This is an update.
I have waited since of October of 2014 to write and post an updated review that reflects my last and final encounter with this physician.
This delay was so as to keep the tone as non-personal as possible, with the objectivity that time can afford my perception; Simply put, I didn't want to "lash out", as is so easy for reviewers to do after a negative encounter with a service provider.
I cannot go into many specifics here in this public forum, but if you are a prospective or even current patient (or an attorney representing one of her patients), and would like more specifics as to the situation, I will be glad to discuss it via PM through the yelp message service. If I can help anyone avoid what I went through with her, or, help them move past what they too went through, I will.
So. Should you consider Francis McKinsey as your OBGYN?
All I can say is, please, PLEASE use this physician with caution, especially if you've been suffering from a long-term condition, or you have, you know, emotions in regards to the physical pain you're been suffering (and might let them out during an appointment).
From what I can tell from her other reviews, if your case is simple and guaranteed a quick and routine resolution, you'll probably have an amenable experience. If your case is complex, rare, and/or chronic, RUN, do not walk, to another physician.
The generalities, as per my experience:
She gives an initial impression of empathy, warmth, and patient focus. Once the inital patient-doctor relation phase is over, though, that will wane, and you'll suffer for it either physically, or, in my case, through unprofessional conduct and abandonment.
Dr McKindsey is first and foremost a surgeon. Her surgical abilities were why my internist referred me to her in the first place, and then once again - by the same internist - in regards to my most recent appointment.
There is a cliche that surgeons often have monumental egos and insensitive personalities that can, (but don't always, of course), lead to unpleasant encounters with patients. This physician could be the poster child for this cliche.
NO gynocologist should operate that way, though; The very nature of their specific field requires them to treat patients who often are experiencing some of the most emotional and scary situations life can throw at them. Dedication to the development of good communication and listening skills, patience, and empathetic interactions with their patients is of the utmost importance.
Further, the careful developement of a balanced ego and in reasonable ego-responses are absolutely NECISSITIES when one will be dealing with women stressed by the hormonal and physical influence of pregnancy, or other gynecological conditions/diseases. Dr McKindsey is DEEPLY lacking in this regard.
In my experience, her total lack of verbal investigative skills, coupled with my respectfully - but emotionally - questioning her personal experience in dealing with and treating a rare, non-gynological genetic condition that can effect gynocolocial health, resulted in her verbally condescending, patronizing, and belittling me, assumedly in an attempt to force me into submitting to her opinion. At one point early in the conversation she even rolled her eyes at me.
Yes, admittedly I was an emotional patient, one at her wit's end with 20 years of life-disrupting pain. How she responded will forever be burned into my brain as one of the most humiliating, emotionally painful experiences of my entire life...
I will tell you the following so you know exactly what you could wind up dealing with if you choose her as your physician:
The five-minute-long appointment ended with my being emotionally, and almost physically and publicly shamed, by being frogged-marched PAST her staff and other patients through the office, the waiting room, and out the front door. I was so deeply confused about how it had gone so wrong so quickly that I'd been shocked into silence, just reduced to nothing but sobs, and because of that she callously accused me of needing "psychological help" and threatened to call security. Why? Because I had:
a. cried during the appointment,
b. begged her to help solve a gynocological health issue that has effected every aspect of my life since I was eighteen years old, and,
c. attempted to update her on a new and official diagnosis - by a geneticist at Cedars Sinai - that I'd received that could be effecting this issue.
Because she cannot handle being confronted with normal human emotions, and she lacks basic verbal investigative skills, she can and may very well act with a PROFOUND lack of professionalism.
What it comes down to is this: regardless of what she THINKS the patient is saying to her, her response has the potential to be incredibly, wildly, and disproportionately HOSTILE.
This is what happened to me. I BEG OF YOU, don't let it happen to you. read more
