Piss off
My siblings took my mother off to Stamford Hospital to be evaluated by that institution’s neurologist and “stroke expert”, one Dr. Evangelos Xistris. Their unanimous report was that the guy couldn’t have cared less and was uninterested, cold and absolutely useless in either offering a prognosis or advising on her care. My sister had stayed over (she’s been here from California, helping out) and one brother skipped work and came out from NYC for this long-awaited appointment, so they were less than impressed by the doctor’s attitude.
And we disturbed and angered my very confused mother by dragging her from familiar surroundings to visit with this man – in all, an unhappy set of campers here in Riverside. Any suggestions?
Zoher Ghogawala right here in Greenwich. Except I heard he is cutting back on his practice in order to teach or research or something. My heart goes pitter patter just thinking about the way he dealt with my mother a couple of years ago.
Thanks, Dogwalker. We’ll try.
I know you didn’t care for YOUR Yale Hospital experience but they have a great Stroke Center. Since Greenwich Hospital is part of the Yale group, maybe one of their docs makes regular visits to Greenwich, or can be asked to come to Greenwich, to see your mother. I do not know any one of these docs myself, but I have some friends in Essex, CT who have gone to this stroke center and liked the doctors very much. I know going to New haven is a pain and maybe your mom isn’t up for it, so I hope the doc that dogwalker recommended works. So much easier to stay local.
http://www.yalemedicalgroup.org/YMG/directory/public/organization.asp?orgID=109603
Your blog post is confusing. Please provide more details
EOS, I thought I received excellent care at Yale New Haven – my only complaint was the filthy bathroom in my room and since I was knocked out for my entire stay I only saw it as I was leaving so it had no affect on my care. Greenwich Hospital itself, I’m not so fond of.
I think it’s self-explanatory.
Okay, that’s it. I forgot about the bathroom. I knew there was something you didn’t like. And I remind all of you who complain about Greenwich Hospital, think Northern Westchester Hospital. Now there’s reason number one never to get sick. The brother of my son’s girlfriend fell skiing and is having surgery at NWH today. I said to her, he’s having surgery HERE??? And on his spine no less. Fly me to Manhattan, or the moon, but not NWH. So count your Greenwich Hospital blessings.
When Mom had her stroke 21 years ago, Dr. Walter Camp here in Greenwich was her neurologist. He was friendly, warm, and very knowledgeable–we liked him a great deal. He even made a few house calls shortly after Mom was released from Greenwich Hospital. Not sure he’s still practicing, however as he’s probably close to 80 by now.
Hello.
My mother was given six months to live with a diagnosis of Congestive Heart Failure. She lived 11 years under the care of the doctors at St. Francis on Long Island. This is an amazing hoital specializing in cardiac issues.
Dr. Jesse weinberger at Mt. Sinai in NYC. For neuro issues, there is no facility or staff better.
Dr Ghogowala’s partner Dr Andrea Douglas and you get Greenwich Hospital!
A dirty bathroom is a small price to pay for being in an excellent facility such as yale New Haven Hospital with top doctors that actually know how to cure and not kill!! Greenwich Hospital is only good if you are not sick and don’t need the care of a competent physician. I hope your Mom finds someone good and I am sorry I don’t know anyone to recommend. I knew Dr. Xistris ex wife who was a bitch- must run in the family!
Dr. Alice Rusk is a wonderful neurologist – kind, compassionate and female too. A Greenwich native.
We are always quick to be a subjective critic of our doctors. We diss them quicker and more rudely than you would probably talk to your plumber. All you should care about is two things.
Did he get the diagnosis right?
Did he get the treatment plan right?
These are two objective things you should worry about. When all you evaluate are subjectives, you always lose.
Most doctors are pretty well fed up with the whining, demanding, critical, and disrespectful patients out there. They are making many good doctors say adios, you jerks. The replacement doctors over the next 20 years are largely going to be Indians and other immigrants grateful for the opportunity to work here but will get only compensation about half of what doctors need to just keep par.
When Dr. Gupta will see you next is the common office mantra, you will reconsider your subjective attitude and maybe thank your doctor for still willing to see you and your judgemental family.
Most doctors are pretty educated and could have chosen any path (including those compensated like rock star hedge funders). But they took this path and have to put up with crap from people while getting compensated squat.
You will only miss it when you no longer have it.
I am not normally a doctor lover but your subjective rant is typical of a minority of patients that really piss off the medical providers.
Dr, Z. Gogwala (sp) has a female partner who is supposed to be fantastic.
Ghogawhala is a neurosurgeon who is moving up to Boston so sadly, despite the great talent and bedside manner he has, he’s not your man.
Fred Nahm is excellent as is Alice Rusk, both here in Greenwich and Nahm runs the stroke team. I’m sure Yale and NYC have “stroke experts” who proclaim to the be the second coming but Alice and Fred are not only great doctors, they know who to use and who not to use locally if they recommend a course of therapy and rehab.
is the stroke center at Greenwich Hospital any good? here’s the link.
http://www.greenhosp.org/neurology/stroke-center
dr camp still in practice. dr. alice rusk is his associate
I advised you several years ago to get your mother into the VA health system, which has a fairly full service clinic on Summer St in Stamford. In the end, it was a great thing for my mother, also a War Service vet.
Cobra, Dr. Camp was still practicing at least as of a few months ago.
Greenwich Medical Group should be able to help I hope
There was no diagnosis he cared to share, even though he “treated” her at the time of he stroke.
He suggested no treatment plan
His prognosis? “She’ll get better in a year, or she won’t – pay my rceptionist on the way out”.
I don’t like him.
