Dr. Joyce Pyun Cho, MD

I think Joyce Cho is an insensitive bully. As of this 11/2017 writing she is a PAMF “Hospitalist” at Washington Hospital in Fremont, which means she is the primary doctor overseeing care for PAMF patients who are admitted to Washington. I had a trip and fall, broke 3 ribs and punctured a lung. After the ER, and by the time I was admitted, I'd been without sleep for 26+ hours. I was exhausted. About 10am, almost as soon as I was settled into the room, Dr. Cho came by and started grilling me on my complete medical history, in a fast-talking and aggressive way. I'd never met her before. I told her right away that I needed to sleep and asked if she could come back later in the day, but it was as if she hadn't even heard me. She just kept pushing and pushing, asking question after question. I refused to answer and kept asking her to come back later. She finally did leave and I was able to get a few hours of much needed sleep. Dr. Cho returned in mid-afternoon with a bad… attitude, and a huge chip on her shoulder. Instead of just asking me the questions she tried to ask that morning, she said things like: “Now that I'm here bothering you again, what do you want to tell me?” I suggested she ask the questions she'd wanted answered that morning, but she didn't seem to want to ask them at this second visit. She was full of negativity, and acted very unprofessionally--almost as if she wanted to provoke a fight. Finally, I suggested that perhaps I should ask for a different doctor, at which point she said that perhaps she needed to have witnesses to her interactions with me! I think that Joyce Cho does not have the right temperament to be working with people (especially sick or injured people). She doesn't seem to have any empathy or flexibility which might allow her to adapt to the needs of the patients she serves. During the brief time she was assigned to me, she ordered multiple drugs and treatments for me, but did not bother to tell me this, or to explain what they were all for. She behaves as though she is omnipotent and the patient is her puppet. For anyone unlucky enough to be assigned to Dr. Cho as your Hospitalist at Washington Hospital, Fremont, I recommend that you immediately ask to be assigned to a different doctor. Say this to Dr. Cho, say it to the Nurses, and say it to everyone you can until the change is made. I was assigned to a different Hospitalist by the next morning—one who listened and treated me with respect—and that made a huge, and positive, difference.