Dr. Kalpana Shanmugam, MD

"Dr. Shanmugam has been intergral in the success of my son the past five years. From the beginning, she has been responsive, detail oriented, caring and really took time to get to know my son and ensure he was getting the best care. She was careful with medications, so we did not have any confusion as to what worked and what did not. She truly cares about my son and his success. We are moving out of state and I honestly do not know what we will do without her. She's caring, responsive and devoted to the care of my child, and by exentsion, our entire family. She has guided us through the sometimes overwhelming world of psychiatry. I'm so thankful we found her!"

"While our overall experience with Dr. Shanmugam was less than average, a final event with her presented a significant safety risk for our son with zero regard or empathy on her part. Outside of appointments, she is unresponsive and unreachable. This sentiment seems to be shared throughout the entire practice. Our experience and other reviews show that Dr. Shanmugam likely should not be practicing, at least when it involves children."

"Dr. Shanmugam is a fantastic listener who takes the time to understand my child's concerns and asks the right questions. My child trusts her and feels comfortable sharing their thoughts and feelings, knowing that they are being listened to with care and compassion. I also appreciate Dr. Shanmugam's commitment to addressing any concerns we may have. She is highly committed to providing the best possible care to her patients."

"While Dr. S may be a good fit for some families, she was not for us. She is very friendly and easy to talk to; however, she seemed to think that my teenage son and I had a weird relationship because he talks to me about everything. She told him he needed to talk to other people about his issues, not just his mom because there would be certain things in life he should NOT discuss with me. WHAT?! I think we have the healthiest parent-child relationship I've ever seen. He's been on medication for ADHD and anxiety for years, but she wanted to take tiny baby steps with every med or dosage change we made. Both my son and I felt she was not really listening to what HE needed, but was sort of following a formula for everything we discussed. A final issue that we had with Dr. S was how she just ignored my experience with teenagers and acted like I didn't know what was normal for teens. I've been teaching high school for 25 years!!! I'm pretty sure my experience outweighs hers, but that was never taken into account in our discussions. It was like, "You may work with a hundred kids on a daily basis, but that's not what my psychiatry manual says." My 15-year-old even picked up on the attitude and mentioned it several times after we met with Dr. S."

"I am utterly blown away by the treatment of this woman. I had a new patient video visit with this doctor and checked in to the My Chart app and completed the assessment 15 minutes prior to my 9:00am appointment time as instructed by the receptionist who made my appointment. I was settled in to zoom by 8:54am and began waiting for the host (Dr. Kalpana) to start the meeting. At 9:24 she popped up on the screen and with 0 introduction began to scold me for being 24 minutes late to her appointment. When I began explaining how odd that was and how I completed my check-in process early and had been waiting on her she rudely interrupted and said "well what do you want me to do for you?" Regardless of if this was a connection issue or technical difficulty, she was completely misunderstanding and her tone was incredibly demeaning with a physical scowl on her face. When I expressed that I did not wish to continue to work with someone who treated their patients this way, I received an eye roll and the call quickly ended. I have never been treated with such disregard/disrespect at ANY establishment. Ever. I am shocked however, I appreciate the kind receptionists at her office who are already helping me find an alternate doctor. Highly suggest that her video visits be recorded and reviewed by the board. I am saddened to read that others have had a similar experience. I am not a sensitive person, and this is the first time I have ever felt compelled to leave a review in my life. Someone needs to investigate."