Newport Heart Medical Group

I had a tough time rating my experience with Newport Heart. Part of my experience deserves a four or five star rating, but another would have to be a zero to one star. I was admitted to Hoag after going to the ER on May 10th of this year with bradycardia, an erratic low heart rate. I was seen by Dr. Carey L. O'Bryan at the hospital who scheduled me for a pacemaker and said since I didn't have a cardiologist he and Newport Heart would be my team. Dr. Edward Kim performed the procedure on May 12th and it went very well. Two weeks later, on May 31st, Dr. John Nan performed an angiogram and put in two stents. I was given blood thinners as is required after stent placement. It was also discovered I had a severe Aortic Stenosis and needed a heart valve replacement. I was scheduled for a TAVR to take place July 15th. I was feeling fine, given my valve situation, until June 23rd when I was again admitted to Hoag with stomach pain and severe weakness. I was diagnosed with a GI bleed which had caused my hemoglobin to plunge to 6.3. A normal number is 11 or 12. I underwent upper and lower GI tests. None of which could locate the site of the bleeding. I was in the hospital for six days, each of the cardiologists at Newport Heart saw me individually over the next day or two. Each looked alarmed and couldn't wait to get out of the room. Dr. O'Bryan was very curt and asked why the ER doctor had requested a CT scan of my head. I didn't have a clue. I said, 'Why don't you ask him?' It was bizarre. He quickly left the room. I never saw any of them again! Although, I was emailed that my TAVR had been rescheduled to August 19th. No one called or gave me a response. I was admitted two, maybe three more times for blood transfusions and testing. There was never a plan, no communication given. It was a strange situation. I wasn't getting any answers. Finally, my husband and two close friends demanded I go to Memorial Care in Fountain Valley. I hesitated because it was a small hospital and as a family we had been going to Hoag for decades. What a difference In patient care! I was admitted and the chief cardiologist Dr Sanjiv Patel came in that afternoon. We went over my case and he explained what had to be done. I asked if I could switch TAVR teams and he made it possible to get my valve replacement on July 31st even though the GI bleed was still ongoing. He figured it out and made it happen. Two weeks later, on August 12th, Dr Babak Firoozi located my GI problem and Dr Jose Aranez surgically repaired the problem. Both were just excellent. To sum it up, initially Hoag and Newport Heart saved my life and I'm thankful for that. However, I still don't understand why Dr O'Bryan couldn't have communicated with me. Or why Hoag kept sending me home with a hemoglobin count of eight, only to have me admitted again two days later on several occasions. Dr Patel, Diane Ison the TAVR coordinator, the doctors, nurses and staff at Memorial Care Fountain Valley are outstanding. I can't thank them enough. I'll end this by strongly suggesting that you seek another cardiac group if you're staying with Hoag. I heard Premier is a good one. I don't know if I could have switched within Hoag cardiac affiliates while at the hospital. I was too perplexed to even consider that. I also agree with other reviewers that the front desk at NP is really in need of an overhaul!

My Doctor is great, but the front desk/scheduling is awful. Had an appointment today; got there and was told it was canceled and that they had called me to reschedule. That was not the case; no one had called. Front desk person was truly rude. Spoke also with the office management; they really did not seem to care.

Terrible service for a Cardiac med group, are they trying to wait until you die? Front office staff is completely incompetent, does not return urgent calls, doctors are not available to return calls to post surgery patients and rely on front office to give the "knee jerk" response- "Go to the emergency room." Doctors fail to fully explain proceedure or what to expect post surgery. I am sorry that I got started with them and I will look to change as soon as possible. THERE ARE MANY FINE CARDIAC PROVIDERS IN THIS AREA, DON'T USE THIS ONE. Corporate mentality- you are just a number.

This is my second time for a regularly scheduled stress test at this location. I can't say enough about the professionalism of their entire staff. I not only felt at ease through the entire process but it couldn't have gone any faster. The technician Sandy's mannerisms and comforting attitude put everyone there going through this process completely comfortable. I applaud Sandy and the staff for taking so much care to make each person feel at ease when taking a test that's intended to create an atmosphere of stress in order to check where we are, health wise. Thank you for a job well done!

So far so good. No one picked up phone until afternoon but I kept at it. I got thru to a nice gal ! A good start after a slow day of getting a person.im imagining they are swamped , but no excuse. It would be nice if someone took messages for an afternoon call back.