Hudson River Gastroenterology

I have been seeing Dr. Chattoo for almost 2 years and basically I think he is a good doctor. But his staff is the worst I have ever dealt with. I have had many problems, the latest of which is when I switched insurance this month. I had to get my meds pre-​approved. It has taken me over a week of calling them to get them to do what should be a very simple procedure. Today I finally got a call that my meds were approved and could pick them up at the pharmacy. When I got there it was the WRONG MEDICATION. Despite being in the middle of a procedure with him I will be switching gastroenterologists in the new year.

This man and his business are awful. Firstly, I was scheduled to come in on a Tuesday. I put things in my calendar the minute I schedule them because I forget appointments easily so I KNOW I was correct. As I was about to walk out of my office on this Tuesday I get a voicemail from Dr. Chattoo’s office «confirming my appointment for Wednesday.» I call and they don’t answer, so I leave a voicemail. An hour goes by and I get no phone call back, so I call again. Finally they pick up and I explain that my appointment was surely today to which they disagree. Okay SURE.
So I go in the next day and am getting blood work, etc., etc., and the nurse/​receptionist (somehow doing both jobs?) is ON HER CELL PHONE the entire time chatting it up with her friend. Then they leave me in a room that looks like an abandoned office to do a breath test for H. Pylori and I have to turn off the machine myself because it was about to void my results since it had been so long since anyone had come to check on me.
After my probably fake breath test (it honestly looked like a fax machine with a breathing tube attached) I go back to the dirty waiting room where the receptionists are giving attitude to everyone who calls and book my endoscopy for what Dr. Chattoo says is probably an ulcer.
We schedule my appointment for ⁵⁄₂₀. They call me on ⁵⁄₁₈ and leave a voicemail — the voicemail begins with the receptionist answering the phone as if I called her. Then she realizes her mistake, goes to start over and entirely forgets what she’s called about. She finally stutters out that they’ve cancelled my appointment and that they need to reschedule. I call back and am told by an angry receptionist that her colleague called me and will call me back in 10 – 15 minutes. No one ever calls. I call two hours later and get the voicemail. I call back the next day and finally get a hold of someone who says my insurance wouldn’t cover the entire procedure for that location but that I can get full coverage in their other location which makes no sense to me, but I agree anyway. The receptionist says she’ll call me back shortly after setting up the appointment with the receptionist at the other office. I never got a call back.
I’m calling in the morning to cancel the endoscopy all together. I’m also going to email my ENT and tell him I am incredibly INCREDIBLY disappointed with who he referred me to and that I won’t be coming back to him again either (Dr. Shawl was my ENT who also did nothing for me but prescribe a medicine that made me feel worse than I ever have).
Dr. Chattoo himself seemed tired, detached and annoyed. I highly advise anyone considering going to him to find a doctor who doesn’t seem like he wants to kill himself and who doesn’t work in an office that looks near collapsing. The receptionists are beyond awful. I’d sooner use a camera to look down my own throat than allow this person any access to my body in a sedated state.
STAY AWAY.

Their receptionist is an absolute joke. They scheduled me for 1 pm Wednesday and when I went in, they looked puzzled why I was there. They said, the doctor will be seeing me shortly. One hour has passed and when I ask the receptionist what’s wrong, then she finally confessed that she forgot to put me in to the appointment so I had to wait for an hour. The worst part was that she wasn’t apologetic at all. She gave me am attitude rather than apology. Where is the basic courtesy?

I want to clarify that this review is mostly referencing Dr. Chattoo’s gaggle of booking assistants.
I had 1 appointment and an endoscopic surgery through his office. Dr. Chattoo himself I have no verdict about, although the endoscopic surgery, including Dr Chattoo, was professional, experienced, and friendly.
With that said, be prepared for a big headache when dealing with the ladies up front. For my first appointment, one of the asisstant’s booked my appointment for the wrong day, so when I went for my appointment, the Dr. was not in the office. –1
When I re-​booked and scheduled my next appointment, I expressed the issue and the time was then booked properly.
After my endoscopic procedure, I needed a copy of my records, as I moved across states. Literally after my procedure, I requested a copy of my forms to be sent to me in the mail.
I never received a copy of my forms in the mail. –1
I quite literally had to call back more than 10 times, just to get the right procedure of getting my medical records SENT TO ME. That included a misinformed conversation between Jasmine, Carine, and Elsie. Twice promised on the phone that I would receive my medical records in an e-​mail. Twice I was told by someone else that that wasn’t possible, and I would have to sign a medical release form. When I was told that I was going to be e-​mailed a medical release form, it was not e-​mailed. I had to have a flurry of 4 calls in one day (today) to hopefully get my records sent to me. This included a call saying that I would be e-​mailed a medical release form, and then a call back saying I needed to send them an e-​mail in writing just requesting a medical release FORM, after verbalizing that I needed one on the phone. Absolutely ridiculous; after requesting a medical release FORM by phone, it does not violate any HIPPA laws for them to then send me a BLANK medical release form. –1
Horribly, horribly disorganized office, which was very disappointing. Neither of the girls that I spoke to were informed, of anything, really. Promises galore and no delivery, for simple callbacks, proper appointment times, and e-​mails.