Dr. Joel Jay Bauer, MD

**************Stay away from this Doctor!!!************My Aunt has a great and active life prior for the surgery. Post surgery she became confined to a wheelchair and after three horrible years due to the failed surgery she died!!!! He is completely arrogant, and cold!! Dr. Joel Bauer has ZERO consideration, or care for his patients!! After three failed surgeries, first by him then by his associates my Aunt’s life was ruined!!!******* I can’t stress enough: STAY AWAY FROM this INCOMPETENT, COLD AND EXTREMELY ARROGANT DOCTOR!!!******** He doesn’t care about his patients wellbeing!!!

He performed unnecessary surgical procedure without permission resulting in horrendous change of life consequences.

Dr Gelernt was so far superior to Joe Bauer. While GELERNT led the practice, Joel Bauer ego and incompetence were kept under control. Unfortunately, I needed to have a minor revision due to scar tissue and Dr Gelernt had passed away and Dr Bauer ruined the quality of my life. I had no problem at all with Kock pouch constructed by Dr Gelernt for over 25 years. I never had to see him again in 25 years. Due to scar tissue I had a slight intestinal blockage of which I found out later by the nurses and other doctors it could have been unkinked without surgery. Before the surgery Dr Bauer tried to talk me into allowing him to redo the stoma? I was furious. I had no leakage. i had no problems. He remarked he could make it look better. I told him NO. I could see his arrogance so on the surgical permission form in bold letters, I wrote, Do not redo the Stoma. It was supposed to be a hour or less surgery for unkinking. It was Three hours or longer and I woke up with such pain and… a tube in the stoma! He completely ignored me and redid the stoma. And he made a mess out of my abdomen with more sutures by redoing it. I should have been home in a few days but now from his butchering without permission, It was a 10 day hospital and from the day I went home I had leakage. I can't go more than 2 hours without intubating due to leakage. Prior to his stoma revision without permission, I intubated once every 4 to 6 hours. I could go longer If i had to. I golfed, I played tennis , I traveled and dined out often with friends. Bauer changed all of that as I have to intubate so frequently. The stoma does not have the same pin like construction or resistance designed by Dr Gelernt who learned with Prof Kock. The arrogance of Bauer thinking that he would even be in the same realm as Dr Gelernt that he was going to improve the "appearance" of the stoma? He made it dysfunctional.! He made my life dysfunctional And he made the stoma so flush with the skin that it never heals. Often Im in tears when I intubate it is so painful. Gelernt's stoma protruded so that a calous formed and it was painless. Bauer put the stoma inward so the tissues never heal. It feels like a paper cut when I intubate. With that arrogance and ignoring surgery permission document he should have lost this license. I wish I would have sued him to protect others. But I was so distraught at what he did and what i have to live with. which also effects my husband and family....AND IT WAS COMPLETELY UNNECESSARY AND DONE WITHOUT APPROVAL.

I would have rated Dr. Bauer SIX STARS if afforded the opportunity. I have known Dr. Bauer for exactly forty years. I met him the first time in Mount Sinai Emergency Room. Three months prior to that I had my Koch Pouch surgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital and immediately developed complications. Dr. Bauer walked into my room, noted that the pouch had to be revised and said "I will try to put you on my schedule for next week." At that time, he was quite young, around 33-34, and he and Dr. Irwin Gelernt became famous for being the most experienced with the Koch Pouch Ileostomy. Considering his youth and fame when I met him, he understandably exhumed quite a bit of arrogance. He performed the revision the following week and it functioned beautifully for seven consecutive years. Then by age 29 I started developing complications and to make a long story short I had multiple revisions (more than ten) and all of them failed. When I had my last revision and while I was still in the… hospital, it became apparent that this revision will also fail. One morning Dr. Bauer walked into my room and said the following (this is close to verbatim): "If I do one more revision on you I will consider myself a criminal. I am not a criminal; I am a surgeon. You either go back to a Brooke Ileostomy (with a bag) or you find yourself another surgeon." With that he walked out of my room. I was flabbergasted and quite angry about his bluntness. I felt he was being very cruel to put it mildly. When I left the hospital and after I returned to work I called my surgeon at the Mayo Clinic (a surgeon who has done two of my revisions). I told him what happened and asked if he would be willing to do another revision. Without batting an eyelash, he said, yes, I'll be happy to do another revision. I came home from work and had a talk with myself. Which of these surgeons has my interest at heart? As I was carefully going through in my mind the responses from both of them, I came to the conclusion that without doubt it is Dr. Bauer who is truly looking out for me. What I found astonishing was that the surgeon at the Mayo was so willing to do another revision without giving it a second thought. Had he said to me, look, you have had so many revisions, so I think we both should think this through more carefully, and if after saying that he would have still resolved that he is willing to do another revision, I would have determined that it is merely two surgeons with different opinions. But considering my history of multiple revisions, for him to not even take a second to think it through whether another revision was in my best interest, made me feel like I'm nothing more than a guinea pig to him. I was not the only patient who initially had great success with the Pouch but a few years later developed problems. That, without doubt, has an effect on a doctor's ego. It obviously reinforced in Dr. Bauer that medical science has its shortcomings and realized that he truly is not God. I believe that experience humbled him quite a bit. As a result, he became in my view an even better surgeon. If you are looking for someone who will hug you and someone who exudes a lot of warmth, you should go elsewhere. Dr. Bauer can be blunt, at times he may even come across as insensitive but perhaps because I have gotten to know him so well, I came to realize that underneath that facade of omnipotence, he cares deeply for his patients and it is also worth noting that if there is one surgeon who is not in it for the money, it's Dr. Bauer. Throughout the years he has always worked with my insurance and never asked me for a dime more than my insurance was willing to pay. If I ever should need GI surgery again, Dr. Bauer is the only one I would allow to go near me. I'm already worried what I'll do when he retires. Hence I'm hoping and praying that he has a lot more good years ahead of him.

I would not recommend Dr Bauer to anyone. He performed unnecessary surgery on me and without permission.

Dr. Bauer is the best doctor. He operated on my son and saved his life. The operation was 7 hours long and my son went through so much but Dr. Bauer was there for him every step of the way. Dr. Bauer explained everything to us before the surgery but things did come up that were not expected and Dr. Bauer was there to fix it. I will be forever grateful to him. If you have any colon or rectal problems, he is the person to see. The office was terrific to book appointments and billing was very smooth. I recommend them highly and we went to many doctors.

What more can I say: "He saved my life"

Allows inexperienced residents to perform surgery on you. Butcher, IMO.

Dr. Bauer is an excellent surgeon. Wait time for his visits is a bit long, but he's worth it.

I've had multiple abdominal surgeries by a number of surgeons at different hospitals. The reason I find Dr. Bauer the most trustworthy is because he is very conservative. He uses the scalpel only if it's truly urgent and all other alternatives have been tried and failed. Initially he doesn't come across as a warm person but once you get to know him you notice that there's a very caring human being beneath that omnipotent facade. If I need GI surgery, I wouldn't go anywhere else.