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Review content:
I came in with minor foot pain, and just wanted to get it checked out.
Dr. Klein performed 3 x-rays and an ultrasound on this minor foot pain (and billed my insurance for $900!). He then recommended an MRI from one of two places, which struck me as odd. I wasn't convulsing in pain-- an MRI seemed like a highly aggressive treatment. He then gave me an ankle brace and recommended I return in two weeks.
Over the next week, my foot actually got WORSE. I felt numb in my foot. I had a bad feeling about my visit with Dr. Klein because my gut was telling me that my foot pain was not that serious, I had just gone in to ask how to keep it from getting worse.
So I went to get a second opinion from another podiatrist, and he was GREAT. Unlike Dr. Klein, who was irritated that I asked questions during the visit about my treatment and rushed me from x-ray to ultrasound without getting my input, the other podiatrist sat me down and explained how my foot was functioning and why it was hurting me. No x-rays, no ultrasound, nothing. He recommended that I stop wearing the ankle brace because it was compressing a nerve, which was making my foot feel worse.
I feel like Dr. Klein is probably a good doctor, but he favors all these expensive exams (x-rays, ultrasound, MRI) to cover all the bases. After all, HE doesn't have to pay for them, it absolves him of responsibility in case a patient files a malpractice suit against him because it proves he tried to do everything possible, and it helps him make a diagnosis. In my case, this aggressive approach made me highly uncomfortable and even made my pain worse. Dr. Klein possibly did not anticipate my ankle brace compressing a nerve, but, well, it did.
To top it all off, he was kind of patronizing during his bedside manner. I asked questions and he kept making passive aggressive comments to make me stop asking questions. I mean, I understand doctors must get tired of answering the same questions all the time, but seriously! This is my BODY! I'm obviously going to be concerned!
Another example of this is when I mentioned a possible cause of my foot pain, and he chuckled and said, ""Oh, so you've been looking around on the internet, looking this stuff up, getting worried?"" I mean, I get that it must be irritating when patients self-diagnose. My dad's a doctor and he tells me all the time about patients who freak themselves out about this sort of thing. But you should NEVER make a patient feel ashamed about being scared of a possible health issue and going to see a doctor to raise those concerns. NEVER.
In conclusion, Dr. Klein seems like a really capable doctor. But he did not communicate with me about his thought process, did not consult with me about whether I favored an aggressive or conservative approach, and made me feel like a dumb child. I decided to go to a podiatrist who made me feel at ease throughout the process.
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