After waiting well over an hour to be seen by Dr. Tao (as everyone there waiting), he quite literally sat in front of me and my father for less than two minutes. As he tried to hurry and scoot out the door, I raised my hand to stop and ask him a question. He seemed put out that I stopped him, and told me to ask another doctor, that wasn't 'his thing'. I'm seeing rave reviews about him as a surgeon. I can't speak to that, but I can speak to his bedside manner and his get in/get out manner of handling a follow up appointment regarding some brain bleeding my dad had. It's not acceptable. Is our time not important? Is Dr. Tao's time SO valuable that he can't even pretend to sit and listen and care for more than two minutes? This type of behavior is a common occurrence in the medical profession, but that does not make it right. Dear Dr. Tao, please consider that your patients are looking to you as their medical advisor, and taking just a few minutes to sit and act like you care shouldn't be that hard. It's your job. Please do better in this regard. Thank you.

Submitted July 25, 2022

He did my cervical fusion in 2007. I didn't care for his bedside manner but at that time he wasn't too bad. He made my incision on the right side of my neck. I found out later that it should be done on the left so as to avoid injuring the voice box. Thankfully mine is fine, but I have no idea why he did it on that side? In May 2016, I went back and had an MRI done on my neck again and also on my thoracic that I had to fight to have done in the first place. The disc below my original fusion is bulging and my thoracic was herniated. He promptly told me the thoracic that I wanted the MRI on because I knew there was a problem "wasn't causing any problem" Then he laughed at me trying to explain my symptoms and later told me I was fat and needed to lose weight... If I have another surgery, I'll be seeing a different doctor.

Submitted Nov. 21, 2016