Dr. John Hatheway is one of the most dishonest & incompetent pain specialists I have ever used for chronic hypertrophic facet syndrome treatment. He may have technical skills, on some level, but lacks concern for patients and pain that they are experiencing. On at least 3 different occasions this man lied to me, on issues directly related to treatment. It was a 2.5 hour drive (each way) for me to get to his office. I was ahead of time for each appointment. On one occasion a staff member called me when I was 10 minutes away, with a required adult driver per his policies, and was told my appointment was canceled. We turned around, were just about home, when the staff member called again to say I could come in then. If we had driven back, by the time we would have arrived, they would have closed for the day. There was no empathy, either for the long distance, nor for my condition. This doctor refused to perform bilateral RFA's, even though all the ones performed on me by other specialists have been successfully done just that way. That meant two 5-hour drives, with a driver, for each complete RFA. This doctor misdiagnosed what was causing the pain, and recommended a medication pump be implanted, which would have kept me on strong opioids. I returned to a pain specialist that Dr. Hatheway had disparaged (to the point that I considered filing a complaint with the medical board), and an implantation of a neural stimulator was immediately recommended. There is a qualification process that requires staff time, and my current doctor did not hesitate to commit to that process. The neural stimulator works, and I enjoy excellent followup by both my current pain specialist and the manufacturer. This Spokane doctor never offered a neural stimulator as a treatment, and never supplied metabolism test results I signed up for at his suggestion. After making it clear I was returning to my former doctor (in another state), several weeks later his office sent a letter to my current doctor, in effect, "firing" me as a patient! There was never a doctor/patient relationship. That kind of "working together" is critically important with chronic pain. He was argumentative rather than empathetic, and refused to correct major errors in their records. The atmosphere was poisonous, and the deceit and complete lack of empathy were intolerable. Instead of being concerned with the best interests of the patient, a narcissistic "god-complex" permeated every visit. read more