Barrow Neurological Institute

I don’t even know where to begin. In March 2015 I had a fall and fractured my foot, elbow, shoulder and had numbness in my hands and feet. I asked the ambulance to take me to St. Joseph’s Hospital. After an MRI it was determined that I needed immediate surgery and I was transferred to Barrows (another part of the hospital) prepared for surgery the next morning. I was in ICU overnight where I believe there is one nurse to one patient. Everyone there was amazingly nice. The nurse asked how I managed to get Dr. Nicholas Theodore as my doctor, she said there is usually a 6-​month wait. I said I have no idea I do not know who he is. She came back and said that he happened to be the on-​call doctor. All I can say is this guy is a miracle worker. And he is a very kind, caring, compassionate doctor with a good sense of humor too.
It was determined in the hospital that with the other fractures I had that we would delay surgery. He said that his office would schedule an appointment to see him in a week. Amazingly, his office called my husband’s cell phone before we even left the hospital and they gave us an appointment.
All I can say is every single communication I have had with Dr. Theodore or his staff has been beyond amazing. Better than anything I could have imagined. When I call to ask a question I usually get an answer within a couple of hours. The staff are very nice and professional.
I eventually had my surgery and Dr. Theodore gave me his pager number and I had to call him twice. He called me back within 10 minutes each time.
I am now eight weeks post surgery and doing fabulous. I have no more pain, numbness, or tingling.
Every single department has been excellent. From getting an MRI, to seeing the pain specialist, and follow up appointments with Dr. Theodore.
For one of my appointments I asked how long my appointment would be. They said there’s no time limit on your appointments we just want you to be able to have Dr. Theodore answer all of your questions. Wow! Does that happen anywhere in today’s healthcare system?
Highly recommend!

I had a horrible experience with them. I went in because of several neurological issues that was affecting the safety of my family. I was told possibly absence seizures. I went in with an appointment that I was early for and still waited in the lobby for an hour then they sent me back to the exam room where I waited even longer just to have a resident, Dr Vora, (who no one seems to know when I call even though he’s listed on their website) look at me and asked if I had any stress. Considering I was in the office with a yelling 3 year old trying to take my pants off because we ran out of things to do waiting and a screaming hungry 3 month old I think that would’ve been obvious. His diagnosis was that I must just be stressed, exhausted and depressed being a new mom and that I seemed fine. He pushed hard for depression and pills even when I explained that the symptoms mostly happened when I moved my neck to look around. He said he could put me on some seizure meds if I wanted to see if they could work which I refused because I’m breast feeding and couldnt afford to stop and we both agreed that wouldnt help with the «stress» he was insisting was causing all of this. I asked if it could have anything to do with my Ehlers Danlos Syndrom that is rare. He admitted that he didnt know a lot about EDS but that it definitely couldn’t cause neurological issues. I insisted on tests which he agreed to. I had to call several times to get an answer to my tests. In the meantime I wasnt to drive or care for my children while I had symptoms.
As the months went by I went to a stress therapist who stated I wasnt stressed enough to cause the symptoms Dr Vora was claiming. I continued with therapy and noticed that my symptoms were getting more frequent and worse despite the fact I was well rested and stress free. I continued to call Barrows to update my file. I started doing research about EDS and found that neurological symptoms are extremely common and that I could have a condition called CCI which is very serious. I started to call and leave messages to make the Dr aware that EDS did cause neurological symptoms and to ask if he would be willing to look into it so that I could get the right tests. He would not call me back and I canceled my upcoming appointment with him because of his seemed unwillingness to educate himself to ensure proper diagnosis.
I attempted to file for temporary disability insurance so that I could pay for the proper testing so that I could get treatment and go back to work but was denied because Dr. Vora didn’t report my EDS and apparently insisted that I was depressed and stressed from motherhood. During that time I tried to find a job that would work with my disability but no one will hire someone who runs into things, has grey outs, cant drive and will need to go to drs appointments frequently for the next year to get a diagnosis.
I also found a dr familiar with EDS and he confirmed CCI is common with EDS and that my symptoms fit perfectly. He ordered new tests because Dr Vora having ignored my EDS ran the wrong ones. Since its a new year and I have been unable to work for over a year now I don’t have the money for the deductible. Had Dr Vora considered my EDS or been willing to educate himself instead of ignore me I wouldve been able to get the tests under my deductible and started getting treatment. Now I’m in limbo. I cant afford the tests because I cant work. I cant get disability because I havent been diagnosed. I cant be diagnosed without the tests.
I called to educate the dr about EDS so that he didnt destroy someone elses life by not considering applicable conditions and to impress upon him the effect his lack of caring had on my family. I was able to leave a message with his nursing assistant who didnt take down my current phone number when I gave it to her and had to wait till I left another message with her voice mail today. I was advised by her that Dr Vora felt that I should continue seeing the neurologist who knew about EDS to get the tests that I needed. He didnt offer why he wouldnt call me back or wouldnt educate himself on EDS. There was no acknowledgement that he ignored my EDS and stated that I should refile for disability insurance with the new provider. He also instructed her to remind me that he had ordered PT for my wrist (a secondary issue to my major issues) and that he never heard back from one of the tests and was unsure that I had taken it even though I had left a message with him right after I completed it to let him know that I had gone.
There was so little compassion from the drs and they completely ignored major symptoms that would have gotten me the proper diagnosis. If my dr is right I have a very serious condition that is only going to get worse and Dr Vora and his associates wont even look into it. They just want to pass the buck to someone else. I’ve filed a complaint with the hospital and the board of medicine. Shame on these people.

