Dr. Atula Sharma, MD

BEEN WITH DR. SHARMA FOR YEARS FOR BOTH MY KIDS. SHE IS WONDERFUL, INTELLIGENT, CARING AND GIVES TIME

We've been to half a dozen other psychiatrists before coming to Dr. Sharma for our two children (1 with ADHD, 1 with Asperger's). Based on our prior experiences, we are extremely happy with her. Dr. Sharma really takes the time to talk to our kids and understand what is going on (other doctors would only talk to us, not to the kids). She carefully reviews their meds, explains what they do and possible side effects, and monitors the side effects closely. We drive almost an hour each way to see her and find it very much worth our time. Her staff, on the other hand, is only mediocre. When we first started with her, the guy at the desk was forgetful and a little rude. There is a new gal on the front desk now who is much better. Not really up to par for a doctor's office, but she is nice and she tries to be helpful.

My wife was a patient before I made my first appt. She warmed me..."Dr. Sharma is not great, just ok. However, you're going to lose your mind dealing with her office clerk. He's so rude."I guess I should have listened to my wife. At my first appointment, her office clerk berated me because I didn't tell him on the phone that this was my first appointment. First of all, I did. Secondly, shouldn't you, as the office clerk, know that information??I continued to see Dr. Sharma mostly because she was close to my home and fairly compassionate. However, as time wore on, her clerk became increasingly rude and indifferent. Phone calls were not returned (one wherein I was having problems with my medication dose, the others about billing). When her clerk would actually pick up the phone, he was never, not once, helpful. Most recently, my pharmacy tried on 3 consecutive days to get approval for a prescription refill. When I called on the 4th day (and already in full withdrawal), her clerk told me… not to call anymore. Dr. Sharma finally faxed back the medication request to my pharmacy, but didn't even have the decency to let me know.Finally, she sent me a letter saying she no longer wanted to work with me because I was rude to the clerk and "demanded a prescription refill". Imagine that...rude to someone who treats patients with no respect, just contempt. As for the refill, I demanded someone call me back to explain why it took 4 days to respond to a fax. Anyway, that's my experience with Dr. Sharma and her office.

Never met the woman. She dodged our appt. by saying she had a "conference" 3 days before our appt., scheduled 4 weeks earlier. We needed that appt. to have my childs meds prescribed again, and she knew that, but did not even have the courtesy to call me when I needed to speak with her directly. We were not even given an accommodation for a new appt. at a different time then several weeks later - my child had a horrible Christmas break off her meds. Hope she can sleep at night, my child couldn't!!

Pluses: Caring, nice, thorough (does medical tests), conservative with medications, takes time with patients, calls you back within the day about concernsCons: Horrible wait times, charges for everything

Dr. Sharma and her staff is more concerned about getting their money than actually helping out their patients. I had not even received a bill in the mail yet, and when I called to schedule an important appointment, I was told that I could not speak with Dr. Sharma until the balance was paid in full. Dr. Sharma was a highly recommended doctor, and my overall experience with her did not turn out to be that great.

Very nice, caring, encouraging psychiatrist. The waiting time is absolutely atrocious. My appointments start anywhere between 15 minutes to over an hour late. It is so incredibly frustrating!!

Dr. Sharma is very knowledgeable, helpful, and never rushes me during appointments. However, the wait time can be awful, sometimes my appointment starts an hour late. The staff isn't the greatest either.