The Oncology Institute — Attraction in San Gabriel

Dong Xiang was my father's oncologist when he was hospitalized in San Gabriel Valley Medical Center for 7 weeks (3/18-5/3). My father had a pancreatic mass and elevated CA19-9 when he was admitted so they suspected my father may have pancreatic cancer. During the 7 weeks, it was extremely challenging to get hold of Dong XIang to get an update on my dad's condition and treatment plan. I called every day and asked the nurse to notify him to call me, but wasn't able to get a response. There was also no way to leave a message for him as his office will ask me to just call back the second day. Even the hospitalist expressed the challenge in getting a response from him. The two times I was able to talk to him, the answers we received were "It is a mystery" or "It is a puzzle", with no hypothesis of what may be the cause or any plan to properly treat my father. My father started having platelet drop around 3/27 and when it was around 10, Dong Xiang ordered platelets for transfusion and when we asked about the plan, he simply said, "if your father doesn't get transfusion, he may die any moment from internal bleeding. But if that is what you want, I support you." I can not believe a doctor would say that to a patient's family. My father's platelet count restored to around 50 for a week, then it started dropping again on 4/17 and all Dong Xiang did was to keep increasing prednisone and keep transfusing platelets with no treat plan provided. We eventually asked the hospitalist if we should do bone marrow biopsy to rule out bone marrow issue and the hospitalist agreed but he was not able to get an answer from Dong Xiang until 5 days later. At that time, my father's platelets had dropped so much that Dong Xiang had to order three units of platelet transfusion in order for this hospital to do the biopsy. Before when my dad's platelets were stable around 50, the hospitalist then (Dr. Kristofer Wills) had suggested Dong Xiang to come over for a bone marrow biopsy since my dad also had anemia. Dong Xiang refused to come and asked us to see him outpatient for it after we are discharged. If he had come when needed, my father did not have to go through unnecessary platelet transfusion. Later Dong Xiang tried to boost our platelet count by keep transfusing platelets and we asked to speak to him before the transfusion but no response and the hospital transfused against our will. After a week our bone marrow biopsy showed no significant finding so I wanted to talk to Dong Xiang about prednisone taper plan as my father has been on it for more than 6 weeks at that point. Again, he told the hospitalist that we should just keep using prednisone and follow up with him outpatient after we are discharged. It is hard to understand why we could only see our oncologist outpatient when we are hospitalized in the hospital. Our hospitalist helped to arrange a second opinion oncologist (Dr. Ronald Tang and Dr. Weber Chen) to see my father. Both of them went through my dad's file thoroughly (Dr. Tang checked the blood under microscope and Dr. Chen checked all the images), they both agreed my dad does not have a blood disorder and the prednisone is not helping the platelet count from a hematologist standpoint. They both expressed concerns about the mass in my father's pancreas and Dr. Chen was so shocked that nothing was done for 7 weeks. If we had gotten Dr. Chen or Dr. Tang from the beginning or even a few weeks earlier, my dad would not have to suffer all these delay in treatment. We do not even know what effects he would get from prolong, unneeded steroid treatment. We eventually got my dad out of San Gabriel Valley Medical Center and went to St Jude, my dad was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer two days later. If we had trusted Dong Xiang or the hospital I don't even know if we could come out alive. Please avoid Dong Xiang at all cost, he is a doctor who puts financial gain before patient's health...

ABSOLUTELY INCOMPETENT and HORRIBLE DOCTORS, OFFICE STAFF, AND MANAGER. Their malpractice and negligence had delayed my cancer treatment by more than a month.

Dr. Howard Yeh told me to come in 6/16 to determine whether I would need additional chemotherapy. When I arrived for the appointment, he asked me for my PET scan results BUT I had no PET scan results because he FORGOT to authorize a PET scan for me. So I asked him if he could at least tell me the results of the two blood tests he had me take prior to my appointment. But when he looked at the tests, he realized he FORGOT to order cancer markers as part of the blood tests, and instead was only checking white blood cell count. He tried to blame it all on the office instead of taking accountability.

I booked a blood test for the next day, but because of Yeh’s malpractice, the soonest PET scan appointment I could get was a MONTH later. TOI couldn’t do anything to help me so I had to call other places myself looking for a sooner appointment but I would first need to find an appointment, get a new authorization for the new facility, cancel the old authorization, call back the new facility and hope that the appointment didn’t get booked in the meantime.

The Oncology Institute manager Ana Barrilas said she would everything she could to help me ONLY AFTER I mentioned that taking legal action against Yeh may be necessary. She promised to call me back and told me that I could text her anytime and she would get back to me or have someone at the office get back to me. HOWEVER, most of it was lip service. She wasn’t able to get me a sooner PET scan even though this was a result or Dr. Yeh’s incompetence. FURTHER, I was the one who had to call her back anytime I wanted an update on anything. She would promise to call me and then leave me hanging for days.

Luckily I was able to get a PET scan because another patient cancelled, NOT because Ana did anything to help.

Then when I FINALLY got a PET scan, Yeh went on vacation BEFORE looking at the results!!!

If you value your physical and mental health, go elsewhere for treatment. Dr. Howard Yeh is incompetent and negligent. Ana Barillas lies and pays lip service in order to try to placate you so that you don’t rightfully sue the hell out of their doctors for malpractice and negligence. She does her best to deceive you and appear sincere, but she consistently breaks her word. She doesn’t...

My mother had the worst terrible experience at this Oncology Institute. The front staff ladies/administrators had informed my mother that she was required to draw blood at a lab and provided her with a piece of paper, but as my mother is not a native speaker she went to the lab and informed the lab directly what the front office staff members said to her, which is 'Make sure to get your blood drawn ASAP.' This prompted my mom to head to the laboratory of Sun labs, and when she gave the form to the Sun labs admins, they did not share with my mother that she did not require her blood being drawn but then still required her to. When she complained and shared this news with the Oncology staff members, they completely disregarded her feelings, no apology was provided, and no explanation as to why there was a disconnect with communication between the different teams and staff members.

As a patient and a caregiver to my family members to help translate and dissect the situation, this is an utter outrage of poor patient experience and a lack of accountability from this facility of their wrong doings and then not providing any information as to why they drew her blood or requested. My mother is very angry and her entire experience feels maltreated due to no one taking responsibility, explaining exactly what the form is, and then not providing accurate information. When she addressed this to the team, individuals looked clueless and couldn't help an old lady. I am confused why this would be a patient experience for a cancer patient and we want to share our experiences with the greater masses so that they do not experience this maltreatment from providers or receptionists/front...