Virginia Cancer Specialists

The worst part about growing up is breaking away from the comforts of your parents’ insurance plan. It is because of this, I have spent the past eight years avoiding getting a follow up appointment with an oncologist because I did not want to go through the pain of finding a new doctor who I could possible dislike.
Dr. Thomas Butler came highly recommended to me by my doctor at One Medical Group and I am so glad I decided to take a chance to visit him despite the bad Unilocal reviews the practice received (mostly for another doctor).
Perhaps I am wearing rose-​colored glasses since I am in complete remission and was only in for a consultation but I thoroughly enjoyed my time speaking with Dr. Butler. I have never met a doctor who was so caring and took the time to work through every single question I had ALONG with cited case studies to back everything he said up. It was a good balance of academia but in an easy to understand, caring way.
Hopefully I will never have to work with him in anything more than my yearly checkups but if something does happen, I am 100% positive that I would feel comfortable under his watchful eye.
Why four stars?
+ I went to the Virginia Hospital location which is a bit confusing to navigate. The information desk of the hospital was super rude to not just me but others as well. She definitely seemed more interested in cutting her coupons (no, really) than helping others. It looks like she may have been a volunteer though so I guess you get what you pay for?
+ While I was able to book my appointment easily, I felt like my communication between the front desk of the practice while efficient was a bit gruff/​unprofessional. That being said every in person interaction afterwards I had was very pleasant and friendly.

This is the worst practice I have ever been to in my life.
I had 5 masses in October that the doctor missed even though I went in because I felt a mass. He said he could not feel anything.
The next day I felt another mass and went to my surgeon and he felt the masses.
This oncologist is who has followed me for 14 years. He blew me off. My surgeon sent me in for an ultrasound and there were 5 masses.
So the office manager called me and asked me what could they do for me and the doctor felt really bad. Really. We are talking about cancer not a cold.
So a long story short I decided to give them another shot and switch to the Fairfax office — I was going to the Gainesville office. All I can say is they are even worse. I had an appointment. Then someone different calls me and tells me that she can’t see me and then when I told her that I had an appointment for Monday she was in shock. Ok then we will see you Monday.
Today I get a call and was informed that she is not taking any new patients. I am not a new patient.
So with all of these red flags why would I put my life in their hands. Incompetent is putting it mildly.
OMG — I am so frustrated. Now I need to find a new oncologist.

BE AFRAID OF THIS PLACE, BE VERY VERY AFRAID. I went in the hospital in October to get a knee replacement and came out with a diagnosis of cancer. I went to the Arlington office because they came highly recommended. At first this group was very caring. I have a kidney transplant and am very concerned as to what the radiaion and chemo will do to my transplant. I made it very clear over and over to Dr. Sampat that it was very important to me that all concerned members of my oncology team be on the same page at the same time. This group isn’t even in the same book. I was 2 weeks short of starting chemo when all of a sudden all these tests needed to be done, that I needed to get a port put in and I needed to take a chemo class. I still work and right now have a very patient employer who is thankfully dealing wiht all the time off i have to have for appointments. But to come to me 2 weeks prior to starting chemo is totally ridiculous. I had the port put in Thanksgiving week and was told by the physician who did it that the infusion clinic would have some numbing cream on site for me to numb the area. I called the Nurse Navigator, Laura, (BTW what an idiot) and she said that’s not the case. All this 2 hours prior to when I am supposed to start chemo. She could call it in to my pharmacy and I could pick it up — I leave the office today at 2:30 to start chemo at 3:30 — in NOVA traffic — yea that’s gonna work.
In this practice the left hand does not know what the right hand is doing so if you can find another practice to go to — RUN AS FAST AS YOU CAN!
I will be glad when my last week of chemo is over in January. I am going to have them take the port out immediately and then I will not have to deal with this group anymore.

