Women’s & Children’s Health

Plamen Dotchev, review:
I can’t say too much about the doctor and his practice as I have only gone to two visits, but I can surely tell about my experience during these two visits. Keep in mind that I’m self-​paying patient, paying cash, so I am carefully calculating all of the expenses very seriously.
Visit 1. I came on time, even a little bit earlier as the first-​time patient and needed to fill-​out some paperwork. I was taken in by the nurse 45 minutes after my appointment time, then I was seated in the patient room and was waiting and waiting and waiting (for about another 40 minutes) until the doctor finally came in to see me. The doctor seemed to be nice and comforted me, but I was already upset about the waiting time. Why schedule appointments if patients are taken care of an hour and a half later??? Well, back to the story… The doctor sort of explained the processes and procedures and did the first ultrasound. After that, I raised the concern about a certain thing and he told me to collect the urine and once the results from the lab will come in, he would call me. That call was never received. I had to call myself one week later to find the results.
My next appointment was scheduled two weeks after the first visit. When asked why so early because until 6 months, if there are no complications, appointments are to be scheduled every 4 weeks, no clear response was given?!
Visit 2. Again, came on time, and was seen by the doctor an hour and 15 minutes later. So here we go again… The doctor said that he wants to do a second ultrasound to see how the baby is growing, but at the first appointment he said that there will be needed only 3 ultrasounds (in the beginning, in the middle, and at the end of the pregnancy). So why would he not say something different on the first appointment if he would have wanted to do ultrasounds more often? Each ultrasound is $ 300, not everybody can afford it at every visit, you know?! Ok, so once I refused to do the ultrasound, there was nothing else that he seemed to have an interest to talk about.
During the first visit I was told about the down syndrome tests, etc. During my second visit I told the doctor that I am not interested in performing the tests because even if it happens that my child will be diagnosed with down syndrome (which happens 90% of the time for most women by the way!!!), I am not going to kill the baby at 26 weeks into pregnancy by doing an abortion. The doctor got so aggravated and started to throw sarcastic jokes which were completely inappropriate and disrespectful. This was my choice and I felt like it should have been respected.
Having enough stress already, I still needed to do the lab work (which could have been done all at the first visit, but no, he of course, wanted me to pay for the second visit in which we got nothing accomplished, what was a waste of my money!!!)
The nurse does not know how to draw blood!!! She pricked me 2 times and still could hardly take a good sample of my blood. I am healthy 26 years-​old woman, don’t smoke, don’t do drugs, don’t drink alcohol. The nurse just could not find the vein. But not only she could not find the vein, once the needle was inside of me she was moving it around to find the vein. Nobody does that! Maybe it’s time for her to get herself a phlebotomist license or go back to school to learn how to draw blood properly! I am a former medical assistant myself, so I know what I’m talking about when it comes to drawing blood. On top of everything that I’ve experienced during that visit, the nurse asked me to hold the needle because she needed to change the tubes. Excuse me?! You don’t ask that your patients. If you need to fixate a needle, you tape it.
My experience: long wait times, nobody calls you back to let you know the lab results, doctor is not professional when it comes to making personal comments, doctor does not show any respect to your personal decisions, nurse is not competent at drawing blood, trying to take as much money from you as possible even when there is no serious need in it.
I don’t want to judge whether or not the doctor is good or bad. I’ve presented my situation for your review and you can determine for yourself whether or not you would want to go see that doctor.
By the way, within the next several weeks I switched to a different obgyn and am completely happy with that choice, as my new doctor completed all of the REQUIRED tests that are needed to be done as soon as the pregnancy is established and she went above and beyond at explaining everything that I needed to know.
Good luck to you ladies in making smart decisions to choosing a good obgyn!