Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center New York - Main Hospital

"No idea what these bad reviews are about because I have been treated with the best care I have ever had at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. Dr Alice Wei and Dr Judge are ROCKSTARS in the type of cancer I had. I am very proactive in my own care, so some of the issues mentioned appear to be from people, who did not properly advocate, for themselves or their loved ones. I was seen and diagnosed immediately and had surgery within a couple weeks. I was placed in a beautiful VIP suite and looked after 24-7 by a bevy of fun and kind nurses, PT people, and maintenance folks. Because I tested positive for Covid after surgery, I was there a week so had tons of great nurses and physical therapists except for one recovery room nurse named Camille — who lied about me not wanting any painkillers (I just didn't want any highly addictive ones!) — and Tara, the last nurse in my room, who tried to rush me out of the room by taking my clothes and throwing them on a chair while I was in the shower. Since coming home, I have had phone calls almost daily checking on my recovery and whenever I ask a question in the portal, it is answered instantly with either a phone call or email back. There are some changes I would make. First, there was an incident where Dr. Wei outright lied to me when I requested a routine scan that is usually done prior to surgery for the type of tumor I had. She inexplicably claimed that the scan was too expensive and that MSKCC did not do them. This was just odd since neither thing was true. That made me a bit nervous at first. However, she saved my life, so I feel so grateful that I found her. Secondly, people need more than 2 days in the hospital after surgery. I was in so much pain there is no way I could've gone home in 2 days, which I would've had to do if I had not had Covid. Also, the pain meds need to be timed with the physical therapy visits so that the patient can actually do the walks/exercises that are required. My PTs kept coming so late that my meds had worn off. Then, I couldn't do the walks. And finally, the drain bags need to be smaller. It makes no sense for patients to have to wear a 600ml drain bag if they are only outputting 20-40ml. Having a smaller bag would be much more convenient for patients, who have to wear a drain for a long time. And finally, patients need a realistic estimate of how long recovery from surgery can be. I was told I would be ok in 2 weeks. But it was 4 months with 6 hospital stays due to complications. I kept returning to work then having to be out again. If I had had a realistic notion of how complicated the recovery could be, I would've just taken the full time off on disability to heal. That said, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center is the gold standard and I am so glad I chose to heal with them. Like anything health-oriented, you need to do your homework and advocate for yourself. There is nothing scarier than cancer, NOTHING! So if you live in NYC, make sure you come here. Because it is the best."

"My daughter was diagnosed with Stage 4 cancer and not given much hope. We went to MSKCC for a second opinion and it was a no-brainer to proceed with treatment there. We hand picked the doctors we wanted on our team and all of them are experts in their field. They even have a special team of doctors for cancer patients under 40. There is a "MSK Lounge" for young adults to hang out in and play video games, watch movies, play pool, just crafts, etc. which is a wonderful place for these patients to go to get out of their room. This is a CANCER center and that's all they do, research and treat cancer. My daughter's treatment has been really rough because of how advanced it is, but they have been with us every step of the way. They are so responsive when we reach out through the patient portal. Scheduling is extremely easy and lab work and test results are uploaded to the patient portal within hours. Dr. Wei, Dr. Connell, Dr. Smith and Dr. Romessar are awesome! I would highly recommend going to MSKCC for the best possible outcome of your cancer treatment!"

"This review is based on the Operator Line experience I had. They were very very rude and made me feel like I was bothering them for calling to ask for help. They asked for the Doctors name and I said just one second I need to find which one because there’s so many that the patient sees and she responded very nasty and asked if I could call back because there was “other people that she needed to help”. I was so uncomfortable that I hung up and didn’t even want to call back because I felt like they didn’t care at all. I hope no one else has to go through this experience."

"This is a review on their international remote consultation services. We didn’t find many reviews when we first decided to do this for my grandpa who lives overseas. For reference, as of now it costs 2500 to get a written opinion and 4000 for a video consultation, where they require the local oncologist to be present. We did the written opinion. Further medical reports e.g. pathology,lab that need to be read incur extra costs. - It took three weeks to get a half page of recommendation by Dr. Andrew Epstein that probably didn’t take very long to write. - The recommendation is not very helpful to the patient as it’s meant for our local oncologist, not for the patient (or we his family) who requested the second opinion. my mum has enough medical knowledge to understand what was written but if you don’t know anyone like that, make sure your local oncologist is ok with you getting a second opinion and reviewing it for you later. - He mistakenly referred to the patient as female, when he is in fact male in the follow up, which shows lack of attention to the case. - He recommend first trying a chemotherapy regime which have already been administered six cycles and shown not very effective for lung metastasis, and didn’t justify why this regimen should be tried again. - No detailed dosages and instructions were given for recommended drugs. - When asked about prognosis, he mentioned that there are so many other factors he does not have access to, but he didn’t ask. The patient summary already indicates that the patient can walk and able to carry on working, but needs medicine to boost appetite. However, he still mentioned that he has no access to such information."

"My experience with their pituitary center was awful. They are not really interested in helping patients. You have to basically “apply” to get in. They gave me the run around just to be considered. I did everything that was asked. Then I was told I was not accepted. I didn’t realize when they asked for certain testing that I’d be turned away without even a consult despite having positive test results. No reason or advice was given. You’d think people with a little bit of human decency and empathy would at least give feedback, especially when you’re supposedly dealing with patients with serious illnesses all the time, but no. In my case my illness is very rare so it’s not like I can easily go somewhere else and get help. I may have to travel to Rochester which is 4 hours away from me to another pituitary clinic. I was honestly shocked by the treatment. I guess today you have to come to expect that people can’t be bothered. I’m not sure why doctors go through the trouble and expense of medical school if they’re not interested in actually helping people."