Dr. John Joseph Sanitato

Dr. Santiago was the admitting and the attending physician @ UH/Parma Medical Center for my husband who recently experienced his first psychotic break. My husband is a VA patient and there were no beds available at Wade Park so the VA allowed him to remain in the same hospital. Dr. Santiago was the most caring and dedicated Dr. that we were fortunate enough to have attending my husband. He spent so much time with my husband (and with myself) that I was amazed. He was able to determine exactly why this mental break happened, much to our relief....it is soo important to have an answer. My husband made such a remarkable recovery in 5 days that he was released early. Dr. Santiago came in and spent almost 30 minutes with us before the discharge. His bedside manner is awesome, he is approachable, empathetic and most importantly a good listener. We consider ourselves very lucky to have found ourselves in his care.

We were pretty satisfied with him until we have had to try and have him get back to us on something we felt needed urgent response and after several tries we received no phone call back from his office. We would not be calling in between office visits if we did not feel it was really necessary to get some answers to what was going on medically here. This should not be happening to anyone especially if someone is already going thru depression and anxiety and because of this causing even more depression and anxiety. This has happened multiple times and for that reason we will be changing Doctors...

This doctor does not communicate- He does not have a valid phone number nor a valid office address. He is clearly unable to communicate with patients or patients family. A doctor without the skill to communicate should not be in practice..

I too have a parent in his care. He may be rare and knowledgable. However, it is so rare to ever see him or speak with him. As the other reviewer wrote, he was rude to our family as well. He never was available to talk to or discuss our parents diagnosis and further treatment. Office was just as hard to get a hold of!!! Bad news!!!!

Can not get follow up paper work from staff or Doctor

Dr Sanitato took time to listen to me and my mother's concerns about her abrupt changes in mood and memory loss. He was kind, well-read, and an excellent listener. I would recommend his services to any family who has an elder with mental illness. Thank you!

Geriatric psychiatry is a rare specialty and always an emotional one for the family of the patient. Ironically, when treating dementia or Alzheimer's, the patient themselves may not even be aware of the condition being treated. I've included this with my review because it is important to read any opinions here in that context. Dr. Sanitato treated my Mom while she was in an inpatient psychiatric unit. I was impressed with the thoroughness of his investigation into her overall mental and physical medical history. He monitored her meds and made some good changes. Post discharge we met with him and I found him to be extremely intelligent and caring. It was clear that he got to know my Mom in the few times they had met -- she was not just a # to him, and for that I was impressed. He was willing to discuss the medications and help me weigh the pros and cons. While I don't like that my Mom needs multiple medications, managing the changing symptoms of her disease makes it essential to… her quality of life. I believe Dr. Sanitato helps the patients and families make informed decisions. It's not easy to get an appointment with Dr. Sanitato because he is highly in demand. I respect the fact he serves as an attending physician to the hospital's geriatric behaviorial health unit because I am sure that if he went into private practice he'd have a mile long line of patients waiting to see him. So there are trade-offs in his accessibility. He is very candid and efficient. This is not a problem for me but may be for others. Again, Alzheimers is a frustrating and heartbreaking disease and I feel that Dr. Sanitato has helped my Mom achieve more peace and less pain. And that's an A+ ranking in my book.

Spent very little time with his patient - my father. Overmedicated my father and took no notice or concern that my father, who is normally lucid, was hallucinating constantly. Rudely refused to speak to patient's family.