Visited this practice today as a "meet and Greet", in search of a new physician. My husband is…read moregoing to partial retirement making continuing care at our previous medical oficec...Quad Graffics ..was cost prohibitive at $1000.00 per month.Dr. Maria Mendoza-Lemes as well as her staff could not be any more welcoming. It us always hard to have to find the "right " person to help you with your health..especially as we get older. Her staff was upbeat..even on a Friday. Not just one..ALL of them. DR. Mendoza-Lemes was welcoming, professional, kind and truly genuine. I will finally relax now knowing that I have a caregiver and a supportive office to reach out to. BLESSINGS.

Great doctor, received an accurate diagnosis and treatment that has helped relieve my pain.read more

From the owner: Primary Care/Sports Medicineread more

The Drs. and staff at Highland are all courteous,caring and extremely kind. I have been going to…read morethese Drs. for 21 years and the care they take with each visit is to be admired. I've never waited more than 10 or 15 minutes to to seen, the waiting room is never packed with patients and my ability to get an appointment is outstanding. Thank you Highland .

Went there on Monday to see Dr Tampa. Even though the receptionist was rude and was severely…read morelacking in people skills, I thought the doctor was very competent and she arrived at a quick diagnosis of my injury. She told me that my shoulder/upper back area had some sort of an inflammation and prescribed what she termed as a "potent ant-inflammatory drug" saying that it could upset my stomach and that she would switch the medication if necessary. Also, asked to come back the following morning after fasting for a blood test to check my cholesterol. So far so good, I was a satisfied customer. The prescribed drug seemed to work really well, and I was relatively pain-free that evening until I started getting terrible stomach cramps followed by repeated visits to the bathroom that night. No big deal I though, the doctor warned me about this and I could ask her to switch to the alternative when I go in for the cholesterol test in the morning. Here is where I start getting a bad taste in my mouth. As you will see, I am going to experience surly customer service from the receptionist and clinical action that could potentially endanger my health. The following is my interaction with the receptionist: ME: I had a bad reaction from my prescription last night. Can I please talk to the doctor so that I can have it switched. RECEPTIONIST: Do you have an appointment with the doctor? (you can know she is annoyed by her tone and look) ME: No, But I am having this problem with my medication and I need to know what to do next. RECEPTIONIST: I don't know if she is in. (I thought it was really weird that she didn't know if the doc is in at 9:15 am! I thing, Is this place run so loosely?) ME: Can you please find out? RECEPTIONIST: What? (And that look again!) ME: Can you please find out if I can talk to her? I need to know if she wants to take that medicine again tonight. RECEPTIONIST: She is really booked tight, she can't talk to you! (She is still not telling how I can resolve my problem with the reaction to the medication. For a moment, I wasn't sure what the next step was.) ME: I can wait. (I go and sit in the waiting area) RECEPTIONIST: So you want to see the Dr T? What is the reason again? ME: Yes please! I am having a problem with my medication. RECEPTIONIST: (Walks inside and presumably talks to the doctor and comes out after a long time. ) Well, like I told you, the doctor is really booked tight. She will call you later today. (Phew! Finally a resolution) ME: Thanks. I am fine with that. Now, here is the medically dangerous stuff. I have a voice mail for one of the doctor's office staff telling me "The doctor has called in another prescription for you. If that upsets you stomach you should take some Pepcid for it." Here are the problems with this encounter: 1. Neither the doctor nor a qualified nurse spoke to me and understood my reaction to the original medication. 2. The only communication with me regarding the changed prescription is the very brief voice mail. 3. There is no mention on whether to continue with my original medication along with the new one. I assumed that it is being switched based on my recollection of a single snippet of conversation with the doctor. The tenous communication chain went as follows: ME :-: Disinterested Receptionist :-: Doctor? :-: {Pharmacist, Staff Member} :-: ME. This could be pretty dangerous since there was nothing explicitly asked of me or told to to me by anyone. 4. It was obvious that the office did not want me call back for any clarifications. I was left with the impression that the doctor already spent the 10 mins needed to diagnose the problem and I already paid my co-pay therefore any additional time spent was wasted, non-productive time from their perspective.

I started seeing Dr. Mendoza-Lemes after my family physician moved to a different role. Both my…read morewife and I love Dr. Mendoza-Lemes. She is very friendly and personable. I've seen her a number of times and never felt like she was rushing to move onto another appointment. I'd recommend her to anyone looking for a family Dr. or pediatrician.

