Patient
Extremely rude and condescending doctor! I went in with my 18 yr old son for a consult due to some chest pain and palpitations he had been having. He had had some testing (EKG, echocardiogram and Zio patch) prior to the visit. Initially, he did ask my son relevant questions related to his symptoms. Somehow though, he got off track, asking my son if he uses creatine. My son answered that he does, off and on, and the doctor launched into this tirade about it. "Why??" My son answered, and it turned into an argument, this grown man, a doctor, arguing with a teenager. He told him it's a scam, it's waste of money, nobody regulates it. Now I'm not against him educating him on what dangers he believes there to be, but the way he did it was completely confrontational and condescending. He's a pediatric doctor--you'd think he'd know how to relate and talk to a young person in a way that is conducive to learning. He literally told him, as he had to get the last word, "Okay, risk your life then." I am a nurse practitioner, and I have already spoke to my son about not over using creatine and making sure he drinks plenty of water to avoid kidney failure, and he does. Unless we are asking the doc to buy it for him, it's not his business to be THAT invested, talking about wasting money, that he'd argue with a patient. Especially since he turned around at the end of the visit and told him that creatine is NOT responsible for any of his symptoms and will not harm the heart (which we already knew). When I brought up a concern I had regarding his echo results, he dismissively waved his hand at me and said, "it's nothing." Which is great, and I believe him, but then he went on to tell me, "I wish they'd stop reporting this. This is a normal variance. You know why they report it? They only report it because they're hoping to get paid more if there is something abnormal. They can try to bill it as a higher level of care and get more money. I just kind of looked at him and shrugged, like "okay...." And he repeated himself, said it all again. I was like "okay, well I didn't pay more for the report so..." Let's move on, sheesh. He wrapped up with telling us the chest pain was likely musculoskeletal (which I don't think so because the pain was not reproducible with palpation and came and went out of nowhere), and he was not concerned. Then he says "and that's all I've got for you." Like just an abrupt stop to the visit. Okay... we were glad to get out of there. I looked at the chart note later and saw he documented the history and symptoms completely inaccurately, saying his pain lasted a few days when he was clearly told it had happened for about a month intermittently, he documented "no dizziness" when my son sat there and very clearly reported an episode of dizziness. He also felt it necessary to chart, in these exact words, "I suggested avoiding creatine but that suggestion appears to have fallen on deaf ears." He left out the part where he argued with a kid. Could've just left it at "I suggested avoiding creatine." Anyway, I'd probably trust his expertise, but his bedside manner is garbage & for that reason, I'd hesitate to recommend or refer my patients.