Dr. Andrew Benjamin Johnson, MD

Dr. Johnson is the first "doctor" I've ever felt the need to warn people away from, I have had 4 appointments with him. He is rude, rushed, does not care to do anything but the absolute minimum and made me feel as if I were wasting his time at 3 of the 4 appointments. He is often late from his mid-day "lunch" breaks which are scheduled from 1pm to 3pm. I scheduled my 1st appointment with him at Brooklane at 3 pm, which means there was not another patient in front of me in his office. I was ushered into his office at 3:40PM. He did not introduce himself, he brusquely went through a checklist while staring at his computer asking the questions. I attempted to offer complete answers to the questions I was being asked, was interrupted 3 time in the course of about a 20 question list with "I don't need your life story, I need yes or no answers". Since this was scheduled to be a 1 hour intro/evaluation second opinion type appointment, he was 40 minutes late, of his own fault, did not… acknowledge the lateness, and treated me like a nuisance, I tried to accommodate his rudeness, maybe he was having a really bad day and didn't realize how unprofessional his behavior was. I explained very clearly my goal in seeing him and a timetable that I would like to work toward in that first appointment. He did not look up from his computer screen the entirety of the appointment or type much of anything into the computer, he sent in some prescriptions to the pharmacy via the computer, wrote on one of his cards he wanted me to schedule a 20 minute follow up in 1 month and rushed me out of his office. The reason I can write all of this up is that I take notes during my appointments with doctors to try to follow instructions as closely as possible, these are all the notes I have from the 1st appointment as this was the entire substance of the appointment! I scheduled the second appointment as he requested with the very courteous staff person at the front desk, was early for my appointment as usual, and waited patiently until he came to the lobby to retrieve me 25 minutes late. He did acknowledge the delay this time, mumbling about "some people" that I could not get all of. Another high speed checklist, ignoring my comments of goal and time concerns in treatment. My goal in the appoints with him were to get weaned off medicines that were not effective and get back to work, as I had been declared "disabled" temporarily by his predecessor who had retired. This visit, he asked if one of the medications (out of 5) was "working" (that's it, no guidance on how to describe what he meant by "working), and apparently decided as I was speaking the 1 sentence I managed to get out that he needed to take me off one of the current medications (SSNRI), and put me on a differently branded SSNRI, ignoring my statements that these meds did nothing for my issue and I would like to be off the pills and back to work as quickly as possible. He increased another medication by 33% without an explanation and increased another of the medications by %50 with a couple of words about it wasn't a big deal. I was then rushed out with follow up card, and made my next appointment very reluctantly with the receptionist, since there were no other options for psychiatrists in this facility (Brook Lane Frederick), who had time in their schedules or treated people in my age group. The next day I had an appointment with my therapist, who I will not name, since he is excellent and very professional, and as I was leaving that appointment, I encountered "Dr." Johnson in the hall ranting about being overbooked and not getting paid correctly by Brook Lane to another one of the professionals. I wanted to ask a quick question about the strange medication increases, and he saw me coming down the hall toward him, (long hall), finished his amazingly unprofessional rant to the other employee and rushed out the side door, I must have looked like I had a question, I don't know. I called my insurance company to find another psychiatrist, as this guy is clearly having his own issues, was declined by 3 other practices in town as they were booked solid through Sept, so I reluctantly rescheduled with Dr. Johnson as he was my only option. I went to the appointment on time, he was nearly on time, seemed to be in a better mood, I explained the new medication was not doing anything different and I was feeling poorly from other med adjustments, and the importance of the timetable and my previous requests about my goal of being off the meds as much as possible instead of playing musical meds, as I needed to get back to work. His response per the SSNRI was exactly "stop taking it." He said nothing about the risks of stopping this type of medicine cold turkey, and over the next 2 days I began having severe issues walking, vision problems, motion sickness, could no longer drive, among other issues. I made a very detailed report to the receptionist in person at the office (having my wife drive me to the office), his response was not to me, but simply a refill order for the same medication forwarded to the pharmacy. I was told this was likely severe withdrawal from the SSNRI, wound up in the emergency room for a long period and had tests done that were inconclusive. No follow up from Johnson whatsoever. I now will probably lose my job of 22 years due to his incompetence and lack of concern for anyone but himself, since he ignored the goals that I had stated from the beginning, I'm truncating some of the interactions, as I'm tired of the whole situation, but I can say if I treated my customers the way this guy has treated me and other patients I've heard anecdotes from, I would have been fired many years ago. What an awful doctor.

Very good at addressing concerns and makes you feel comfortable.