Dr. Anjali N. Patel, DO

My mom has early onset Alzheimer’s. I researched neurologists and chose Dr Patel because she specializes in memory loss. I made an appointment for her MONTHS in advance, only to find out the week before that Dr Patel would not be able to see her because my mom used to be a patient of one of her colleagues in the practice (who no longer works at Atlantic Health) 2 years and 9 months ago. Their policy is that the doctors only see patients once every 3 years. Despite the fact that my mom’s memory has steadily declined over this time, she cannot see the doctor. When I persisted and advocated on her behalf, they agreed to let her see Dr Patel, but on another day. Because the time slot during which I scheduled the appointment was reserved only for NEW patients. Save your time! Don’t see Dr Patel

Stay far away! Let me start by saying I have worked in the medical system for 15+ years so I have mr fair share of experience with doctors I consider true professionals and others that quite frankly should not be allowed to practice medicine. Dr. Anjali Patel and her ANP Paren Wali are the latter. The terrible reviews here surely speak for themselves. My father has been suffering with memory loss for 5+ years and for anyone who loves someone with this disease, you know first hand how painful it is AND exceedingly hard at times to for caregivers to get their loved one to seek help. I personally sought our Dr. Anjali Patel at Overlook Hospital in Summit, NJ (Atlantic Neuroscience) and waited 9+ months to have my father be seen. We were happy to wait of it would result in the best care and clear diagnosis, sadly we were very wrong. At our first appointment with Dr. Patel, I was immediately shocked by her poor bedside manner when caring for patients dealing with cognitive… decline. She made no effort to speak to me one off after my father did not pass the initial cognitive test but of course thought he was fine. I had to even push for bloodwork to rule out any nutrient deficiencies at hand. Overall, very poor experience but she recommended some diagnostic testing including and MRI which we proceeded with. Some of the testing she offered we were unable to conduct (like a driving test which just was unnecessary) and a sleep apneia test because my father’s sleep is so disturbed at this point it impossible to convince him to do such a test. My father also suffers with tinnitus which we have been seeing an ENT for. After our initial appointment with Dr. Patel we were informed that she would not be able to do a follow up with us for close to seven additional months. This alone is unfathomable for someone in cognitive decline. Our only option was to see the Nurse Practioner, Parwen Wali. She called me after getting the results of my dad‘s bloodwork and MRI. We had a brief discussion about the results to which she seemed absolutely completely unknowledgeable about. Parwen then called me AGAIN the next day as if we had never spoken, proceeding to read the results to me again asking if I had seen any change. What change could I possibly see in one day? You could tell right away medical mismanagement was at hand. I was completely turned off by this and the fact that Dr. Patel never directly called to discuss any of the results. Several days before the follow up appointment with Parwen, The office called to let me know the appointment had been “incorrectly scheduled“. I was truly disappointed by this because I had already taken time off work since I take my father to all his appointments. The office manager actually was very sweet and try to accommodate the next follow up appointment, which still was only with Parwen the NP not Dr. Patel. When we met with Parwen, she was completely unprepared as soon as we walked in she had not reviewed any of my father’s medical history and even when we provided her with the MRI disc she did not insert it into the computer to review. She simply read the report which noted there was some mild to moderate vascular damage. I would also like to report that even on blood pressure medication my dad was still showing signs of stage two hypertension which again was not addressed at all she simply told us that we should manage this with a GP. She then had the audacity to say that she could see my dad was “visibly upset” and that she would connect us with a social worker. I was absolutely appalled. Of course he is upset, he can’t sleep, he is ringing in his ears, his short term memory is completely depleted. She also recommended that he do crossword puzzles. Suggesting CROSSWORD PUZZLES to a patient that is already in cognitive decline is absolutely disgraceful! I demanded to see the doctor of course she was unavailable but did return my call later that evening with absolutely no resolution to the test results only trying to say if my father would be willing to do a three hour memory test. Of course I absolutely declined as I would never see another physician in this practice ever again. The Atlantic Neuroscience Institute should be ashamed of this treatment of memory loss patients. My heart really breaks for any family that has waited to see the doctors at this office, they show absolutely no compassion for how awful this disease is and also seem to have absolutely no solutions. You will be passed off to an extremely inexperienced and unprofessional NP with little to no direction for follow up care. I will be the first to say I reacted very emotionally in the office based on the treatment that we were given. However, something needs to be done and changed inside a practice operating this way. Please AVOID this office at all costs and find a competent providers with compassion and consistent follow up care for your memory conditions ??. My love goes out to the sufferers and caregivers of this awful disease, doctors like this should not be allowed to care for you.