I had a good experience. The nurses are friendly and are available to answer all your questions…read more Dr. Ramanaujam prepares a thorough write-up that you get upon discharge which is helpful since you are not fully there while in recovery. They have streamlined all the procedures that Rohan D. was talking about and everything is pretty much online, so no problems there.

Dr. Srihari Ramanujam is a highly qualified internal medicine specialist with a G.I. sub-specialty,…read moretrained at the Medical College of Wisconsin. He saved my life, when my routine colonoscopy revealed pre-cancerous sized polyps. In spite of reminders from my primary care physician and other medically trained relatives, I was procrastinating the process for lame but obvious reasons In an unfortunate coincidence I heard about two friends of friends who died suddenly and prematurely, younger than me (younger than me!) because of insidious colon cancers. Here, by the way, is the proper use of the word, as insidious means a hidden, dark, entrapment - a gradual, unnoticeable process that results in serious harm (not exactly a synonym for evil, it's an adjective that can modify the word evil). Dr. Ramanujam's bedside manner is excellent, which is an absolute requirement for gastroenterology, I think I mentioned, for obvious reasons. My "procedure" (what a euphemism) was at the 375 River Parkway location in Glendale, (not to be confused with Columbia St. Mary's clinic actually named "the Glendale Clinic," which is in Brown Deer!), where his clinic staff is remarkably tactful, disarming, considerate, polite, and obviously alert, attentive to detail, competent. Unlike too many uneducated medical staff, those younger than me respectfully referred to me as Dr. de Silva, rather than treating me like a child ("Mr. Rohan," how insulting that is!), you so need the little shreds of dignity when you're in a hospital gown reeling from the humiliating "colon prep" (uggh). Okay, so why give a man who saved my life four instead of five stars? Well, it's not exactly his fault, but he works for Columbia St. Mary's, who, if you can consider corporations to be people, is something of a rapacious money-grubber, belying the expensive advertising suggesting that patient care is their primary motivator. Way back when I was diagnosed with sleep apnea, the physician ordering the sleep study made herself my primary care physician on the paperwork (without my knowledge). Then, because my insurance pays for sleep studies, every year with her tacit approval the sleep study clinic hits me with phone calls, and letters trying to scare me into getting follow-up sleep studies. Although my insurance would pay, since there's a standing physician order, there is no medical reason for annual sleep studies once a CPAP has reduced the sleep apnea threat, it's an expensive procedure that does not need to be repeated regularly (unlike colonoscopies or eye exams). Then, before this procedure, I got a dozen (no exaggeration) phone calls from different people representing Columbia St. Mary's, but since their priority was checking on my insurance status (the wallet biopsy), important medical preparation instructions weren't prioritized, or missed entirely. If I followed the phoned in instructions for the colon prep (uggh), I would have been behind schedule, but instead I followed the instructions from the pharmacist and on the box itself. Written instructions actually sufficed, but on the phone one of them gave me the wrong clinic address (actually a bit understandable, as I was supposed to go to the clinic in Glendale, not the "Glendale Clinic," but why would you name the clinics this way?). The worst was a frightening series of calls from their outsourced "preregistration" "Service." Preregistration, not a word by the way. The day before, when I was already preoccupied with the "colon prep," (uggh), I got a very suspicious call from a highly inarticulate woman purporting to be working for "preregistration," (not Columbia St. Mary's) asking me the sorts of questions one would need for either identity theft or house burglary. You know how you know that the Nigerian Prince e-mail scam is a scam because the spelling and grammar is so weak? Same reason to suspect this caller. Although I cut that call off halfway, I was still so worried about what information I did give I didn't sleep at all the night before the procedure, though I wonder how well I would have slept given the "colon prep" (Uggh.). She was asking all sorts of information that the hospital should already have, without any reassuring reason. I think that's because there is no reassuring reason, they (the institutional "they") just have all sorts of redundant processes to insure patient ability to pay. I was about to use a metaphor (pay out of the nose) that would be inappropriate on two or more levels. Okay, so if you're over 50, get a colonoscopy. If you want the best, schedule it with Dr. Ramanujam. Be prepared for the Columbia St. Mary's shake down before your "procedure," it's as bad as the "colon prep," (uggh), but the the lead-up to the colonoscopy is the only bad part, the actual procedure in the clinic is not at all unpleasant because of the staff at the clinic.