Lekshmi Nair, MD

I just moved to Chicago and sought medical care in Boston for the past 8 years. My standard of quality of healthcare may be high, but it's a level of care that all patients deserve. In order to seek care for an annual check up before end of year, I chose Dr. Nair due to a referral recommendation from Northwestern. While some of her online ratings were fairly positive, my isolated experience as a new patient with her and at Northwestern was sub bar and unacceptable. Here's why: I felt extremely rushed by Dr. Nair - and I won't tolerate "busyness" as an excuse for lack of due diligence to address patient concerns thoroughly As an educated and prepared patient, I had a list of concerns I wanted to address that are standard discussions during an annual visit and she immediately asked if I wanted to do a "regular" visit versus an annual. Never have I been asked that question before. I would expect proper attention for either type of service. I proceeded to confirm that, as a patient,… that's not in my best interest as the list of items I wanted to discuss should be fully covered under my yearly exam, and to avoid paying for out of pocket expenses (especially since i'm under a PPO plan). She ran through a list of questions without diving deeper into past history (again, I'm a new patient, and no exploratory questions were brought up). When I brought up concerns that were top of mind, she failed to explore further or elaborate/provide insights on my ailments. She failed to follow up on 2 outstanding items before leaving the room abruptly without any clarifications on next steps, asking me if I was all set, nor even bothered to say goodbye. I had no clue that my appointment was done even though I still had more to discuss. Therefore, I ended up waiting in the room for 15-20 minutes. I could've roamed around the office, which presents a concern for security measures, at minimum, not to mention, my time being wasted. After speaking with her supervisor who found me waiting around, I agreed to see Dr. Nair to close out my remaining discussion points knowing this would be a wasted time given that her ego and defense attitude would come forth. I candidly shared with her my honest disappointment with my experience in a respectful manner. And her only response was: so, you want to check out that concern now?" - a more appropriate reaction would be: "I understand your frustrations and I apologize for the inconvenience. What can I do to make this more of a positive visit?" But no, she lacks patient empathy, self-awareness, and genuine care. Medical encounters and one's health is a very sensitive subject and isn't to be treaded lightly. Even more, I dedicated time off of work as a responsible patient to take care of preventative health needs and my option was to either talk to Dr. Nair or reschedule at another time, at an extra added out of pocket expense. Not acceptable. My time and concerns were not valued. When I asked her about birth control options and recommendations, her response was "oh I don't know, there are millions of options", and fails to even bring up any names that I could research. - a conversation of this topic would've been more informative with my past doctor rather than 1-2 min top with Dr. Nair who had no knowledge of my medical history and just prescribed some random option. For someone in the healthcare sector, Dr. Nair's bedside manners and priorities are out of sync with baseline human interest to care for one's overall health versus making it feel like an abrupt transactional event. I am now concerned with her ability to even code my appointment properly given how hasty she was and forgetfulness/lack of care for my outstanding needs. I will be extremely disappointed should I have to deal with billing complications for services that should be covered in an annual check up. While my interactions with the front desk, supervisor, and nursing staff was very positive, I will not be seeing Dr. Nair again, and I will be sure not to refer her to the rest of my community to avoid a lack in proper healthcare. The way she handled her visit is alarming and makes me concerned for what could be dismissed in another's check up that may end up being vital to them. When nurses in the hallway take notice and mention to me that other patients have not been happy with her level of service and inaccuracy to request for appropriate tests, take heed.

Dr Nair is not my normal GP, went to her out of desperation I had been experiencing 100 degree fevers for the past 3 days. I also had sore throat, swollen lymphnodes, coughing. This was my second doctors appointment in 2 weeks for this. My doctor was booked so I settled. She spent a told of 3-5 mins with me. Didn't check my lungs, heart beat, feel my glands. She looked at my throat and goes nothing I can do for you monitor it for a few days. I quickly replied I had for two weeks and now I have 100 degree fever and sore throat. She told me to gargle salt water. When I questioned her about neglect to listen to my heart of lungs, she replied your appointment is 15 minutes and how would that have anything to do with your diagnosis. I can easily say I will never go back there, as I sit at home with my 100 degree fever!