Dr Vanessa Paola Escobar Barboza

“I was very pleased with my experience with Dr Barboza. She combines knowledge and attitude with straightforward recommendations'

Had a very quick question (I thought it was quick!) and was able to speak to her that day. Turns out my 'google' information was wrong and she spent time explaining why I needed to stop taking my pill from the nutrition store as it could interfere with my thyroid pill. It's good to have a doctor you can trust, returns your call and is a good explainer (doesn't just tell you yes or no but thinks you have a brain too and can understand the science!). Glad I found her.

Very good doctor she had control my diabetes and I loosened 26 pounds

My Doctor relocated to another state and Doctor Barboza came into the practice as the replacement. I too was taking Armour for many years so my TSH was low. She immediately changed the Armour to Levothyroxine and lowered my dosage. I told her that I felt fine taking Armour no need to change my medication or the dosage, she did not listen. I was not happy with the change had no other choice but to give it a try. It's been two months and I'm was so tired that when I went home after work I would go straight to bed. I felt very tired thru out the day. I called Dr. Barboza to make an appointment and was told she is no longer with the practice. She did not have the decency or the professionalism to advise her patients.

I saw Dr. Barboza after my Doctor moved to another practice. I was told that Dr. Barboza listens to patients and treats based on symptoms rather than solely relying on TSH. This was the exact opposite of my experience. I was told that my initial appointment would likely last an hour. It lasted all of ten minutes. First, Dr. Barboza suggested changing my medication (Armour) - which I have successfully been taking to treat my hypothyroid/Hashimotos for over four year - to synthetic T4. After she looked at my blood results (she did not even request free T3 or T4 levels) and saw that I had a low TSH (which is perfectly normal for someone on Armour as widely reported on in the Medical literature - which I offered to share with her) she diagnosed me as hyperthyroid and decided that my dose should be immediately halved (which quite frankly seems dangerous to me). I raised all of my hypo symptoms with her (low HR and blood pressure, cold intolerance, swollen/scalloped tongue, slow… digestion/constipation, dry skin, brain fog...) and she still insisted that I was hyperthyroid and refused to treat me. Needless to say, I will never go back to her and would not recommend her to anyone.

Dr. Barbosa is very thorough and patient.

I too did the research and was hopeful Dr. Escobar's office would provide exceptional services. The wait time was horrendous- being seen almost 2 hours after my appointment time. Absolutely no follow up with important and urgent treatment plans and treatment. Difficulty having someone answer phones, difficulty relaying messages to the doctor and other staff. It took me calling the main patient services at the hospital to get someone at the medical practice to call me back on several occasions. When I was able to meet with Dr. Barbosa, she was knowledgeable and helpful, however, I have to say her staff was BEYOND incompetent. I spent months trying to give the benefit of the doubt and focusing on the confidence I had in Dr. Barboza, however, I had to make the decision to continue my treatment elsewhere. I had everything from difficulty relaying to the doctor that medications she prescribed were not covered by my insurance and unaffordable for months before finally having to make an… appointment to speak to her personally and resolve it. To test and diagnostics and other doctors records that went unreviewed and failed to follow up on. Neither my internist nor rheumatologist received copies of notes etc, that if asked be sent to them- so even contacting them to assist me, they were unable to do so since Dr. Barbosa's staff failed to keep either one of them in the loop. When you get a call from a staff member saying you have to have another diagnostic test done "immediately" and "urgently" to determine more on a "mass" she assumed I knew about but was never told from a test done 4 months prior. Then you urgently take off work the next day, get the test done but the doctor goes on leave days later and your told you have to wait 3 weeks for the doctor to return and review the results, it's a problem!!! When asked if there was another doctor left the cover her patients that could at least look at the results and says it's perfectly ok to wait, I was told no. And told the best bet is to make an appointment with the doctor for when the doctor returns to review the results. To make matters worse the morning of the appointment an answering service was all I could reach since my appointment was at 8:30 but they don't answer phones until 9 (it was 7am when I called), a message (for 30th time) doesn't get to the right person about me running late, in my message I said it's a 2 hour drive and if someone can call me if my late arrival was an issue so I can turn around and go back home. I arrive and sign in immediately. I'm 45 mins late. Staff was busy with other patients so I sat down figuring soon someone will look at the sign in sheet. An hour later, I go up to the front desk because no one has said anything AND I have to run out more money in the meter. It's then I was told, I was already marked a no show and the doctor would not be able to see me. That the doctor was running very late and "squeezing me in" was not possible. This is the same doctor I spend 2 hours sitting waiting for on 2 previous occasions?! The staff knows nothing about my call or message. No one made any attempt to find out what happened to the message or if there was a message sent sitting anywhere. Staff was not sympathetic as to why I was there or that I drove 2 hours to see the doctor. I was offered another appointment 2 more weeks away. This was just absolutely unacceptable. I signed all paperwork for my file to be sent to my internist and a to myself. I was told it would arrive in a week. It's now 2 weeks and nothing. I have to make an appointment to see another endo and I'm still waiting for records.

After researching online for a good endo in Jersey City i had given hope on finding one locally as the reviews and availability of the common ones was simply awful- luckily we found Dr. Barboza who has plenty of JC/Hoboken availability almost throughout the week. Moreover, she was knowledgeable and very thorough and detailed in her diagnosis - did not rush at all - took the time to understand the background, history and symptoms and did not jump to prescribe meds. She encouraged questions and spent as much time as was needed. She has a good personality and very gentle and polite to speak to. I would gladly recommend Dr. Barboza to anyone looking for an endo!