Meredith Halpern, MD

It took me a whole year to get over my experience with Dr. Halpern which is why I didn’t post until now. I beg of you, if you are considering Dr. Halpern, look elsewhere NOW. I had the extremely unlucky experience of having her deliver my first child at NYU last summer. Unfortunately my entire birthing experience was tainted. She took every ounce of joy out of the birth and left me with horrific memories. From the moment i entered NYU doors, she yelled at me, started crying because she was so «stressed out» and hadn’t slept, and couldn’t care less about my well being. She should have been escorted out. She was unprofessional throughout the entire delivery and I would not wish that upon anyone else. Her yelling and freakouts during MY birth caused me emotional scars. Run and run fast.

Dr. Halpern has been my OB/​GYN for nearly 15 years. I have followed her throughout her career. She delivered my daughter, and although I had a tricky delivery, her compassion, bedside manner and general care were/​are top notch. It’s not easy finding a GYN that you feel comfortable and confident in, well thankfully I have. Highly recommend Dr. H!

Great doctor. She listens to all of my concerns and gives me good, straightforward information. It’s easy to get an appointment and the waits aren’t too long. The price is decent and she doesn’t try to add on tests I don’t want. She’s friendly and makes me feel comfortable. I’m glad to see she’s finally got her own office. Recommend.

Since my last review, I had my first baby in Manhattan, and Dr. Halpern was my lead OB. She was great, and I got lucky having her do the delivery at the end, too. She is all the things I said originally, and she became even more familiar with me as a patient due to the frequent visits. I’m a lifer!

She is the best Gynecologist, kind and gentle, very caring too. No waiting time, quick and pain free, Highly recommended.

RUDE, OBNOXIOUS, COLD, INSENSITIVE. I switched after a couple of appts with her as i could not stand her attitude and now i love my new obgyn.
Don’t waste your time with this awful nasty woman. i now see Dr Kathleen Mulligan and love her, although she doesn’t do ob anymore

I normally don’t like to rate my doctors because I really don’t want my favorite doctor ever to become so busy that she couldn’t see me but these ratings are so terrible that i feel it my duty to set the record straight.
Dr Halpern is the first and only OB I have seen since I moved to NYC 10 years ago. She is awesome and she delivered my baby. As I spent over 12 months involved with her i feel i can fairly speak to her character. She is not your hold your hand pat your head kind of gyno, She might even roll her eyes when you blabber on incessantly about how you read an article in Glamour and you so totally know that your vagina is falling out. She went to medical school and while you might know how to read she knows a thing or two about vaginas. She is warm caring and extremely knowledgeable. Because of her i am proud to say i delivered a 8 lbs boy with no tears. She went along with my birth plan and was supportive the entire way. And yes she had on a cute outfit while doing it.
As for the comments about her staff… her nurses are wonderful the front desk can be hit or miss but objectively they are hired by the head of the dept ‚. Dr. Halpern has no say in hiring or firing.

Let me start this review off by saying that I have extreme anxiety when it comes to new doctors, due to a very serious medical condition I had as a kid that required a very long surgery. It is so extreme, in fact, that I have been seeing the same family practice physician in upstate New York since infancy and freak out at the idea of this doctor passing away one day because I cannot imagine trusting anyone else.
Needless to say, I was terribly hesitant at the idea of finding new doctors when I moved to the city in 2005, especially when it comes to scheduling short check-​ups that are a wee bit invasive like an OB/​GYN. Dr. Halpern was the first doctor that I saw, and I haven’t been to anyone else since for the past eight years. I can definitely see how she could rub people the wrong way as she’s not the kind of person who will remember your face immediately unless you are pregnant and seeing her regularly, but as someone who REALLY needs to feel comfortable with any sort of doctor (including podiatrists!), I couldn’t imagine seeing anyone else but her, even if she does have a tendency to run 15 – 30 minutes behind. I feel like it’s worth the wait if it’s not an emergency, and she does remember your face after three years.
However, her support staff are definitely some of the most incompetent people I’ve ever had the displeasure of having to deal with, whether it was clearing up a mistake with insurance, scheduling an appointment, or merely trying to get in touch with Dr. Halpern in order to get her opinion about mixing two different medications that I forgot to ask during my appointment. I actually complained about this to her, and she completely understood gave me her cell phone number and told me to never hesitate to call her directly.
I just came back from my annual exam with her, and once again she was totally lovely, chatty, and admiring of my tattoos and bleached streak of hair. She is moving to a new practice on 32^nd Street in May, so I am really looking forward to seeing if this will improve the experience at all.

