Dr. Saidat Kashimawo-Akande, MD

I had the misfortune of meeting with Dr. Akande over Doctor on Demand. As someone who is mentally ill, choosing a new psychiatrist/provider to manage my meds is actually terrifying. I worked with someone I really loved for nearly 4 years who is no longer in network. I found Doctor on Demand through my insurance and while I thought the $229 fee was a little steep, I figured it would help me test the waters and get a solid consultation before I decide who to work with long term. The chief reason I needed the visit was to get a refill on a medication that requires blood work once or twice a year. Dr. Akande actually prefaced our session by referring to the little blurb I’d written where I simply said I needed someone to refill that prescription. I guess I was being naive, but I figured she’d ask for lab tests from my previous provider since they were less than a year old, or have me conduct blood work elsewhere. I wasn’t completely out of pills, yet, but I was out of refills. For… whatever reason, Dr. Akande proceeded to chat with me for 20 minutes about my case history. I had paid $229 for a 45-minute consultation, but that’s besides the point. At the end of this twenty minutes, she informed me that she would not refill my prescription because I didn’t have current blood work and my medication “needed to be done once a year.” I wasn’t sure of the specific month, but I had gotten it done well within the past year. She didn’t offer to follow up with my previous provider for those lab tests; she could have easily read them and given me a prescription while I waited to establish care with my next provider. Instead, when I asked her what she recommended when I was dangerously low on pills, she said maybe urgent care would help me. If you’re a psychiatric care provider, shouldn’t you have better solutions? Then she congratulated me about recently beginning a new job and ended our session very prematurely with 25 minutes to spare. Dr. Akande, I don’t know how much of that $229 I paid for this useless meeting goes into your pocket, but it was beyond unethical for you to continue with our session when you knew full well that you would not help me. Not only did you waste 20 minutes of my day, but you needlessly contributed to my fear and anxiety. People like you are why the mentally ill can be so scared to seek proper treatment. For the record, I made an appointment and walked into an Urgent Care 2 hours later. I met with a wonderful nurse practitioner who treated me with respect and kindness. In 30 minutes, she secured me a 3 month supply of my medication, ordered my blood work and let me know I could meet with her or anyone else from the mental health team as a general provider from here on. From my experience with psychiatrist MD’s, they are as lazy and uncaring as can be. It seems that if you’re relatively stable they don’t want to help you at all. This is all to say, if you are reestablishing care after a gap or curious about Dr. Akande, you should avoid her as desperately as she seems to avoid bedside manner, ethics, and transparency.

I left her office feeling very judged and spoken down to. This doctor seemed very cold, as though she just wanted to get me in and out of her office as quickly as possible. She didn't have a compassionate bone in her body.