Dr. Alfredo Rosal Martija, MD

Upon meeting Dr. Martija, I was not confident in how our patient/provider dynamic would progress. At the time of meeting him, I was in a treatment center that had just hired him following the leave of a Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner, and the MD working there at the time of my admission to the center. On his first day, he had to go over and review all of his new patients charts. FIrst days are stressful enough, so I can imagine being handed a list of 15 (?) or so patients that you were now responsible for, probably added to that stress. I tried to give him credit, new jobs are stressful, he had many new patients, a private practice separately from the center, maybe something happened to him that morning that put him in an irritable mood. I really tried to give him the benefit of the doubt. I was met with what felt like hostility, inexcusable bedside manor, rudeness, and no care nor concern for my medical and psychiatric health and concerns. He began making medication changes shortly… after only reading my chart from the previous provider I had there. I'm sure it was detailed and had lots of information, but I have a long psychiatric history as well as medical history. I did not meet him, in fact I never even saw him, sat down and talked to him, introduce myself, etc. He read my chart, made medication changes, and then had the med coordinator pass on the information about said medication changes. And because I was at a treatment center, it wasn't like if I had been an outpatient client. If I had been an outpatient client, I could have received a second opinion, I could have left the medication doses as they were, I could have had control over the situation. But because I was in a treatment center, I was unable to self administer my medications, so whatever changes he met before even meeting me were basically set in stone until he decided to take the time to sit down with me. Shorty after hearing about the medication changes, one was a change in a antiemetic, and the other was in an antihistamine I take twice a day, I asked if I could speak to him because I did not feel comfortable with the changes that he made based on my chart before sitting down with me. I was told by a staff member that they would let him know that I wanted to talk with him if he was still there. As someone who already deals with severe generalized anxiety, this information and the wait time to meet him was very unpleasant and even more anxiety provoking. I waited 20 to 30 minutes, and then saw him walk quickly past me out the door to head home. I stopped him and asked if I could talk to him quickly about the changes he had made. He did not answer yes or no, he knew exactly who I was and began to list off the reasons for change. Which I appreciated, that was at least some clarity on why the medications were altered. But he was unwilling to listen to me regarding why those two medications were prescribed and why it was important I stay on them until we could have an actual discussion. For the anti nausea medication, he wanted to decrease it. I tried to explain why I was taking it and that it was something my gastrointestinal doctor prescribed, but was quickly interrupted. He cut me off and said - "No one can be that nauseous every day." I was taken aback by that comment because he did not know my extensive and complicated GI history, he only knew what was written by the previous psychiatric NP at that program, the notes were almost completely about my psychiatric health and wellbeing. The medications he changed had nothing to do with my psychiatric health. I was in the middle of a sentence when he proceeded to walk away and out the door to go home. Mid sentence, no goodbye or I'm sorry I don't have time for this discussion, or let's talk about your concerns tomorrow when I am back in. He just walked right out of the door. After telling my mother about that chain of events, she was concerned for my health and called the center that I was at about the changes. The second medication he had cut the dose in half and planned on lowering it even more. But that medication (also not a psychiatric medication) was what was preventing me from having idiopathic anaphylactic allergic reactions, so decreasing it that suddenly and quickly, was quite literally life threatening. The med coordinator and staff members on duty that night spoke with my mom and made the executive decision to leave all medications as there currently were, and I would meet with Dr. Martija the next morning. The next day I let multiple staff members know that I really needed to meet with him, they said they would pass the message on. I met with my case manager later that day and relayed all of the information to her. She sent him two seperate text messages about the urgency and need for us to meet, both were ignored. The next day I was beginning to feel even more frustrated and not listened to, so I decided to be the squeaky wheel and, be probably pretty annoying, by asking staff members once every hour if he was planning on meeting me and when. Two full days had gone by since out initial interaction, before he finally sat down to talk to me. He did not introduce himself, ask me how I was, apologize, nothing. He just handed me a stack of papers that could have resembled a small book, and told me that that was a print out of the side effects, dosages, warnings, etc. of every single medication I was taking. I knew all of this information as a 20 year old that has been talking said medications for at least 1 or 2 years each. He said that since I felt so strongly about the changes and I was discharging two days later (again, to NON-psychiatric medications, medications to treat things that he doesn't specialize in) that he would leave them as they were. Any and every interaction I had with him, and other patients had with him, left us feeling worse than before.