Dr. Russ T Shimizu, MD

I recently had an appt with doctor Shimizu after our initial appt I was very pleased. He than initiatiated three different tests on my brain MRI, another one for brain activity and the third test for blood flow to brain all done during a ten day period with three different technicians at three different days and times so now i have had my initial appt with doc shimizu two days later i had an MRI with and without contrast and than another test the following week and one more the week after now i have my last appt with the doctor to review all of my tests and hopefully I now can know why my left hand and fingers dont work. I show up for my last appt yesterday scheduled at 410pm i arrive a little after 4 to make sure Im on time with parking and what not and i sign in and take a seat and wait and wait and watch the clock almost hit 5pm and not one person who was working for the doctor had even bothered to say hey the doc is running a bit late nothing so finally at 5 pm I say I have been… waiting almost one hour and I need to get my son from school no response except in a rude tone from a nurse that the doctor is running late REALLY ???NOOOOO HE IS LOL .....And why Isnt my time just as valuable as the doctors ? what if i showed up an hour late would the doctor have seen me still? needless to say I had to get my child so I left and 24 hours later no call from doctor or his nurses and I have no Idea the results from any of my tests .......WHAT DO I DO ???????? What if its bad news? some people say its not bad news or he would have called but another friend said that happened to her husband he had a heart attack a week after having his scans my point is WHY SHOULD I HAVE TO WONDER i have good health Insurance Im sure they have billed my Insurance company massive amounts and me the patient has to live every hour wondering what did those scans say ????????

Dr. Shimizu is an outstanding doctor. He is extremely intelligent and cares about his patients--like you're a member of his family. I have been his patient for twelve years, and he has been right with me as I have gone through the process of a serious autoimmune neurological illness. I'm grateful to be walking and living--I was in a wheel chair for 18 months. I've been to the so called leading medical institutions in the US for treatment, and learned that these visits were completely unnecessary as Dr. Shimizu knows more than all of them. You will not find a better doctor in this country than Russ Shimizu.

Horrible experience with this doctor and his office staff. Rude, incompetent, and uncaring all around. I have a history of herniated discs and when mine flared up again I went to this neurologist. The first appointment was okay. My goal was to get prescriptions for a sciatic pain med I knew worked for me, an MRI, and physical therapy. As we talked after my initial exam he wrote all those prescriptions quickly and handed them off to me. He repeatedly asked me if I had ever had a spinal injection in my back for the problem, 3 or 4 times I had to say no. Then he said "I'm surprised you got better." THEN the nightmare began. 1. Had to call his office something like 5 times over 4 days (while in a lot of pain) to get my prescription because he didn't specify the type of release (fast/slow) for the medication. Instead of making a judgment call on such he required me to read off an old prescription bottle from a previous doctor. The office people kept saying they would call the… pharmacy and correct it and each time I gave them 2-4 hours leeway but whenever I called the pharmacy, nope no call from the office. Really?! Tired of the crap, I asked if the staff could confirm something with the doctor while I was on the phone with them (to make sure they actually did what they said they would do) and I was rebuffed with "we won't page the doctor unless it's seizure medication." The office didn't call the pharmacy until I left a message on Day 4 begging them to please get it to the pharmacy before Xmas and everything closed because I was in a lot of pain. 2. The pharmacy wouldn't fill another non-urgent prescription because he wrote my name wrong- like totally a different name wrong. 3. I had to wait 30 minutes in an empty office before I was seen for my follow-up. No one greeted me, looked at the sign-in chart, or said anything to me about delays. I had to ask when I'd be seen and I was rudely responded to by office staff. I don't mind waiting, but please acknowledge my existence, it's basic customer service. 4. When I finally saw Dr. Shimizu he didn't seem like he had recently reviewed my file and kept pushing for a spinal injection despite me telling him that I want to stick with conservative treatment. I asked questions about decompression and other things, he didn't seem to be up to date on the latest research. 5. I stopped by the office in between appointments and asked if he would provide a written note to my employer explaining my work limitations so I could work from home while recovering. I dropped off my request a week in advance of when I needed it. They told me the doctor usually charges for notes, seems a bit ridiculous but okay. One week later, I had a follow-up appointment and I asked him about the letter and he had no idea what I was talking about. Either his staff didn't give him the letter or he straight up forgot/ignored it. While checking out I discussed with him the gist what it needed to say. I asked if he could write it today since my employer was expecting it today and I gave it to him a week ago. He said maybe, it depends on how busy he gets. Alright, not a helpful answer especially since they were the ones that messed up. I called the next day to follow-up and I took a firmer tone and his staff got really nasty with me and snapped that he's busy and will get to when he does. I informed them that I was cancelling my next appointment and I wasn't returning. The staff said "Oh so you're cancelling your appointment because he won't write you a note?" To which I responded, "No, I'm cancelling my appointment because of the utterly poor treatment I have received from both the doctor and this staff." Now it's war. It took a call literally every hour all day long to get them to actually write the note (handwritten and did not follow the simple directions provided), which I suspect was done by the staff and signed by the doctor. Ultimately my employer rejected it. In any event, RUDE and DISRESPECTFUL staff and an ignorant doctor. I was treated so poorly that after speaking with his staff I was brought to tears. AWFUL people.

I found Dr. Shimizu's office staff to be friendly and caring. I found Dr. Simizu to be both competent and caring. He demonstrated a great deal of patience with me and spoke in a way that I understand everything he explained to me about my symptoms and diagnosis.I would highly recommend him to others seeking out a well thought out differential diagnosis and therapeutic plan.

Absolutely the very best care that you can get from a neurologist. Does not overbook. Listens to you, spends all the time it takes with you, and sticks with a problem until it is solved. A doctor above all else should be compassionate. Dr. Shimizu is that and a lot more. You can stop looking.

Dr. Shimizu is an excellent listener and open to alternative and Western medicine compromises. He works to problem solve my neurological needs. I trust him.

Dr Shimizu has been my doctor since my Stroke, and amazingly he could understand what I was saying over the phone. My vocal cords were paralyzed. He knew with my type of Stroke that I would not need Rehab. My neighbor upon seeing me looking like the Hunchback of Notre Dame told me to squeeze a tennis ball. I was overwhelmed by the effects of the Stroke and tired easily. Checking with Dr Shimizu about various neighbor's advice, he told me not to squeeze a tennis ball because upon full recovery my fingers will be curled. Instead, he told me to make my fingers spread out looking like a rake and bend from the wrist 20 times twice a day. Since I am running into a woman with my name and her birthday only one month after me, and coincidentally we go to the same dental group and shop at the same stores and go to the same hospital, my records got wiped out at the hospital due to her. I heard of a doctor who stole patient files from the group he worked at on an over-night run, so Dr… Shimizu is smart to keep only his patient's files in his office for protection. My boss in corporate world kept his client files in his office because he didn't want other Vice Presidents in the company having access to his client files. Overall, I like that Dr Shimizu doesn't OVER MEDICATE me for my condition. Regarding me getting TIRED easily from Stroke, he advised me while out at the mall, to sit down every few minutes and REST for 10 minutes, then I can continue to walk to my car. I trust his advice, he's very SMART. I love that he doesn't scare me about my condition, he has good ethics.-----------------------------