We started using the Barrows Institute March 2015 after my wife had an unexpected full seizure. We thought it would be the gold standard of care. It’s now three months of frustrating poor care that has left us baffled as to how they received their reputation.
Having been in healthcare administration for my career I’m in tune with patient care and customer care excellence. In my opinion, their is a negative corporate culture apparent the minute you talk to the disinterested front desk staff. Nurse staff for the doctors in our experience don’t return calls or fill out insurance paperwork timely. The clinics work on only antiquated fax systems that are always busy and not HIPAA compliant for transfer of patient data. Get yourself a personal fax machine if you plan care here.
Today, we reported to the MS clinic. That is once we found it. We were only told a building number and then found no directory upon arrival. We stopped at each floor and asked the sad receptionist where to go. All gave us their guess. Once we reached the proper floor I felt it my duty to point out to the sad receptionist there that there was no signage. She didn’t blink an eye when she said she knew. I guess we should have received a packet directing us. All I can figure is that they keep the doctors hidden for safety reasons. We even observed a lady check in after U.S. Who had the same confusing experience finding them. Unbelievable.
It took my insistent tries to reach an administrator to get our first MS appointment moved up from two months to today instead just so we could see what is happening with my wife after doing 2 MRIs and a spinal tap weeks ago. In the meantime the clinic’s lack of follow up and timeliness cost us our continuation of disability coverage since no medical conclusions have been given to her employer or insurance carrier. She is no shape to pick up her job but we may be forced to push her back out there with epilepsy AND MS. Thanks Barrows for caring.
Be warned that Barrows works on their own time and not yours. Departments and diagnostic centers in the healthcare system do a poor job of communicating with each other so order your own copies of MRIs, labs charts to carry with you.
My advice — go to Mayo. We will switch.

The service is okay but good luck booking an appointment. My husband sees Dr Trieman. He last saw him in 2013. After his appointment he tried to rebook for next year. He was told they don’t book that far in advance. So about a year goes by and my husband’s Rx is running out. He tries to book an appointment and is told the Dr is booked for the next 6 months! My husband asked for a refill of his Rx. He was told no he needs to see the Doctor… Ok but he can’t make an appointment. So we ended up seeing a new neurologist, Dr Robb (who is amazing by the way). Dr Robb gave us the refill but suggested we stick with Dr. Trieman since he has a different specialty that better suited my husband’s needs.
Now it is 2015 and we need to book an appointment and I have been trying for 2 weeks to book an appointment and have been told they are waiting for the doctors schedule. How can a business operate like this? I was told I would get a call back in a week. It has been a week and I haven’t gotten a call back. I have left multiple messages and still nothing. How hard is it to book an appointment? This is unacceptable to have such poor communication!!!
So are we going to run out of the Rx again? Apparently we will need to continue to see another Doctor because Barrow’s is too busy to get back to their patients. This is ridiculous.

