Chicago Hearing Associates

Oct 2024

I had surgery roughly one year ago, to repair a deviated septum and shrink sinus glands. After all this time, I would say my breathing and sleep are roughly the same or even slightly worse, but that doesn't bother me so much, since you hear this happens from time to time. Whenever I met with Dr. Friedman, I just always felt so rushed. It seems like he has appointments every 3 minutes, and didn't provide nearly enough time to handle questions I had. About 3 months after our surgery, I met him virtually, and he didn't even ask how I was doing, he immediately told me the next drug to take. Extremely frustrating. I would highly encourage you to look elsewhere for assistance.

Sep 2024

I really wanted to like this place and I did, at first. But I ended up transferring both myself and my son's care from Chicago ENT to Rush, where we both have had much better care. Dr. Friedman is very kind and friendly, but that's about the only good thing I can say about this place. The waits are insane to see him (they're always running very behind), and I ultimately lost faith in his recommendations. After putting me on multiple rounds of intense antibiotics that gave me awful side effects to try to clear a sinus infection, he ended up recommending a major surgery for me to "fix" a prior surgery I'd had. That didn't seem right to me, so I went to two other ENTs for second opinions and both of those ENTs reviewed all my scans and thought the surgery recommendation was completely unnecessary. I also repeatedly asked Dr. Friedman to culture the mucus in my nose to try to figure out what was causing my year-long sinus infection, but he told me that was not possible absent a surgery. Maybe he thought I was asking him to culture the actual tissue or something, but when I changed ENTs, the new ENT immediately cultured the mucus and prescribed a targeted treatment that finally got rid of my infection. I was really upset that I spent months and months asking Dr. Friedman for a culture that could have helped me, but was repeatedly rebuffed. I also got immune system testing at Chicago ENT and was told everything was fine. But then I took those same test results to an immunologist at Rush, who said that only a partial panel was run; a more complete panel revealed that I needed a specific vaccine to help my immune system. So, another big thing missed. One last thing: probably the worst part about Chicago ENT, and the fact I ended up switching my son as well (who had 2 surgeries with Dr. Colman, who did a good job), is the fact that you can NEVER get in touch with the doctors outside your appointment. They have a messaging system online through the portal, but the doctors themselves do not monitor those messages or respond to them. They go to a triage line instead and that person will call you. The guy who always called me was probably the most patronizing and rude person I've ever talked to in a doctors' office -- and not just once, every single time. When I called to report adverse side effects to a drug that Dr. Friedman had prescribed, the triage nurse (a med student) told me that what I was experiencing was impossible and it was in my head. LITERALLY SAID THIS. When I asked Dr. Friedman's physician assistant at an appointment, she confirmed that what I was experiencing was in fact a known side effect for some people. That's just one example, but I had multiple reasons to call with questions over a few months and every time I had an enraging interaction with triage (including one time he advised me to give my one year old son an OTC medication that is clearly contraindicated for under age 2; just totally irresponsible). There was never any way to report this guy for his rudeness and borderline malpractice either. I finally sent a message to Dr. Friedman telling him I really wanted to speak to HIM, not the triage guy, because triage was always really rude to me and I had genuine healthcare questions. Guess who called me about my message? Triage guy. So... yeah. Honestly, partly switching to get away from that guy.

Sep 2024

Just spent about 30 minutes waiting on the phone to book something. Spoke to someone and let them know I had an injury and needed the next available appointment. I have Ambetter IL insurance, which I know isn't accepted by most people, so I mentioned that I would need to know the out of pocket price. The person on the phone cut me off and said "Since you have medicare, we are not accepting out of pocket payments." One, my plan isn't medicare. It's just a bad marketplace plan. Two.. What are medicare patients supposed to do if they have an urgent issue? I think we all know the answer, is the system doesn't care about them. But for Chicago ENT to take it a step further and not even ALLOW people to pay out of pocket for needed care? Stone cold. This was after waiting on hold listening to a loop of testamonies of how much Chicago ENT "cares" and how their patients are not "just a number".