Highly recommend. She is smart, direct, competent, empathic doctor. Her care is excellent and I trust her with my health.
I noticed she moved as of ⁵⁄₂₀₁₅: 139 Centre Street, PH102 212−775−8585
Contemporary women doctors are (still) held to a different standard than their male counterparts. I once had a male doctor who, while aspirating a cyst on my wrist, took a call about golf. Guess what? His Unilocal reviews are flawless.
She’s a great, compassionate doctor.

Dr. Halpern was my OB for several years. Most of the time, I found her to be friendly and helpful. However, I recently became pregnant. A few things she did during my prenatal exams made me question her judgment (especially early on, when she said I would VERY likely miscarry but I didn’t!). In my second trimester I decided to move to a hospital that was closer to my home, and I also didn’t like how long I had to wait to see her (many times, it was over an hour), even with an appointment. It was just very inconvenient because I had a job that I had to take time off from. When I told her the news, she flipped out on me. The entire appt was wasted on her telling me how hurt she was and me defending my decision (which was hard enough). We didn’t even talk about the baby! It made me wonder if insurance companies only compensate doctors if they deliver the baby — and not so well for the prenatal exams. I understand that she invested herself into my prenatal visits but if she became so emotional and unprofessional at that moment, then what would have happened in the delivery room?

I went to Dr. Halpern a few times before she moved to the Financial District… after she did it went downhill from there. I had two appointments with her: one of which was a rescheduled appointment for one she had missed completely… apparently she went on vacation and her staff forgot to clear her schedule), the other she was more than several hours late and all her patients were so pissed as they had to take time off of work to see her.
Her staff are complete idiots and she herself a cold fish. There were no apologies for her completely missing 2 appointments in which I had to travel and take time off of work from. I’m now with a new OB/​GYN and can’t be happier with my decision to switch. Maybe her and her staff need to sit in a waiting room for hours to see how it feels like to be completely mistreated.

After moving back to the area and researching for a new OB, I met many doctors, but by far preferred Dr Halpren’s practice the best. She is very down to earth, welcoming, personable, yet efficient. As a working mother, I appreciate all of these attributes. I loved my doctor in California and am glad to have found great one here in NY.
I can always get an appointment time that is convenient and there is never a wait. On the contrary, some of the other doctors I tried (in my Brooklyn neighborhood) had over an hour and a half wait, and told me I would be seeing one of 5 doctors at each visit. Dr Halpren is my doctor and I see her every time I have an appointment. Definitely recommend.

I started going to Dr. Halpern after being referred to her by my primary care physician. I had not seen a ob/​gyn in quite a while because I did not have health insurance after being laid off and the last doctor I had did not accept the plan I eventually acquired through a new job. I must say I read all these reviews before my first appointment which was the Fall of 2010 and hoped for the best. My experience of that first visit and subsequent visits have been pretty great. During the first visit Dr. Halpern spent a great deal of time actually speaking with me. We had a conversation. I appreciated that.
You see I have fibroids and was contemplating a hysterectomy due to heavy bleeding and constant pain. She took one look at me and was like «you’re anemic» I can see it in your eyes. I was a little taken by this but blood work conducted by her office and my primary care physician came back with, yup you guessed anemia!!.
Not only am I anemic but severely so. Had Dr. Halpern not said anything I’d still be walking around lethargic and not understanding why. With her help I found a surgeon who was willing to do a modified surgery. I think she was convinced I would still have a baby. (Not going to happen.) But I appreciated the conservancy of her recommendation. The surgery was successful but those pesky fibroids are back again.
In the meantime she has helped me with medication to help stem the heavy flow which at times had kept me in the house and afraid to venture out for more than a few hours at best. Dr. Halpern is direct but I don’t find her rude. She has been nothing but sensitive and kind to me. I feel understood as a woman who while does not look 40 is well into her 40s past ‘reasonable’ child bearing years and has the daunting task of deciding when and if to have a final surgery. I trust her and I look forward to staying with her practice.