Well here we are in April 2015. My wife has completed some tests ordered by Barrows Endocrinologist.
The results came back and both the endocrinologist and neurosurgeon Dr. White said that they don’t know where the abnormality is coming from despite the fact that they have 2 – 3 years of test and a MRI from previous medical professionals that we have seen.
They said my wife has a very rare medical condition.
NO SHIT?
She has Cushing’s Disease we know this already she has been dealing with this for three years now.
Who are these people?
Anyways, they give her another test to do. Take a pill and 12 hours later get a blood draw. She does it but the results come back stating she didn’t take the pill.
Not Barrow’s fault but WTF right?
Now she has to do the same test again.
At this point, I am considering having her go back to Dr. Iskandar over at East Valley Neurosurgery. I mean he has no concept of time but at least he has a freaking clue.
However, frustratingly, we are gonna let Barrow’s do their thing (testing etc) because we are talking about a rare disease.
But I would be lying if I said the whole process thus far wasn’t pissing me off.
I will update review after this next test and appointment is done.

What is wrong with healthcare in this city??? IVe had 2 spinal surgeries. My surgeon since moved out to Gilbert. I tried to get into Mayo but they don’t BC/​BS. WTF? Tried to get an appt w dr ponce at barrow and they won’t even see me?!? Told me to go back to my surgeon so now I’m supposed to drive 45 effing minutes for a dr apt. assuming he’ll see me! I just don’t get it!?! I have 3 herniated discs and can’t get any help. Screw this state and barrow!!!

I recently had a lumbar microdiscectomy done by Dr Kaibara. I have read some reviews about him on other sites which are totally unfair. I think a lot of people expect way too much out of these men who are highly trained, extremely busy individuals. He gave me the time I needed, made sure I understood everything and did not want to do anything unless all options were exhausted. The surgery itself went great, everyone was very professional, kind and organized and Dr Kaibara did exactly want I needed for me and my future life not just for the procedure to get it done. Barrow is great, very helpful from initial contact with there office and organized. I would fly here to see Dr Kaibara if I ever have any future issues, he is very calm and is a great technician. Thats what you want! Stop looking, GO THERE. I wrote this under my wife’s account. I am Mike F.

my time at Barrow started out fine. but… the attentiveness I hoped to get as a patient while there was a JOKE! making appointments took long, requesting medicine refills took just as long, my neurologist PRETENDED to show concern by telling me the next time I have a seizure (I have epilepsy) to call his office RIGHT AWAY. THEY WOULDN’T EVEN BOTHER TO LOOK FOR OTHER WAYS THAN JUST DRUGGING ME UP FOR MY EPILEPSY, RATHER THAN DECREASING THE STRENGTH OF MY MEDS, (AS I KEPT ASKING TO DO) THEY KEPT INCREASING IT! well, IT TURNS OUT when I did have a seizure, I called his office ASAP but was just given the run around. (even though I explained my situation, what the dr had told me to do, so I just took my business elsewhere! got no time for that!!!

Why can’t children who don’t have insurance be seen here? They collect donations but only accept patients who qualify for AHCCS or have private insurance. What about those who cannot afford insurance but don’t qualify for AHCCS? My 15 year old son was born with a cleft lip and palate and my medical insurance refused to cover his orthodontics but AHCCS covers braces. I have recently lost my job and insurance but do not qualify for AHCCS so for now, at the age of 15 he still has bad teeth. You would think we were living in a third world country. We cannot even help our own. At this point, I would be better off ending my 15 year marriage just so I can get my son braces. That just seems so wrong!

