Gastroenterologists who are Physicians - San Pedro, CA

"Upon arrival at the Digestive Care Consultants lobby, we were informed by the office staff that Dr. Sattler was not on-site but would be arriving shortly. After waiting about 5-10 minutes, we were taken in to the exam room by a nurse. The office staff was extremely attentive and friendly. Dr. Sattler did not enter the exam room until 4:57pm. He was almost an hour late, and his demeanor already felt very negative. Although he was very late, I wasn't upset because I was more excited about getting back into treatment and concerned with addressing my flare-up symptoms. I explained that in my previous treatment history with Dr. Patel, I stopped treatment when Entyvio and Remicade were my only remaining options. Since Entyvio had brain infection/death as a possible side effect, I wasn't ready to go that route and Remicade was an infusion therapy drug which also concerned me. He rudely interrupted me and said, "There's no brain infection." I replied that I had read about the brain infection/death risk as one of the possible side effects in the Entyvio pamphlet Dr. Patel had given me. Dr. Sattler rolled his eyes, snickered, and condescendingly repeated, "There's no brain infection." Then, I explained that regardless of whether brain infection is or isn't a side effect, I wasn't interested in trying Remicade nor Entyvio at that time. Dr. Sattler dismissively snickered and stated, "then there's nothing we can do for you." I was astounded that he had already come to this conclusion within just a few short minutes without: * discussing my current symptoms * completing a current colonoscopy * reviewing current lab work He seemed resigned to simply end my appointment there. It wasn't until I pressed for a current coloscopy that any new treatment options were even discussed. I tried to restart our interaction and get back on track, by pleading, "I think we have gotten off to a bad start. I brought in some questions, so maybe we could review them together." My first question was whether Crohn's disease had already been ruled out, his response was, "It doesn't matter, because both are treated the same way." Dr. Sattler is 100% wrong...to me, it does matter! Although it doesn't matter in his world, I for one, would like to know definitively which disease has upended my entire life. During the remainder of my appointment, he continued to speak to Mike rather than me and rolled his eyes whenever I would speak. It was blatantly obvious that Dr. Sattler was unsympathetic to my severe symptoms and was uninterested in treating me, so I walked out of the exam room and let him know that I would be complaining to the Office Manager. The fact that four members of the office staff came out to the waiting room to apologize for Dr. Sattler's disrespectful behavior, yet he never apologized, speaks volumes about his lack of professionalism and compassion. There isn't a single positive thing that I can say about my appointment with Dr. Sattler. I left Digestive Care Consultants feeling devastated by the outcome of my appointment and hopeless of ever being able to achieve remission."

"I had the appointment set up for a week after my discharge from UCLA Medical Center and they said he spezializes in celiac disease. Therefore, I was glad because my case of celiac disease was so severe. I only spent about 5-10 minutes with him, and spent over and hour a half with the dietitian. He said to call when I ran out of pain and nausea medication. I called back two weeks after because I was trying to stay off everything and listen to what the dietitan had said but it didnt work. I finally called his office again a week later and he finally returned my call and was very rude, and said I must not have listened because I should start to feel better and that maybe I need to come back and see the dietitan again, not even see him. I am sticking to my original GI doctor because he is not worth the money, drive, or time. I had over 17 different doctors in a 2 month period and not one of them was as rude and unprofessional as him. "