Dr. Bhupinder Bhandari

 

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Mark S.

Newark, CA

Dr. Bhandari practices Gastroenterology and Internal Medicine in Fremont and Hayward, California. I was referred to him by my primary care physician after complaining of persistent pain in my stomach, following several surgeries done under a previous employers health insurance plan.
Anyway, after 8 months, i still have no idea what is causing the pain, although I've had a colonoscopy.
But that is not the reason for the low rating. It  results from a series of unpleasont office visits to the Fremont location, leading me to believe that the good Doctor has bitten off me than he can chew.
The desk staff is friendly if over taxed by the noisy and over crowded waiting room. The one restroom in the waiting room no longer works, but it's no loss, since it was filthy the times it was functioning during my visit.
The staff is candid and resigned to the fact that the patient, even with an appointment faces a long wait, and they are going to bear the brunt of the frustration.  They also seem to do a large walk-in business.
After signing in and making the appropriate co-pay - cash or check only, no credit card, or prepaid medical plan debit card.
Eventually you are called into an exam room, where they take your blood pressure and other vital signs. They then do an extensive medical history review, even though they have your file in front of them. They ask the most basic questions, even asking if you've had tests that Bhandari's office has administered! They frequently don't seem familiar with common procedures or medications - I'd would bet just about anything that these are some sort of students or other trainees at this point of the process.
Eventually you are brought to a typical exam room, where you have another, albeit quieter, long wait for the Dr. Mine have never been less than 30 minutes.
Once I was called from that room to another room where they had me do some sort of balance and perception test. I  got a real sense that it was some other practice paying Dr. Bhandari's office for the opportunity to conduct these "exams"; i fully expect to receive a call from some quack chiropractor down the road, offering to "fix" that terrible imbalance problem or some other scam. At least it helped while away the time. But that's what Sudoku is for.
But i digress.
The next to last time I had an appointment Bhandari finally showed up, with several student Dr.s in tow. He asked a couple of preliminary questions, and just as we were getting to something of substance, he was asked to pick up the phone by one if the staffers. From the half of the conversation I heard (he took the call in the exam room in my presence, there did not seem anything particularly urgent or compelling about the call making it imperative to interrupt an appointment in progress. And the rest of my appointment turned into "if it doesn't go away in a few more months, maybe we'll try something else". No further dialog took place.

And then 2 weeks ago for an appointment, which they gave me 10 days later. The next one would have been 3 weeks later. It was for 5:15.  Knowing my son was involved with something at Temple that I needed to attend by 6PM, I took the appointment, but showed up by 3:45. Knowing I had to leave, they had all the preliminaries done by 4:45.

I then proceeded to wait in the exam room for an hour. I finally went out , telling the staff I needed to leave. They asked me to wait - the Dr. was on his way to see me right now. Ten minutes later I still left. So now I was late for my son, and still haven't seen the Dr.
Tomorrow, i will return to Dr. Bhandari's office to retrieve all my medical records, and get a referral to another Dr.
Bhandari appears to have neither the skill or patient talent to justify his arrogance.

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