Roy Shirley A, MD

This is an update to my first review. One of my chronic problems was edema. I brought this to Dr. Roy’s attention. My legs were obviously swollen and I had suddenly put on 10 pounds. without a change in my eating habits. The first time she suggested support hose. The second visit she toyed with the idea of increasing my blood pressure but didn’t want me to pass out. She then gave me an order for a vascular surgeon. When I went to the new doctor an immediate echo-​cardiogram was ordered resulting in my meeting with a cardiologist. I was diagnosed with a serious heart problem. The bottom line for me is: If you know what is wrong with you and you just need your prescriptions refilled she is a nice lady otherwise perhaps you need to see a better diagnostician.

Even that one star is because I need to select that or else I would give a ZERO rating. I went to Dr Shirley Roy for an annual physical because my last one was from TX an year ago and I moved to Chi-​town recently and chose Dr Roy only out of convenience as I lived in the same high rise bldg where her office is. By the way, I’m a final year medical student going to graduate soon. Anyways, I told Dr Roy that I wanted a basic physical, pap and get routine labs done. I’ve a family history of hypothyroidism and always get thyroid panel done each year along with routine labs and also I found out my cholesterol levels were up which I found out accidentally during a pre-​employment lab work done which I wanted to get repeated to see if I needed treatment. Dr Roy ordered all the labs I requested and even after 4days I didnt get my lab results. I was told if there were any abnormal results, she would call and discuss them with you and request you to make an appointment for follow up. I even mentioned to her during my physical that despite being only 33yr old I’ve been feeling very tired lately with sleep disturbance. But I never got a call back from her office. When I called her office, I was told all my results were NORMAL. Still not convinced with the answer I got which doesn’t explain my symptoms, I walked down to her office and requested a copy of my labs. My cholesterol and LDL were high and my TSH was 3times the upper limit for normal range. I was shocked that i was told these were normal results and asked if I can make appointment to see her and discuss my results. I was still told these were normal. I had no choice to go to my IM professor and showed my results to him and he was surprised and shocked that I was told that didn’t needed any treatment. He immediately put me on synthroid and gave me samples to start treatment right away. Now I feel much better, I don’t feel tired anymore, no sleep issues and my cholesterol levels are normal. Dr Roy delayed my treatment for over 3weeks despite me showing clinical signs of hypothyroidism. I’ve decided I would never go to her and when I’ll be in her shoes some day hopefully soon, I will not treat my patients like her…
Update: 11/​19/​2012
As mentioned above, I went for routine check up and yet I get a bill from my insurance saying the doctor billed it for «headaches» and that was not the case… My insurance would cover 100% for routine physicals and routine labs but I have to pay for sick visits. When I mention this to her offcie secretary, as expected I didnt get any help in changing it to routine visit… So I had to make my insurance call her office and had this taken care of so I dont get charged unnecessarily… Too much hassle to deal with… Wish I knew about this doctor before so I wouldnt have chosen her… And thats the very reason I’m taking time to write this review despite being super busy so others dont suffer like me…

I switched to Dr. Roy after a prolactinoma was detected by my MALE PCP. The former PCP wanted to treat it himself and discussed surgery w/​me. I asked if I needed a specialist and he said no b/​c his mom had the same thing and so he was familiar with it (wtf?).
When I saw Dr. Roy, she was very warm and welcoming. She is also smart and asked about my full medical history including whether or not I flossed! :)
She gave me a mini-​gynolocical exam and then referred me to an endocronoligst (female) who is the bomb!
Since then, I have seen Dr. Roy for a few other things and she is awesome! She doesn’t order a bunch of unnecessary tests and is very knowledgeable.
Thanks Dr. Roy!

I went to Dr. Shirley today for the first time, and she was very nice. I went for a physical, and I spent about an hour with her, and then another half hour with her assistant doing a couple tests.
For the most part, I felt Dr. Shirley was patient and willing to answer questions without rushing or interrupting you. I was pretty satisfied with the whole experience, and only withhold a fifth star because of the price. I have not been to the doctor in a looong time, and am only going now because my current employer has a health reimbursement account for me. In other words, my complaints could be totally unjustified as I am ignorant about current medical pricing.
That said, my physical included a flu shot, tetanus shot, EKG reading, hemoccult, and urinalysis. My total came to $ 359. Maybe the reader of this knows if that is reasonable or not. If not, maybe one way to save money would be to get the flu shot (Influenza vaccine + Pneumovax vaccine= $ 57 at Dr. Roy’s) at a public clinic and get the rest done with the doc? Anyways, it seems like a lot to little old me.
All in all, if you have good insurance or are sick of substandard care at the low-​income clinics and have the money, I’d definitely recommend Dr. Roy.
UPDATE: I originally went to Dr. Roy in Feb. 2007. It is now almost May, and I am having real trouble with the organizational/​secretarial aspect of this office, so I’m taking back 2 stars. I had some testing done (per Dr. Roy’s orders) at a clinic while I was travelling in Canada. I paid for the tests and a international fax fee to have the results sent to Dr. Roy so we could discuss them at my next appointment. I have called 7 times over the past 3 weeks trying to find out if they have been received. The first week there was no answer, and a «Voice message box full…*click*». The next week there is a voice mail greeting from the actual secretary saying messages will be checked several times a day. I have left 3 messages over the past 2 weeks and still no response.
Medically I had no problem with this office, but if you are in any sort of time-​sensitive situation and/​or getting tested at a clinic unfamiliar to this office, the one-​secretary setup probably isn’t going to be able to handle it, technologically. They don’t even take credit cards here.