Center for Advanced Gastroenterology — Local services in Maitland

To begin with, I’m called in advance and told by an automated machine that I’m required to be in the office half an hour before my scheduled appointment to go over extensive medical history and questions. I get to the office thinking that of course there must be a bunch of forms to fill out and questions to answer, which is never fun but to be expected going to a new doctor so okay. I get there 30 minutes early as requested, spend less than 5 minutes checking in and going through basic questions with a nurse. And then I’m left stuck twiddling my thumbs for 40 minutes waiting to talk to the doctor. Who also spends a whole 5 minutes with me, makes his recommendation for an endoscopy, and as I’m trying to take a few extra minutes to ask questions and address concerns, you can see he’s clearly trying to rush out of the room. He was literally walking to the door as I’m trying to discuss my biggest worry. I have a long medical history outlining an INTENSE phobia of needles and IVs in particular. My entire life, any time I’ve had to be given an IV, I’ve had to be given an oral sedative in advance, otherwise it is almost impossible to even get one close to me. Fear aside, more than one doctor has declared it to be medically unsafe to try to stick me without prior sedatives, because the one time someone did, my blood pressure and heart rate hit and sustained levels so high for so long that ER doctors were afraid that I was seconds away from a heart attack, as a teenager. Never once before has this been a problem with any other doctor with proper planning and advanced notice. I’m trying to impress upon the doctor just how important this is, as the recommended endoscopy will be IMPOSSIBLE without prior sedation. He keeps reassuring me, again as he’s got one hand on the door, that I can simply let the nurses in the surgical center know the morning of. He never once took my concerns seriously and just kept trying to brush me off so he could move on to the next patient, assuring me that they would take care of it the day of. I was skeptical, as this has always required prior planning, but what other choice did I have but to take his word for it. I left feeling frustrated, annoyed, and unheard, but with the plan that I would address the issue with the surgical office when they called to confirm my appointment. The confirmation call comes, and I’m trying to ask if I need to arrive any earlier than my scheduled appointment time for the sedative, and shocker, no one knows what I’m talking about. I’m told that the doctor didn’t put any notes in my chart regarding this, big surprise again, and that they need to contact him and will call me back. I get a call back at the end of the next day, the Friday before my Monday appointment and tell my fiancé that this isn’t something that they can possibly do, and that maintaining a sustained heart rate of nearly 200 for 10+ minutes while lying on a bed is perfectly normal and totally fine, happens all the time when people get IVs. And then, as the cherry on top, when I ultimately try to call back 10 minutes later to cancel the appointment, no one will answer the phone. I called multiple times in the 40 minutes left of the day that they were still open, tried every extension, left a voicemail and never heard anything back to confirm the cancellation. And I had to pay $350 down in the office just to schedule the appointment, which they said they’d refund if I did have to cancel, but they’ve said a lot of things before so who even knows at this point. With the way they function, I’m not optimistic. I spent $200 just to talk to the initial doctor, after seeing and being referred by my own physician. Took time off of work for both days, for absolutely nothing. They’re unhelpful, disorganized, and DANGEROUSLY INCOMPETENT. Go literally anywhere...

