05/01/09

Not A Good Experience

by SCott

I was referred to Dr. Hoffman by my primary care doc, who I think is quite good. I needed knee surgery. My total "face time" with Dr. Hoffman, which amounted to four or five appointments -- including diagnosis and the surgery -- added up to about 10 minutes. The doctor was incredibly rushed, running from room to room. When I went for my follow-up appoinment (post-surgery), he didn't even have me take off my pants to look at my knee. He scrunched up the leg of my jeans, glanced at and palpated the knee and said, "Looks great. Come back and see me in three weeks." I ended up developing severe sciatic pain on the opposite side from hobbling around. I was in a lot of pain. I called Dr. Hoffman's office three times (Friday, Saturday, and Monday) and did not receive a call back until the end of the day Tuesday -- and it was his assistant who called me (purportedly the doctor was on vacation, but shouldn't there be someone covering for him?). By then -- at my wit's end -- I had contacted my primary care doctor, who responded immediately and called a prescription in to the pharmacy. I decided to forgo my "Come back and see me in three weeks" follow-up appointment. As I told my primary care doc, "That guy's not getting another dime from me." A frustrating and disappointing experience. I would not recommend Dr. Hoffman to anyone.

05/12/07

Avoid!!!

by bethsch

Terrible experience. I went to Dr. Hoffman with a broken arm. He left the cast from the emergency room on but charged me for putting on a new cast. Then he had to replace the cast twice in three weeks (each time he charged me again) and the second time he wrapped the ace bandage around the cast so tight I literally had gouges under my arm. He also made comments like "I like to cause you pain" when putting on the new casts. They were meant to be jokes but weren't funny. Also would answer my questions with jokes rather than information. After 4 weeks I finally wised up and went to another orthopedist who thought I might need to have surgery because it was set so badly. Luckily the new orthopedist (who is great) was able to fix it without surgery, but I basically lost 4 weeks of healing. And I'm still trying to clear up the billing mess. This was the WORST experience I have ever had with a doctor!

• Pros: Got a first appointment quickly
• Cons: Set arm wrong, billed for services not provided, sadistic jokes, didn't answer questions