Dr. Joy Celeste Sheppard, MD

Completely mismanaged care from the office staff to the quality of the services provided. I'm not even sure if my tests were completed properly but now that my insurance has been billed I can't seek repeat of the tests performed.

I have never felt strongly negative about a doctor but I don't think I can see myself returning to Dr. Sheppard. It's hard to describe how insensitive this doctor was to me. I wanted an ultrasound and was referred to her by my OB. Dr. Sheppard was trying to change my mind the entire time I was in the office. She wanted me to have an amnio instead. I explained to her again and again that I understood the pros and cons of each b/c my OB ad I had discussed it, but she adopted an almost petty, even childish tone when I resisted the amnio. She kept returning to the topic of the amnio, and was sullen and quiet beyond that. She offered really very little comment on the US images and findings between the snide remarks about my decision. The sum of the office visit was it became an exercise in personality management rather than an opportunity to learn about my baby and find some relief about my concerns.

My feeling about this doctor is that the actual doctoring leaves a lot to be desired. I arrived early for my morning appointment and still had to wait for about 30 minutes to get to the examination room. There was only one other patient waiting and she arrived after me. The sonographer saw me first and when Dr. Sheppard finally came in she was impersonal and preoccupied. The evaluation was superficial. She left the room and i heard her ask the front desk if someone was still holding on the phone.

I think the most important thing about the doctor is the doctor. True, the staff and the appointment and parking etc are all very helpful. The problem with Dr. Sheppard is Dr. Sheppard. She is simply intolerably short and insensitive. For God's sake all of medicine is about caring for people but this specialty is especially about it. She treated me like I am a question on a chalkboard. She talked about my baby and me like I wasn't there. I could not get a whisper of kindness, not a glimpse of encouragement from this woman. This was a joyless, soul-robbing experience. She should be teaching medicine instead of doing it, except it would give students a poor role model. Maybe she'd be better in a lab somewhere.

This was the first time we saw this doctor about a high bp issue in my pregnancy. The staff is nice and helpful and the office is nice and there is plenty of parking. The wait time was pretty long, they said the doctor got hung up that morning, we were the first scheduled appointment.Dr. Sheppard came in after the hurse saw us first and seemed harried and preoccupied. I've seen other reviews where she was short with the father, and she was that way with us too. She was just fine until she got needlessly rude to my husband and that seemed to change her mood for the rest of the exam. She just changed at that point and things were uncomfortable from then on. And its not like he said anything inappropriate. She just snapped at him and was curt the rest of the exam. She got hard to talk to and she just seemed to completely change her mood for good.

Dr. Sheppard seems like she has an anger just under her skin all the time. She is hard to talk to b/c she only likes to talk, not listen, and when i tried to say some things she was very rude to me. And she seems arogant. They said she is under a lot of strain right now and you can tell. She was mad for no reason.

Although Dr. Sheppard's office and staff were very helpful and friendly, I felt that she was lacking in her recommendations for treatment. She was extremely knowledgable about the rare condition that I was diagnosed with, and went into extreme detail when explaining the condition, and how it occurs. Unfortunately she did not feel necessary to take any precautions or manage my pregnancy any different. After doing my own research, I have discovered just how serious the condition is (untreated cases result in almost 95% infant mortality). It was clear that following her recommended treatment plan (or lack thereof) would have likely occured in a poor outcome. Because my primary OBGYN was going along with her recommendations, I had to seek medical treatment elswhere,more than half way through the pregnancy. My new doctor and specialist agreed that I should be hospitalized at 28 weeks for daily monitoring, and bed rest, and c-section should occur no later than 35 weeks, due to the… possibility of fetal hemorrhage. Dr. Sheppard's staff also required that I pay a large sum toward my insurance deductable before treatment, although I had met my deductable with my primary OBGYN, but the system had not been updated. I received confirmation from my insurance company, after the fact, that the visit should have only required a co-pay amount. I still await the difference to be refunded despite numerous calls.

Some of the office staff was very good, the sonographers were amazing, nice and caring. Tanya who is no longer there was always very curteous and tried to help with any problem I had. Dr. Sheppard though, was not very caring in my opinion and through my whole visits, she is the reason I would not suggest her. The front office staff seemed under-qualified and just wasn't very coordinated with the other office staff. It also seemed that they went through some people in the front office so maybe that was the problem.