Dr. Raul Romea, MD

Dr. Romea has been absolutely fantastic, truly compassionate and knowledgeable in his field. He's taken the time to understand my condition, explain everything clearly, and develop a treatment plan that really works for me. I've seen significant improvement in my health under his care, and I feel confident in his expertise. His bedside manner is warm and reassuring, which has made a big difference in my overall experience. I highly recommend him to anyone looking for a top-notch rheumatologist.

Everyone is different with diagnosis and health. There are many patients that are sick and expect to be treated as if the doctor is their mother. From my point of view in life and how Lupus has been treating me. Be patient and Kind. This man sees over 20 patients a day, 5 days a week. The front desk staff is pleasing and hands themselves very professionals as the doctor does as well.

I have a rare disease and Dr. Romea listened he gave me additional tests because other doctors didn't done them. I appreciate his professionalize. I gave him five stars.

Dr. Romea is the manifestation of all that is wrong with the current medical system. I was given an "urgent" referral to his office for chronic and debilitating pain. It took 5 months to get an appointment. On the day of the appointment, he was nearly two hours behind. When I mentioned his grave tardiness, he just laughed and said, "Yeah... it happens" However, if a patient is more than 10 minutes late he cancels the appointment and charges them $20, so I know he believes his time is the only valuable time. During my visit, his ego was lodged so deep in his ears he could not hear me. He said, "You do not present like you have lupus. Its probably not lupus. You should look up the symptoms of lupus to see if you have them." I asked why and pointed out that the medical records he had up on the screen showed lupus had been ruled out twice in the last 18 months. I clarified I was familiar with the symptoms of lupus and had about 60% of them, however I also had 65% of the symptoms… for schleroderma and 80% of symptoms for MS. He just looked at the chart and said, "So you will look up lupus, right?" I stated four times during the appt that my pain becomes totally debilitating and I am unable to work or care for myself. I told him the medication other doctors have used successfully in the past. He refused to prescribe it because it is unclear why the medication works. Instead, he prescribed a drug that is used to treat lupus, which has been successfully ruled out twice for me. I took two doses of the drug and had an extreme allergic reaction. His office does not have an answering service or even a voice mail. When I managed to get through to a secretary, she relayed my message. He said stop taking the medication and do nothing for the debilitating pain for six weeks until my next appointment. This man is the living definition of an @$$hole. He has no care for patients and only is working for billable hours. DO NOT USE THIS DOCTOR

This is the worst person take your loved ones to. I highly questioned his training and ethics. Poor excuse for a doctor who can't seem to understand patient treatment. Every time i went back he forgot who i was or my treatment plans were. Several times gave me wrong meds that i did not need making me feel worse. English is so bad cannot understand him. He and his staff has poor communication skills. Office is unprofessional, tables and chairs looks like they were from the thrift store. They wont ever call you back if you needed something.

I saw this doctor twice in 2010. The first visit he prescribed Plaquenil for one month. When 30 days later I reported no change in my symptoms he took me off the Plaquenil and said he didn't see any reason to continue seeing me. He was very apathetic and cold, like it didn't really matter that I had suffered a drastic decline in health at 23 years of age. He said it might be mild lupus, might be some vague autoimmune disorder, shrug, he couldn't be bothered and seemed annoyed. He treated me like a hypochondriac and said the malar rash, which was disfiguring to me and drew attention from people all the time, was, "No big deal." I later found out that Plaquenil takes 3-6 months to start working, so his ignorant mistake (or gross lack of ethics) delayed my treatment unnecessarily. I went to this doctor with hematologic abnormalities (which he never went over with me or even mentioned, even though they were showing up on tests unknown to me at the time), joint pain, inflammation,… fatigue, anxiety, confusion, headaches, fever, constant flue-like symptoms, swollen glands, malaise and a butterfly rash. He said, "Depression hurts," and convinced me to go on an antidepressant even though I had no history of depression. But he didn't want to follow-up with me at all. Said I could go back to the low-income clinic, which was basically a nightmare I was hoping to leave behind after getting the referral to a Rheumatologist. I had a severe cardiac reaction to the Fluxotine and I have had a heart murmur ever since. Not only did the "Prozac" not make any difference in my symptoms, I felt more anxious and unwell. I went off cold turkey, which caused a lot of problems too. I had a personality change and lost friendships and a job due to my erratic behavior. I stopped believing in God or anything spiritual. I was suffering a terrifying reaction to this unnecessary drug while my lupus got worse without treatment and I felt out of control to do anything. I didn't even realize what was going on because I felt so sick and confused and disoriented all of the time, and I had no doctor or insurance. I had no family support and everyone including myself assumed I was just a loser. Five years after the symptoms began I have a definite SLE diagnosis, and I am FINALLY starting Plaquenil, which in 3-6 months should help me feel better. Don't accept some wishy-washy doctor who tells you it's all in your head or your health isn't a "big deal". It's not normal for a 23-year-old to feel the way I did. It's not fair to compare me to his patients who are worse off, elderly infirm with kidney failure, and make value judgments against me, my insurance, or whatever he did. (I had CMSP/MediCal state insurance so I am sure this had something to do with his lack of enthusiasm) Lupus gets WORSE if left untreated and can cause irreversible damage to organ tissues. I might have heart damage now, either from untreated Lupus or the Prozac (Fluxotine) he insisted on. This doctor is not just cold and uncaring, he is dangerous. He is putting people's lives at risk by not administering the correct treatment. He pushed an unnecessary and dangerous antidepressant, which has caused heart failure in some people, without any counseling or follow-up; and he FAILED to give me the correct treatment for the appropriate duration. It's very hard to believe he didn't know that Plaquenil takes 3-6 months to kick in. That is basic knowledge for doctors in his field. Why stop me at one month when I might have been on the verge of feeling well again? I kick myself for not being more proactive but when you're sick and poor and without support you are trusting the doctor to know what's best. If he had just done his job it would have saved me several years of misery and heartache and hospitalizations. I might already be feeling well again.