My first review seems to have been deleted so I will be rewriting to share my experience here. I was a patient of Dr Panzarella's but after the treatment I received at this practice I am no longer interested in being under his care. I had to have a colonoscopy in june 2020 to investigate my crohns disease flare up, after the procedure is where things snowballed very badly. The medication initially prescribed made my condition much much worse and when I explained to the doctor's staff that I was in pain from the medication, they told me it would take 3 months to get a TELEHEALTH appointment and to KEEP TAKING THE MEDICATION...the same one that was causing me pain. I stopped the medication and waited the 3 months for the 3 minute phone call where the doctor switched me to Humira. I took the bloodwork prescription to my local lab and waited 2 weeks for the test results. I never got a call back and had to call the office who told me they hadn't gotten the results back. I gave them the benefit of the doubt and waited another 2 weeks and they told me they had the results for 3 weeks but that I got the wrong blood test. Lets be clear, I didn't write the prescription the office did; so how is this my fault?! The office said my lab didn't follow the prescription to do the required testing for humira. The office sends me a new prescription and I asked my lab tech what was prescribed on the last visit and they told me no tests for humira were ever prescribed! Regardless, I get the blood tests done, and check back in 2 weeks and the office hasn't filed the claim to my insurance. At this point we're at the end of october and I'm switching insurance in november, so I pleaded with the office to file my prescription before the month ends because I'm in terrible pain and want to file the claim before I have to get a new prior auth with my new insurance. However the geniuses at CFAGI mess that up too and don't file the claim in time, so the humira claim gets denied for termed policy and I have to restart the prior auth process with my new insurance. At this point I am hounding the office's humira rep to get my medication and she is terrible. She was avoiding my calls and not filing things in a timely manner. The insurance denies my claim and the humira rep still won't talk to me, so I threaten to invoke the practice manager and suddenly the humira rep is able to talk to me. I tell her to appeal the claim and when I call back 3 weeks later, she still won't take my call or return my voicemail. We're now at the end of december, my insurance has overturned the denial and is allowing us to file the claim but we need to file it before 2021. I ask the office file the claim ASAP and what do they do, they file it in 2021 and the pharmacy rejects the claim since the prior auth is not from 2021 and considered invalid. We have to go through the prior auth process for a 3RD TIME and once again I have to threaten to speak with the practice manager in order to get ANYTHING DONE! I complained about my condition becoming worse in July of 2020 and because of this practice, I couldn't get the medication to make me stop clenching my stomach in pain every single night, for 6 whole agonizing months. I have lived with crohns for 20 years and this is hands down the absolute worst treatment I have ever received from a health care practice. The people employed here should be ashamed of themselves for putting a fellow person through this, its disgusting and you shouldn't have to go through an experience like mine. I will never return to CFAGI, I'd rather be sick and in pain then ever deal with these horrible people ever again. Thank you for...

This place is visually appealing but that is all.

Before I got my procedure done, I had a visit with the doctor to discuss my issues.

I was about 5 minutes late to my appointment so I understand that this might be a contributing factor but it is difficult to understand how me being only 5 minutes late leads to me being seen an hour plus after I arrived.

The second thing during my original visit was that even though I waited an hour the doctor came in and asked me 2-3 questions and didn’t let me speak without cutting me off. He told me he was sorry for the wait. He was in the room with me for less than 3 minutes I am not being dramatic. This was also right before noon and while in the waiting room a huge catering order had come in. I can tell 100% that they wanted to get me out of there because they had bought lunch for everyone and didn’t want to eat rushed. - HORRIBLE EXPERIENCE. He decided that I needed and entroscopy. I already knew this because before I moved to Orlando, multiple GIs had told me that.

The day of my procedure - I couldn’t eat anything and my appointment was for 1:30...and I made sure to arrive about 30 minutes early. A man told me that his appointment was for 12 and they still hadn’t called him. They were running behind AGAIN! Unbelievable. I did not go in for my procedure til an hour after my appointment. You could only imagine how hungry I was. 🙄

The nurse staff here were great. The woman receptionist were great but didn’t want people to know they were running late which I don’t agree with but whatever.

When it was time for my procedure.. the tech and nurses again GREAT! The doctor came in and apologize for being tardy (same old story) but I was already on my side and couldn’t see him. He didn’t even walk in front of me where I can see him. He was just talking to me behind my back.

I didn’t like that. No respect for his patient.

Today I write here because after my procedure they told me 2-3 weeks I would have results. and guess what? They’re running late A THIRD TIME. The excuse was that they are short staffed with medical assistances. They can’t mail to me but that I can schedule an appointment to know whether I need a follow up or not. So you’re telling me I can visit you pay for the visit just for you to tell me nothing is wrong? Wow. That was the most shocking thing ever. The American health care system and these people have no care for their patients.

It’s week 3 the lady over the phone couldn’t tell me when my results would be mailed! All she could offer is me to PAY them a visit. Literally.

I would not recommend these people. Find somewhere else. They have a nice office but the doctors and their staffs don’t care about you. They just want to get through their day and are always running Atleast an hour behind. They don’t meet deadlines.

I experienced their tardiness not once, not twice, but...