Aarchan R. Joshi, MD — Attraction in Redondo Beach

Do no trust something as sensitive and precious as your eyes with Joshi.

What was supposed to be a simple chalazion removal surgery left me with blurry vision and a scar. In my follow up appointment, looking for reassurance, I asked if my vision and the scar would improve the callous answer Joshi gave me was a repeated, “I hope so.” He then proceeded to tell me that he sees the surgery as a success because the bump is gone and that I should be grateful because I’m not going completely blind like another patient he saw that day. When I told him that I empathized with the fact that other patients may have worse ailments but I too am a patient with concerns that shouldn’t be belittled, he just stared at me. What good doctor compares patients concerns and ailments?

In hindsight the signs were there not to proceed with the surgery when I did.

The day of the procedure I was brought into the examining room – which ended up also being the surgical room – it was unsanitary. I don’t just mean old equipment that didn’t look maintained, I mean there were dust balls gathered up next to my head on the machine he would later use to light up my eye. It actually looked as though that room (or at least that area) hadn’t been cleaned in several months, likely longer. He also doesn’t use gloves when he is flipping your eyelids, etc.

Second, I asked for the option of the steroid injection and I was told he doesn’t do that. He only does surgery to remove the chalazion. And that surgery would be done day of. Okay, fine, if it was that fast it made me feel that it must be a very minor procedure. I was told I’d be fine to drive home after and that’s why they couldn’t give me a relaxer to help with the numbing injection (later I learned many doctors at least put a numbing cream on to help with the pain) – which was one of the worst pains I have ever felt, including childbirth.

Joshi told me I would be cut only from the inside of the eyelid. But as he was performing the procedure he seemed rushed as he was talking to the young man shadowing him when he decided he needed to cut me from the front as well. Not communicating any of this with me, I only picked it up from his conversation with the young man. He would only communicate with me when I would interject to ask questions like, “I’m sorry, did you say you now need to cut from the outside?”

I kept trying to trust the process. But when he was done, I had to be the one the ask him questions about aftercare. And only then was I prescribed something extra. And still was not given clear instructions. When his nurse came in she seemed stunned. She told me I was bleeding more than normal. I asked her if I needed my eye patched and she said no because it needed to air. A person on his staff couldn’t even look me in the eye when they said, “I’m sorry he did this to you.”

Despite my eyelid still bleeding, I walked out to leave. The doctor saw me in the hallway and he too had a horrified look and rushed me back into the room where he then patched up my eye – I hope for good reason and not to hide the horror show my face looked like.

He gave me no clear instructions for aftercare, it was only after I reached out to my PCP/GP two-weeks later that I got a call from his office telling me I should have stopped my drops and ointments after 4-days. They scheduled me for an appointment that day only to have him not care about the fact that I had questions about my impaired vision and scarring. He began raising his voice when all I wanted was reassurance that things would improve.

If you are looking for a narcissist who will rush and botch and expect you to praise and thank him, this is your guy. If you are looking for quality and a doctor who actually cares about you, your time and your concerns, go somewhere else. This guy is a hack who...

Shame on me for thinking the patient care at this office would ever get better. I swear each time that I am going to find another doctor, but Dr. Joshi came recommended by my rheumatologist so that he could monitor my vision for potential changes/deterioration caused by medication I needed to control my autoimmune disorder. I was reluctant to begin the process of finding a new doctor and starting the process of establishing a relationship with them all over. In hindsight, I should have done just that, several years ago. I started developing symptoms, likely from the medication, last year and Dr. Joshi administered an OCT, declaring that I definitely had vision loss from the medication. He seemed surprised that I was taking the medication, although the ONLY reason I saw him on a yearly basis, was to test for this situation. This OCT test is apparently something he should have been doing all along, but didn't do it until I had been his patient for more than five years. At that point, I had been taking the medication for nearly nine years and had been his patient for 5 of those years. I truly believe he should have caught the situation earlier, before my vision was damage beyond repair. Now I must see a retina specialist to follow the situation and hope that the condition does not worsen. Obviously, I will not be returning to Dr. Joshi's practice and I would caution anyone looking for an opthamologist to consider this review. I blame Dr. Joshi for my vision degrading to the level it is and for not administering the proper test, that could have caught it before it got to this point. On top of everything else, I have never spent less than 3 hours in his office waiting - the staff are all rude and they obviously don't value anyone else's time. Seriously, why make an appointment if you have to typically wait more than an hour to see the doctor?? If I could give this doctor and his practice 0...

This is one of the absolute worst medical offices I have ever been to. I went in on a recommendation for my Childs eye injury for a simple follow up. I was told to be there 15 minutes ahead of time but when we got there the staff was at lunch. So began the waiting. My appointment was at 1340. At 1410 I went to ask possibly how much longer it would be as I had another appointment at 1500. The receptionist was nice enough but when he asked the back office staff-they rudely said that they had pts in rooms and other patients to see and they had no idea how much longer it would be. No apology. No acknowledgement of my time wasted. Nothing. Just that they had no idea. So after an hour of waiting, I made an appointment at another facility and we left. If I could give this place negative starts I would. Awful...