Dr. Joseph J Abularrage

when I first brought my son to meet him I thought he was a pretty good doctor. then he found out that my now ex-husband and I were in the midst of a divorce. instead of focusing on my child all he kept on brining up is how disappointed he was in "me" not my ex, just how shameless I was to be putting my family through this. Well needless to say I took my son to another pediatrician and he is now over his asthmatic bronchitis and very healthy under the other doctor's care.

My son, from the birth to almost one year old, was a patient of the doctor. It was the worst experience with this doctor. First, my baby was misdiagnosed with horrible illness. We were dragged through so many tests. Then just received the letter stating he doesn't have it, no apology, no explanation. Besides this, doctor doesn't even knows the name of your child. He smiles and looks very friendly but hardly spends time with a child during the visit. He rushes you out without the chance to ask a question. For a slight problem he sends you to a specialist not because he cares about your baby but because all he cares is his reputation and time. He is always overbooked so you will have to wait even if you are on time.There are so many pediatricians, who actually enjoy working with kids. Choose one of those to raise a happy baby and reduce stress in your life. Stay away from this doctor.

This bad review is truly about Angie the outrageously rude office manager. She is the reason we left the practice. Where to start with her I don't know because I don't have one good thing to say about her. She smokes outside of building, always smells of smoke, gross smokers cough, and long unsanitary yellow nails. She is demeaning to staff in front of patients, rude and difficult with patients. My husband had to put her in her place several times because of the way she tried to speak to him. The last straw for my family was when she hung up the phone on me when confronted with a lie regarding some insurance issues! Crazy I know! She has a serious control complex. The doctors are decent, especially Dr. Takla and Sinesi. Dr. Abularrages wife Peggy is sweet, but when I talked to her about my concerns, and the very bad reviews they were getting online about Angie she basically said- "well we don't read the reviews" aka we don't care. In this age of online everything, I think they should… care. Besides why would you not care if your patients are unhappy? Every time I walked into the office the tension was so thick I could cut it with a knife! The rest of the office staff was a constant revolving door. No wonder why. In the end we decided we were not going to pay to send our daughters here anymore. There are so many wonderful doctors in NY, there is just no reason to deal with this type of stuff. I feel silly now staying there for so long. We absolutely love our new pediatrician, and the nice, normal office staff. It makes all the difference. Angie would be great working at the DMV or a used car dealership with her nasty personality. Not with sweet children and their parents. Last word on this practice, stay away!!!!!

Staff is extremely rude, especially Angie. To the point that you cringe when you hear the way she speaks to other patients. Doctors call back hours after contacted for emergency.

Dr. Abularrage gives a lot of consideration to his patients as well as their parents. His office gives the kind of medical care that I know many other patients do not have the advantage of having.

Dr. Abularrage is a very kind and affectionate pediatrician. He works efficiantly and patiently with all his patients and makes sure to do everything he can to help them with what they need.

It is sad to say but I hate visits to Dr. A's office because of his rude staff particularly, Angie. She is interrogative and pawns on money especially missed appointments. She makes it difficult to see the doctors if you owe the 20 dollars for missing appointments. More over she is aggressive and disrespectful.