I’m updating my review since my surgery in June with Dr. Kakarla. It went beautifully. He is a very talented surgeon. I now have a fusion of L4, 5 & S1 with instrumentation (rods and screws). I was born with a spondylolisthesis that worsened after I passed 60 years old, creating a stenosis. The Barrow’s surgeons are state-​of-​the-​art and they except most insurance plans including Medicare. These doctors really want to help people.
That said, I have to agree that peripheral service is not what you would expect from them and they really should work on that. I think these are St. Joseph’s Hospital employees. I can live with that to get some of the best surgeons on the planet.
And for the reviewer who gave the terrible review for Dr. Curtis Dickman, that is way off base. This is a man who is so in demand because of his amazing talents that I wonder how he has time for a life. Last we knew, he had an extremely competent assistant to handle things like notifying patients about his decisions. My husband’s 10 year old neck surgery performed by Dr. Dickman was so successful that to this day he has no pain and you would never guess he has titanium instrumentation in his neck.

This place is first class, I’d give them 10 stars! My son has been seeing Dr Peter Nakaji since his surgery in 2009. Every appointment is refreshingly smooth and quick (not the norm for visiting busy specialist) and Dr Nakaji is not only a vastly knowledgeable expert, he explains things in easy-​to-​understand terms and is wonderful with our little boy. The staff isn’t always warm and fuzzy, but they are well organized and keep the office moving which is more than enough for me.
If you are in need of Neurosurgeon you will be in great hands with Dr Nakaji at Barrow, we love this guy!

The most experienced doctors and advanced treatment available anywhere the world.
Performed my fusion flawlessly.

I’ve had a horrible experience here. They led me on for something like 2 and a half months. I have been having trouble with migraines and I looked under my insurance providers and there Barrow was. So I gave Barrow a call and they transferred me over to their «referral line.» The line said I needed a referral from my doctor and my records sent to them to get an appointment. Fine. I sent that information to them and waited about 3 weeks for them to receive the documents (of course they didn’t call me when/​if they did) so I called back and spoke to someone else at the «referral line» and they said they never received my documents. I tried looking up different phone numbers for Barrow to see if there was a scheduling line I could directly call. I happened to find a number and I spoke to a woman who WAS in scheduling and she said she needed a referral which I said I faxed all those documents to the «referral line» weeks ago. The woman said Barrow had no «referral line» and treated me like and idiot and said to call back when I’ve sent them my documents. So I did send my documents in to a different fax number and this time talked to a woman who seemed nicer and took down my insurance information and the woman said she’d call back when they had an open appointment. I waited for a month and finally called back to see what was taking so long and the person I spoke to said my insurance was not accepted by Barrow. That’s all well and good, but couldn’t they have CALLED ME? I swear, nobody speaks to each other at this place and to have my important, confidential documents «not received» is frightening.
Customer service at Barrow is a 0.

