Allegheny Center for Digestive Health

"I have been trying to make an appointment with this practice for the last past two years, and every single time I have an appointment scheduled the office cancels my appointment and reschedules it for a later date (giving me less than 48 hours notice of the cancellation of that appointment) then will reschedule that appointment that they cancelled for a much later date (usually about six months later). The office will once again, cancel the new appointment, with the same less than 48 hours notice, and reschedule that appointment for a later date, again being about six months out. This has happened FOUR TIMES to me!!! They give absolutely no reason (when directly asked) for the cancellation of my appointment each time they cancel!!! I have been without gastrointestinal care for two years while waiting to get in with a doctor at this practice, and most of my health problems are GI related. I have told them this EACH time they have cancelled my appointment and they do not care at all, and are unwilling to help me out by referring me to another GI practice/doctor. I completely understand that they are a busy practice, and I have been super patient with them over the past two years, however cancelling my appointment four times and being unwilling to refer me to another GI doctor/practice that can actually fit me into their schedule and help me is completely unacceptable and unprofessional! I would NOT recommend this practice to anyone!"

"Took me six months to get an appointment which they then canceled on me. Finally had a virtual appointment a month later and did an upper endoscopy. Couldn’t get a follow up for over two months from the upper endoscopy. Then they canceled on me again and cannot schedule me for four more months. I tried reaching out to schedule and both times the scheduler told me they would reach out to the office and have them contact me to get me in sooner since they were the ones that canceled on me. They never called me and when MyChart app they disabled me being able to respond so I cannot even contact them with questions. They do not care and it’s impossible to actually be seen because they cancel your appointments all the time and then make you wait months for another appointment. Would not recommend and extremely frustrated that I wasted an entire year trying to get a diagnosis."

"I was hospitalized at AHN in Wexford. Beautiful hospital, great nursing staff. I was seen by Dr. Katie Farah. My initial experience with her was good but after my endoscopy, she vanished into thin air never to be heard from again. I was discharged and given a referral for further testing at the Allegheny Ctr for Digestive Health. I tried for a full week, (multiple phone calls and messages through MyChart) to speak to a person to get an appt scheduled for this much needed test (as I am still having serious symptoms) and I never received a call back. I tried Dr. Farah's office three times as well...no call back. I've never experienced such poor follow up care. I ended up switching to a practice under UPMC. I hope I have a better experience there."

"Once I actually got an appointment that they didn’t reschedule on me (which wouldn’t be a big deal if the reschedules weren’t many months out)… the care team here was good. They can do endoscopy and colonoscopy in the same procedure which is a big plus compared to somewhere like Pittsburgh Endoscopy. AHN scheduling and coordination of care still leaves much to be desired as a hospital system."

"Regarding the Pittsburgh Office: I waited seven months for my initial appointment. I understand that, but if you have the option to go ANYWHERE else, I would strongly suggest that you do. As a retired medical professional, I cannot imagine doing a biopsy on a patient of mine and making them wait two months for the results, results obtained through an in-house pathologist, but that is what is done here. Prior to the liver biopsy, phone calls were never returned by the nurse who said to “call anytime with any questions”. His voicemail said he would call back within 24 hours. Three weeks later, I spoke with a nurse of another doctor in the practice(after being advised by others within AHN, to use the doctors’ line since no one at the office was answering the phone) and she sent an email, while I was on the phone, to my assigned doctor’s nurse to call me. She said if he doesn’t call you by the end of the next day, to call her back, giving me her direct number/extension.(God bless this woman for caring). Of course he didn’t call so I called her and she did get him on the line. He never apologized and couldn’t have cared less about the necessary additional information prior to the biopsy. I changed insurances so that I was able to go to a UPMC Hepatologist. I received the AHN biopsy results from my new hepatologist(as well as on the portal). He requested an additional test on the biopsy slides through a UPMC pathologist. I cannot be more pleased with the care and responsiveness of UPMC’s Dr. Malik, his nurses and support staff."