was unacceptable. We have no idea what abnormalities were found in the blood work, possible sources for the bacteria or why our family member was still experiencing a fever. It was/is heartbreaking, especially when a family is going through a vulnerable situation with an aging member of the family fighting for life, but this type of behavior was just the worse. Whether or not this physician, and I am being generous by not calling him something worse, was having a good day or not...
Feeling marginalized and disempowered after leaving the hospital today, I was equally surprised to see that this was his philosophy on a public website:
Dr. Villalba's Care Philosophy
We practice with compassion and professionalism. We take care of patients who have HIV, Hepatitis, Lyme Disease, acute and chronic infections and travel medicine.
Overall, more needs to be done and communication and bedside manners are two fundamental services that are deathly lacking in this hospital overall and in this doctor. However, the RNs are/ were spectacular and are doing an outstanding job! read more