I just spent 19 hours at Barrows with my daughter in the emergency room. She has a very severe neck injury and debilitating pain from it.
3:00 PM Wednesday August 21.
1 ½ hour wait outside waiting room
4:30 PM we were sent to a room that only had lounge chairs (No Beds).
11: 30 PM Cat Scan they moved us to another room again no beds only chairs.
1:A the doctor came in to explain what was going on and said another doctor would be in shortly
1:30 AM We are moved to a room with a bed but are not admitted to the hospital still in emergency.
3:30 AM doctor arrives and lets us know the other surgeons whom we have not seen have a plan to give her the same medication she is already on that has not worked for the last year. We ask to see the doctor who decided to make up this innovative treatment plan and were told he’d be right in .
5:30 AM No doctor, we ask a nurse when he would be coming in. answer soon !
7:30 am Daughter rings for nurse to get pain meds
8:00 AM still no doctor Daughter has not been given pain meds since 3:30 am She is crying and in real pain… we find out they forgot about us! Shift change and no one on the floor even knows we are there
8:30 AM I call medical directors office and tell them what is going on they are sending someone right away !!!
9:00 AM Doctor from the 1 am visit night before walks by our room eating his breakfast We have not been offered any food or water. My daughter notices it is him. I run after him and ask what’s going on. He is a neuro surgeon. He has already told us she has bulging disks that need treatment. I ask him to please get her some pain meds.
He states that he left orders to treat her for pain when needed because he believed she was in real pain. We ask him the plan for treatment and he says we will have to make an appointment at Barrows Spine center. I ask him for medication for her before we leave he assures me he will recommend the prescriptions we discussed (he cannot write presriptions only the ER doc can write prescriptions. The ER doc has not even sceen us.
10:00 am Charge Nurse comes in and give us wrong prescriptions. I discuss this with him. They tell me they will have to re-​admit my daughter to emergency room in order to get the correct prescriptions because the doctor who was in chage of writing her prescriptions wrote them at 3:30 am that morning and has left and closed her file. We need to start a new file!!!
10:10 am We walk out with my daughter crying and in the same condition as when we first arrived. With written prescriptions that we already have at home and are not strong enough.
I am appaled at the lack of service, and neglect we received. DO not go to Barrows if you want help and a plan to get better. They are too busy to pay attention to you. This really happened!!! I would give zero stars but you must at least give one to add this review so others can read it. 19 hours of hell… I can’t wait to see the bill for this disservice we have been given!

I would never recommend Barrow.
My boyfriend was diagnosed with MS about 3 years ago. Barrow Neurological Institute has been a joke to deal with since his first appointment back in February 2011. I am so utterly disappointed with their customer service, bedside manner, doctor turnover, and office operations that I literally have no words to describe how bad it is. Their MS Center needs to clean house and their good reputation is no longer applicable. I would suggest Mayo Clinic or finding literally any other option. I am honestly disgusted by the carelessness he has encountered. They are lucky he is their patient, because I don’t have nearly as much patience. I hope someone working for Barrow reads this and takes note. I hope this saves future MS patients from wasting their time. I hope Barrow Neurological Institute realizes a good reputation only goes so far if you do nothing to uphold it.
If you are researching places to seek ongoing care for MS and would like to know specifics about why I would not recommend Barrow, just PM me. I will back up this one star rating and maybe we can even help each other find better care for ourselves and our loved ones.
Thanks for nothing, Barrow.

I owe Dr. Spetzler and this Institute my life. I have 3 brain tumors. They aren’t really operable. I was diagnosed in 2004. I have had a few surgeries with this team without complications and have been able to enjoy my life to the fullest ever since. I interviewed 9 neurosurgeons around the country… but, when I met Dr. Spetzler, I knew that he was the one. My husband was in medical sales and all of the neurosurgeons that he worked with in California talked about Spetzler as if he were a god. He is very well known and respected. You should read the book that was written about him: The Healing Blade. Its incredible. He is a man of few words. don’t let this discourage you. If you have questions, make sure you make a list and ask them one by one. He will give you the time, but he is also a very busy man. In my experience, that is what worked for me. The nurses were caring and went above and beyond. I am so grateful for this hospital.

The staff here saved a family member of mine’s life here after a CVA. (a stroke) The doctors and nurses put up with my crying, simply reminding me kindly to keep it together in the room.
They took the best care of him I could ever ask for, kept me informed, and let my family visit without harassment at any hour.
Maybe it’s because I am grateful to say I had never been to an ICU before, but I think there’s a damn good reason it’s so costly. That room was sterile, but bright, plenty of room, and a nurse was always right outside, monitoring! I visited ICU for about a month.
PT and OT were great, so patient, so professional, and so compassionate. They came to the Acute unit for about another month until he was transferred to TBI (Traumatic Brain Injury) Rehab facility in a different state.
I have no complaints, and by no means would I say that about too many other hospitals. They must truly have some of the best staff in the world here. Every single person I encountered (and there were many!!) had a great bedside manner, which I later came to understand takes an incredible amount of patience that I admit I don’t have myself. I couldn’t do their job.
My story is a happy ending, and I am all too aware that it could have been different. I could never thank everyone enough.