Seth Adam Benkel, MD

Dr, Benkel was informative, personable, kind and considerate. I would highly recommend him, I had previously read a rather unkind review and was a little hesitant. When I met Dr. Benkel my impression was entirely different from what I had read. I could not have been happier with the treatment and care received not only from Dr. Benkel but his entire staff too!!

If you like getting the bum’s rush this is the doctor for you. In a big hurry. Frustrating.

I’m not surprised this doctor only shows one review on google mine being the second. What I am surprised with, is that it’s a 5 star review. Well let me tell you something good to know about Dr. Benkel. I have a family member that has been in the hospital for a now diagnosed tumor. The family has been waiting anxiously for the results of the biopsy which both the hospital and Dr. Benkel keep telling us different dates for results. As a family member it’s extremely scary not knowing with certainty what is it that is menasing your loved one’s health. You would think that these doctors being the professionals, the specialists in the matter, would be a little more understanding and sensitive to these type of situations. Well not Dr. Benkel. He’s extremely insensitive, and gets easily annoyed when you start asking him questions. He gets very rude over the phone, and he is very blunt when giving you sensitive information. Finally, we were contacted by his assistant Joanne who was absoloutly… lovely over the phone and advised us that Dr. Benkel sent the message that he was going to send my family member to a different oncologist in Westchester. When I asked the reason why, and if he had already gotten the results Joanne said yes. I immediately asked to speak directly with him so that he could give me an explanation regarding the results to which request he was annoyed and when he came on the phone he was the most rude, cold hearted, insensitive human being I had ever spoken to. His words were, “I was telling my secretary to tell you that I can’t take care of your ‘family member’ because he has cancer and it’s a sever tumor, I don’t specialize in these type of tumors and he needs to go see someone more specialized in Westchester” and before I could’ve even ask anything else he had already hung up the phone on me. I would expect this from a manager over at the local McDonalds, but from a professional specialist of this level?? He knows what he signed up for, he has to know that he’s making important decisions that will directly determine whether some one lives or dies. There’s a lot of emotion involved in this type of career and he lacks the professionalism to do it. Maybe he should’ve been a vetirinarian and deal with animals instead of people. I immediately called back and spoke to his assistant Joanne who immediately apologized on behalf of Dr. Benkel for she witnessed the conversation and how he spoke to me over the phone. She was the most lovely and tender person, extremely nice and understanding, and it was evident she felt my anguish over my family member’s situation. She did nothing but say sorry on behalf of Dr. Benkel. Joanne probably picks up all his slack in order to avoid losing patients who, like me, get disgusted by his poor attitude. She took it upon herself to give me a little more details regarding the results, and gave me very helpful information. That’s all I wanted. Just a little more personalized attention and sympathy to my difficult situation with my family member. If you ever end up in Good Sam and you have to deal with Dr. Benkel, beware. You as the patient always have options and always have the right to ask to be seen by a different doctor. It’s sad and unfortunate that this happened. But I wasn’t going to stay quite. I needed to let people out there know who Dr. Benkel really is.

We found this doctor to be very unprofessional . His bedside manner was poor, he seemed bothered by our many understandable questions and he was unclear as to how to proceed with the serious diagnosis we were dealing with. He also failed to explain the severity of the diagnosis. I would highly NOT recommend.

My sister wasa patient. Although I had her health proxy ,which was submitted to Good Samaritan Hospital, he refused to speak to me.

Dr benkel was fully attentive to my needs and concerns. And I credit him with saving my life!