When we first found Dr. A. we were very impressed with his year after year rating of being one of NY's best doctors. But, after going there for several years that has now faded. I have come to be very dissapointed with him. There are 3 doctors in that office. About him: Dr. A. really loves to boast about his many degrees and status at being Chairman of this and that and being the Head of Pediatrics. While it is impressive, he is definitely not humble. I have noticed that he likes to take the most important cases himself, like the "Apr 9, 2011-YOUR A GODSEND" review below. Of course she was impressed. He actually paid special attention to this child. But, that is not the case with all the patients. When one goes to a doctor's office, especially a pediatrician, you would like for the Dr. to have a certain way with the child. You want the Dr. to make you feel like he really cares for your child. Well, his favorite saying how he gives the same things (vaccines, medicine, etc) to his… grandchildren has already gotten old with me. You can tell that underlying his personality is that of not such a nice person or is a very patient person. At the time of the visit, it's quick and to the point. But, he will not brush you off and I think he is cognizant of that so as to not offend you directly. He stresses the flu shot constantly. And, it's quite annoying, almost to the point of harrassment. I don't believe in the flu shot and should have my wishes as a parent respected and not constantly asked if my children received a flu shot. It feels like he doesn't thoroughly check the child and spends a lot of time writing in the child's chart. He is obsessed with following the recommendations of the American Academy of Pediatrics. But, if you're knowledgeable of them they change their recommendations yearly, such as how long a mother should breastfeed for the benefit of her child. Everything is the AAP this and the AAP that. I'm so fed up with this constant trying to coerce me into doing things to my child because the AAP recommends it. He bedside manners are nil to none. He is not warm with the children. He just checks them and has discussions with the parents. There is no warmness, no joking, no talking to the child, just analyzing. The visits are very quick and to the point. I'm almost afraid to ask him things because he seems to be in a rush all the time. Office staff: The biggest and only crux in the office staff is the Head of the front office, Angie. While I sympathize with her defeating cancer and a stroke, I am infuriated with her behavior and attitude towards parents and her subordinates. When I refused the flu shots, she said I had to sign a "legal document" which had the AAP (again) as its letterhead. I asked her how is this a legal document. She had no justifiable answer. I asked her what if I don't sign it. She said it would be noted in the file. Well, this threat of intimidation did not sit well with me at all! How dare you try to inimidate me with this bogus threat like we're back in the McCarthy era. She is very rude and does not treat her subordinates nicely. If you've been going there for a long time you should have noticed the HIGH turnover in staff. People don't like to work with her. I've talked intimately with staff over the years and they have expressed her overbearance and how she tries to control them. It's a pity to treat nice people like crap. She is a smoker and when she comes back from smoking she reeks of it. Her fingernails are yellow-brown and are about 2-3 inches long. They are a very ugly sight and very unprofessional looking. Office policy: You must show your insurance card for them to verify it's what they have on file EVERY SINGLE VISIT. This is the first time I have encountered such a policy anywhere during my entire life. It's ridiculous! It's annoying and frustrating. Angie knows who you are by name and yet, it never fails, you must show the insurance card. They do not like it if you don't have the copay for the visit. They only take cash. But, it's ok for them if they don't have change. They will credit your next visit. In this case, what's good for the goose is NOT good for the gander. They do hold your spot for 15 minutesif you're late. But, after that everyone else goes before you and you could be there easily for over an hour. They are open on Saturdays. But, the policy is to not answer the phone. You have to leave a message and wait more than a half hour to receive a return call. I've had situations where my child needed to see the Dr. due to illness and had to wait like an idiot for a phone call. The child's urgency or importance is lacking here. They have no call center to reach any of the Drs in case of an urgency, but not an emergency. After hours there is no way to contact any doctors or staff. You have to go to the hospital. They make follow-up visits for the most ridiculous things. They will not combine several things in one visit. You need a visit for very little thing so they can bill the insurance company separately. This is really frustrating because it's costly (copay and gas) and time consuming. My experience: They misdiagnosed, or I should say, gave no clear diagnosis about my child and he ended up in the hospital for 3 nights with pneumonia. He had a raging fever that wasn't going away for 4 days. Within those 4 days, we went to Dr. A's office and was seen by the 2 other doctors and first was prescribed an antibiotic that did nothing becuase he wasn't sure what was wrong, and then 2nd Dr. suggested we could go to the ER if we felt the need. My child looked very very sick and this was his suggestion. He should have insisted we go to the ER immediately. When we arrived at the ER, the nurse immediately knew he had pneumonia by his symptoms and he was given an xray and an IV and antibiotics immediately. This experience has left

dr. abularrage has horrible attitudes and he never knows my kids name. He isn't very friendly and he is nasty to his staff infront of patients. His bedside manner needs alot of work. The hospital needs to see him in action to know who he really is.

Angie the so called office manager is rude, clueless and has no bedside manner. Di=r Abularrage is ok, however his thing is sending you to a specialsist and then he makes you make s follow up visit. He makes up what he does at visits and charges the insurance company false claims. He will not combine 2 things in one visit ie flu shot and filling out a school form. Everything is a seperate visit to charge more.