I can’t even begin to stress how bad this place is. I have a very rare genetic cancer disease and needed to get an iron infusion so they VCS scheduled me with Dr. Sampat. I went in to see this doctor and thought he was caring and going to be good at following me and getting my Iron infusions done.
I had blood work done prior to my visit with Sampat. My Oncologist or hematologist at my beloved Baylor in Texas would have had me in the next day for an infusion with a Ferritin level of 4.2 (average is 9 – 50). I was so anemic I ended up in the hospital 2 times for my muscles cramping so severely and giving out. I could barely walk. Two months of horrific cramping, where my feet and hands looked dislocated. I kept calling to ask when I would have an infusion scheduled. They are so damn rude to begin with, it was such a bother for them to answer any questions.
I am a cash paying patient so the doctor told them I had to make an office appointment and discuss Iron in general. Why? I have been getting Iron for years and I know the risks. So I asked for Dr. Sampat to call me. One week later I finally get a call (I had seen him in August and it is now the end of October). he said that he was really shocked the nurses had not scheduled me in yet for my iron and told me that someone would be calling me to get it taken care of. Three days passed and I called and they said I would be getting a call from the hospital since I was cash paying I had to get it done there and not in the office.
Another 4 days passed and I still had no call. I called the Arlington office where Sampat is and I was told once AGAIN that the doctor felt I had to come in the office to go over my test results and about getting an infusion. So once again I had to tell them to have this idiot call me. I told him that my specialists at Cleveland Clinic wanted to know WHY he had called in an infusion yet. My kidneys are now showing damage and since I am so anemic my GI is doing a scope to see if I have cancer again. FAP is my disease and it grows polyps and tumors. This man, to this day has still ignored me. I was in the ER again 2 nights ago and they almost gave me a blood transfusion but I said no because I am actually flying out of state to my old doctor to get an Iron infusion. How pathetic is that? I am traveling to see my surgeon to get an infusion instead of a freaking CANCER CENTER!
This man is a hack. I am floored just how bad the medical care in NOVA is. Worst I have experienced in my entire life. He was more concerned about having me keep coming in his office and pay to see him instead of taking care of my well being. I am a serious case too. Not just some anemia case. He should be fired.

I can’t say enough good things about this place. I was unfortunately diagnosed with cancer at the end of 2012 and had to come here for my chemotherapy treatments. I had to undergo a very aggressive chemo treatment and spent a greater part of the year here. The staff and care here is Amazing. I absolutely love my nurses and everyone in the BMT center. The most kind and caring people you will ever meet. I am currently 3 months into remission and am extremely grateful. I highly recommend this place and it’s doctors.

These guys at Virginia Cancer Specialists are great.
First let me flashback to May when I used to do about a hundred situps everytime I went to the gym. I would run off a puddle of sweat on the elliptical running machine in about 35 minutes. Often I would run a couple of miles outdoors. I discovered that I could pump 18×45 lb. Plates thirty or 40 times. Mostly I would do that just so I could eat without having to watch my diet.
I began to have digestive trouble and abdominal pain, which by June and July caused my weight to drop to 155 or so. I began going to a gastroenterologist, but after several of the tests they found nothing. I would burn in pain about 5 nights a week with no sleep and I would just pray and pray. I tell it over and over about imagining what its like to hang on a cross with Jesus. I had no pain medicine. But I must say I think it was one of the most valuable things to suffer in those nights. I was ready to die because I couldn’t imagine my health could decline much more.
Then when I went to the ultrasound they found fluid in my abdominal cavity and recommended I get a CT scan, which led to the discovery of a tumor.
In August at INOVA Fairfax Hospital I was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer which is considered inoperable. Incurable, my health was just about gone. Bent over walking to ease the abdominal pain, anything I ate would make my gut bloat and at night I would burn in pain. For some reason there seemed like about two nights a week when I didn’t have the burning pain. I was sure that the speedy decline of my health would last until September and then I would be dead.
INOVA Fairfax hospital put me in the hands of Virginia Cancer specialists, who began me on a chemotherapy treatment which after several weeks, slowly began to stifle the cancer. The pain gradually subsided mostly, and my strength and vigor returned. It is now December and I have a lot of energy. Virginia Cancer Specialists take really good care of you. I don’t know how it works exactly, but they seem to man the oncology floor at INOVA Fairfax. Ninth floor. I left a review of the Hospital too and together with Virginia Cancer Specialists, I don’t think you can get better care.
My condition is pretty severe. But I have to say I’m a little bit happy these days. For the time since September that I have lived I owe it to these doctors and nurses. Surely I would have been dead without them. I am happy because God fills my soul with hope to see Him, and because I have some health to enjoy and to aim at some way to give back if I can, to the people in my life and the people God brings in my life. If I die may God let flow from my soul grateful praise and thanks for these gracious people who fixed me for as long as they could.
Thank you Thank you Thank you very much. Merry Christmas!!! And God Bless you and thanks again,
Sincerely
Paul mulcahy