Dr. Ferdinand Deza Chua, MD

Dr. Ferdinand Chua is a great and compassionate doctor.

Oftentimes when we think of a teaching doctor we think of the head doctor who instructs the rising medical student. Well, in the case not so much. I call Dr. Chua the teaching doctor because he is very informative. I’ve been a patient if his for the last 4 years and everytime I leave well informed about my health. Dr Chua isn’t one of the Dr.’s who just hand out medication and prescription. He informs you how to be healthy and stay that way. He teaches you how to prevent long term illnesses. However, if you have to take medication you should do so to remain your healthy self. Thanks Doc for holding me accountable for maintaining my health and for teaching me how to prevent unnecessary and unwanted sickness.

Chua is a competent physician whose long experience supports his handling the basics. However, I wish I had searched further since I have found many other providers who've given me far better and quicker results. Three years ago his practice's staff seemed chaotic, but that might have improved since. When I first called for an appointment, it seemed that the several physicians and other managers had not paid enough attention to assure efficient and effective division of labor, accurate communication, and follow-through. I was given false directions on where to obtain tests resulting in a total of several days of lost time; the staff could have checked, but seemed too distracted by other demands to pay attention to my questions. This level of mis-organization was apparent in making the first appointment. The staff could not give me quick, clear answers when I called to make an appointment, when I asked for directions using public transit, when I asked about the nature of their… practice and the various specialties and qualifications, when I asked about how they handle payments. Aside from eventually getting a specific appointment, I was told that I would have my questions answered when I came. When I arrived, I had to wait what seemed to me to be frustratingly long in a noisy and discomforting office. Despite assurances to the contrary, given the staff's distractions my questions were never really addressed. My insurance paid for a general physical exam only once -- at the start of coverage. Thereafter, I had to pay a lot for further exams. So, I had hoped that the exam would be thorough. It felt it was not. Chua seemed to rely on his gut rather than a check-list, and his intuition on which of my complaints (I came with a list, including a history) he would address within the limited time available. Since I had no prior insurance, I had let go several health problems that general heath web sites say are life-threatening. Eventually, specialists -- backed by an array and time-series of tests â?? have confirmed my symptoms and found the details of my diseases. My apparent symptoms -- the usual suspects -- "hid" other, more serious conditions that I'm just now hearing about from my new internist and his specialist network. A hurried and non-systematic general physical exam can be superficial in the sense of just producing diagnoses of the 'usual suspects' which may not get to variants or particular conditions, and miss other and perhaps more dangerous disease. It can provide only rough observations, not more scaled results needed to compare the changes over time for determining the course of disease. It can fail to establish a base-line for preventive health and disease management. I feel this happened to me. The delays and discouragement I felt from my engagement with Chua may have set me back for a long time, and maybe left me with some irreversible declines in my health and function. I do know that if I had been warned by a review of the possible problems, then the difficulties I experienced in the first call would had led me to search elsewhere., and not made an appointment to see Chua. The DC area, with a large and unusually skilled and prosperous population, has attracted an unusually large number of skilled providers. So, while Chua is good, it was not hard to find physicians who give far better results and more quickly. You probably can, too. Chua is intelligent. Perhaps he has already focused his attention on and made much progress on the above issues. For the benefit of all, I hope so.

DOCTOR CHUA IS A VERY DETAIL ORIENTED DOCTOR WHO IS DEEPLY INTERESTED IN YOUR DIAGONIS AND RECTIFYING YOUR ISSUES. HE MAKES IT A POINT TO TRY AND GET TO KNOW EACH OF HIS PATIENTS AND THEIR HABITS TO BEST ACCESS A PROBLEM TO COME UP WITH A PLAN OF ATTACK. EXCELLENT PATIENT AND POLITE BEDSIDE MANNER. WITH A WE CAN CONQUER THIS TOGETHER MIND SET.THE ONLY DOWN FALL TO HIS PRACTICE WOULD BE THE OFFICE ASSISTANCE SEEMS TO HAVE A COMPREHENSION BARRIER THAT LEADS TO MISCOMMUNICATION FROM ASSISSTANT TO PATIENT LEADING TO EXTREME FRUSTRATION.