I have been going to Dr. Halpern for several years. Sh used to have an office in Tribeca and I loved going to that office, the staff was friendly helpful and professional. But once she moved to the hospital, the front desk staff was not friendly and very unorganized. My wait was long and it always seemed overcrowded. But once I got to see the doctor she was always nice but I do agree with most of you you… she is curt and to the point but I personally like that. I have had several bad experiences with doctors and she by far has been the best. She is quirky but she helped me through a troubled pregnancy and was very sensitive to my needs. So I give her 3 stars.

I’ve been going to Dr. Halpern for at least 10 years, and as a doctor I love her. Maybe I’m biased because she was my first ob/​gyn and I basically went through puberty with her. I see some here consider her rude and brusque, but I take it as matter-​of-​factness and appreciate her honesty. She personally would get 5 stars from me.
However, ever since her move to NYU Downtown, her support staff is HORRIBLE. God forbid you have to ask a simple question when making your appointment — the receptionists have no idea what’s going on, you will be transferred to 5 different people, and eventually put in some voicemail no one checks.
Case in point: I use Implanon for BC and since it is a specialized procedure that a doctor must be trained for, I initially went to someone else that Dr. Halpern recommended since she was not yet qualified to insert it 3 years ago when I had it done. A few months ago, it was time to change it, and also time for my annual. When I called to make an appointment for my annual I asked the receptionist if Dr. Halpern was now certified to insert Implanon, and thus began a ridiculous transfer-​chain: most of her staff/​random hospital people said they didn’t know, but eventually her assistant (!!!) told me that she did not. Lo and behold, when I get to my appointment she tells me she DOES do it, it just needs to be ordered in advance and she needs to check the price since she doesn’t do it very often, whatever, someone will call me this week to set it up.
No one ever calls me, of course. Instead, I call and make an appointment and begin a number of harassing calls that we will refer to as the «Did you guys order my Implanon yet?» series. I called at least twice a week (over a period of a month and a half, since that was how far in advance my new appointment was) and was constantly put in Dr. Halpern’s assistant’s voicemail. None of my calls were returned.
The day of my appointment finally arrives and of course the Implanon isn’t there. When did they order it? Oh, sometime last week. The receptionist was perfectly nice and sympathetic, but come on. This lack of communication is completely inexcusable. If they didn’t order it when I initially asked, they should have told me so. I called the day before my appointment — if they had told me it wasn’t there, I wouldn’t have come. Instead, I was forced to waste 2 hours going there for nothing in a week where I’m on a huge deadline and could really have used that couple hours working.
I would really hate to switch gynos, because I’ve grown very attached to Dr. Halpern, but I’m seriously considering it. I just can’t deal with the ineptitude of her staff anymore.

I concurr completely with H.H.‘s experience almost word for word. Dr. Halpern is beyond the normal NYC curt, which I can handle. She is rude, condescending and has zero bedside manner. I went to her 2 or 3 times before I finally had enough. The last visit I left the office in tears and wasn’t able to get out of bed the next day when she failed to tell me the implications of a procedure (which she gave me 5 mins to decide if I wanted to have done with little to no information). I later learned from my new OBGYN and other’s accounts, that most doctors schedule separate appointments, where anti anxiety medications are prescribed beforehand and local anisthesia is used. I was offered neither.
Her front desk staff was also unprofessional and the wait times are long. My new doctor’s office is the complete opposite in every way of my experience here. You can do MUCH better!

Sadly, never got to see the doctor. Office staff completely inept. Canceling appt. You really are responsible for having a good front office staff if you are a doctor in this city.

Love her. She’s been my OB-​GYN for 14 years, and I can’t say enough good things about her. She’s smart, funny and easy to talk to. During birth, she served as my labor coach, cheering section and friend, and gave my my body time to progress enough to deliver a healthy baby.
I recommend her to anyone who asks without hesitation.

Rude, insensitive, cold, and downright unpleasant. I left the appointment near tears… not an experience one should have at a doctor’s office. Stay far, FAR away.

Have to agree with Jennifer. I’ve seen Dr Halpern for about 10 years, and she came strongly recommended by my physician. She is lovely, a real pro, and highly personable.
I have recommended her to many people, and will continue to.