CF, bc’s advice of Drs. Camp/Rusk sounds good. All arguments for Yale NH aside, having a facility like G’wich Hosp. close by for your mother is all-important — for you but especially for her. Home for anybody is vitally meaningful, but it is especially so for women. I don’t know why but I speak from experience with my own mother and mother-in-law, both of whom had a certain quality of life that disappeared as soon as they were taken from their home for “quality” medical care that required them to live someplace else. Both died within a year.
If your mom is able to live at home — and you’re able to manage that — and a therapist can come to her, her chances of living well and recovering are better, IMO, than if you remove her from her home.
btw, My husband worked for years with psychiatric patients at Stamford Hospital, so he knows his way around doctors. In caring for his mom, he ran into a wide assortment, including dickheads like Xistris. So, ignore @You just wait!
Alice Rusk is a highly intelligent and lovely person. She has a whole house full of boys and is not a one-dimensional person. But remember that neurosurgeons are more about the science and not necessarily the bedside manner. You have to keep in mind how incredibly brilliant these people are. Also, check out Paul Apostolides. Funniest smart guy I ever met.
Your kindly doctor is not to be found. Little wonder. His malpractice insurance now consumes a months salary. HMO now control the workplace. And you want the past? Now you get providers, not doctors. Get a concierge plan, pay 20K on top of premium and you get what you pay for. No tears for you on this one.
Sounds a lot like what ObummerKare promises: one tier of low service for the proletariat, another for givernment workers with their own insurance program.So Obummer is making things better how?
If the man had spent as much as 2 minutes suggesting treatment options, helping us plan our home care routine to facilitate her recovery, mentioned one of the new treatments on the horizon mentioned by Charlie Rose’s experts, addressed our concerns as the sole caregivers of a treasured woman struggling for her health…We needed professional counsel on her ongoing care…, we did not get it. That does not seem too much to ask an expensive neurologist. We are normally very respectful to Dr.’s.
Dr Rusk, mentioned already, is my doctor. Young, reassuring, positive, extremely competent. Absolutely first class.
One month’s salary on Malpractice?? I wish. My husband is a Spine Surgeon and his malpractice premiums in NY were $125,000/year. No. That’s not a typo, but that is why he left NY last year for a job in Houston. They passed tort reform in Texas. His new malpractice premiums are $25,000/year. I will miss living in this part of the country, but we were going broke. It’s sad, but true.
i remember when being a doctor was a good job.
sadly what ‘you just wait’ said early is spot on:
“The replacement doctors over the next 20 years are largely going to be Indians and other immigrants grateful for the opportunity to work here ”
your complaint seems purely subjective.
just a little theory of mine,
the nicer the doctor is , the worse of a doctor he/she is from a clinical standpoint.
i’d rather my doctor help me stay healthy than be my friend.
You’re missing the point – he was neither helpful nor friendly, so what good is he?
Not all doctors don’t care. You just have to be lucky.
Seek advice from those recommended above.
Found a good blog that isn’t on your blogroll;
http://lorinhart.wordpress.com/
The world of the leisurely, engaging, caring, relaxed doctor helping their patients understand their lengthy medical situation is long gone. “You Just Wait”, and “Marcus Welby” and “Anonymous” are absolutely correct. Doctors do not get paid much at all anymore, they have to fight the insurance companies and uncomprehending patients for every dollar, and there is certainly not enough time to spend hours with patients when they have the paperwork, government oversight, billing, malpractice attorney sharks, etc to deal with. There will definitely be a 2 tier system…those that can pay out of pocket (with some insurance to pay for catastrophic situations), and those that must always rely on basic insurance, which has been eroding payments to doctors for years. And the cost of a medical education is about $250,000 as of today, and with the years of additional residency training means that doctors do not start practice or earning an income until they are in their 30′s!! Who do you really think is going to be able to afford that kind of education and training? I can assure you that most doctors do not encourage their children to be in the medical profession. It is so sad, since it used to be a revered, respected profession. The public needs to be more aware of this…because the insurance companies are screwing the doctors and the people! I could go on and on…….
Hope your mom is feeling better . Sorry you are all going through this.
Anonymous: “A dirty bathroom is a small price to pay for being in an excellent facility such as yale New Haven Hospital with top doctors that actually know how to cure and not kill!”
Since 2003, I’ve had three friends and relatives who had surgery at Yale New Haven. ALL THREE got serious post-op staff infections. One lost the use of his leg, one had to have a large part of his infected skull removed and replaced with wire mesh, and one died of liver failure (but not from the staff infection as far as I know.)
The best docs in the world are no good to you if there isn’t effective infection control.
That was my reaction, Jeff. Great doctors and nurses (I assume so, anyway – I was out during the procedure itself and most of the next three days) but when I came to and saw that bathroom, it shook my confidence. I have a friend who lost his leg due to a staph infection incurred in a British hospital and the problem is world-wide and getting worse. Cleaning bathrooms would be just a small step in addressing the problem, but an advancement nonetheless. What’s that old joke: “the operation was a success but the patient died”? Not so funny, these days.
We’re sorry to hear your experience with Dr. Xistris did not meet your expectations. A representative from Stamford Hospital will contact you to learn more and to determine how can correct the situation.
Keeping surfaces clean and washing hands each time you go in and out of a patients room costs money, but it is very effective. (I never saw a doctor or nurse or staff member wash their hand entering or leaving a room at Yale.) I guess that this is how they keep their prices so low.
In the Netherlands, every time a hospital infection happens it is investigated, and if anyone was negligent they face disciplinary measures. If funds were missing from a hospital’s bank account they would investigate the loss promptly; why shouldn’t our hospitals treat patient safety as carefully as they treat their bank accounts?
Monitoring infections also lets the Dutch use epidemiology as an infection-fighting tool. This has been very successful: http://www.ijic.info/article/download/3552/3773