Irene G. Gurvits, MD

She is very difficult to work with. Does not respect Doctor-​patient confidentiality. Loses patient records. Does not remember previous encounters. Harbors hostility toward patients. I tried with utmost patience to give her the benefit of the doubt, but after she refused to continue an ongoing regimen of psychoactive medications because of a mistake on her part to bill to the correct address, I can no longer turn a blind eye to her negligence.

I can’t even begin to tell you the horrors of this woman. I read bad reviews and thought how true could they possibly be? SHE IS THE WORST DOCTOR THE FACT THAT SHE IS PRACTICING IS A SHAME ON THE ENTIRE MEDICAL COMMUNITY. She doesn’t answer my calls for days. When someone finally does and I tell them I’ve been out of my medication now for days they say she’ll get right to it and she never does. Last week I finally got in touch with her to make an appt and she told me I needed to book through zoc doc, so I did. I showed up this morning for our 10 am appt she had confirmed, and she stood there in her office telling me through the intercom she didn’t confirm any appointments and she wasn’t open yet. I was on the street begging her intercom to at least let me in to reschedule in person and she refused. I am left without my daily medication once again. DO NOT SEE THIS WOMAN SHE DOESNT DESERVE ONE CENT OF YOUR MONEY.

Bad
This woman should not have a license to practice medicine.
She will tell you more about herself, and her trauma history, than talk about you. Go expecting to give therapy.

Please read the other reviews and take them seriously. Stay away from this doctor at all costs.

Sure there was a wait, but what doctor doesn’t make you wait? That’s why they call it a waiting room. I also witnessed her take patients right away, in the middle of my appointment. They didn’t have to wait at all. So I’m gonna have to disagree with the other reviews. Once inside, the appointment was friendly and very personal. Irene is actually very pleasant, asks interesting questions and listens well. Heading back next month :)

Terrible. I booked on ZocDoc (where reviews are disabled), never thinking to check on Unilocal.She told me a crazy story about a fellow employee putting a mouse in her office. She gave me two prescriptions for meds telling me I could chose which one I wanted to use (?) after I waited an hour and a half to see her. She also told me the wrong information about one of the meds. So I need a refill for the one med that I took and liked — she wasn’t there for the appt. I buzzed and called. Nothing. I go home and then touch base again trying to get a refill so I don’t miss a dose — she says I’m lying about being there. The entire episode was bizarre and unprofessional. Yeah, I should have realized it after the first meeting but I just didn’t want to have to hunt for another doc again. STAY AWAY.

Holy hell this was bad. I really should have listened to the other reviews. The doctor made me wait for over a half hour over my appointment time while she loudly made personal and other calls in a very audible reception area. I agree with the other reviewer who said that she is not only rude but unprofessional — I heard the names of several of her patients while waiting. Absolutely awful

Very unprofessional. Stay away at any cost!

I had an appointment last week — and the day of the appointment, the receptionist said I wasn’t in the schedule (even though I had an email confirmation). We rescheduled for today, and when I showed up, no one was there, answered the phone, or opened the door. This was the 2^nd time I took off work to show up for a scheduled appointment, and left frustrated. Shame on zocdoc and on Dr Gurvits.
DO NOT SCHEDULE AN APPOINTMENT WITH HER!!!

She treated my spouse. She was unprofessional, rude, plain stupid and aggressive to everybody including my husband, his sister, his parents who were trying to support him. Smokes during sessions, is constantly bashing other patients revealing their information. I’m surprised her license is not revoked yet.

Date of initial visit 09/​15/​2015
If I could rate this clinic with a negative number it would be a –5. But the lowest rating is a 1.
First off, my initial impression of her is that she has no connection at all to her patients based on my brief interaction with her. She comes off like a burly man, with no type of compassion, or empathy. Just very aggressive and intimidating to be around which made my appt rather difficult to sit through. If you deal with anxiety, stay clear away. She will exacerbate your symptoms.
If you’re educated, it will confuse her. If you communicate with a deeper understanding of what you’re going through, she will question how do you know such things? Umm, you’re not the only one who went to school!
Nor to mention her rude ass assistant Rosalyn. She comes off as if she’s mad at the world and hates her job, but unmm honey you have a job because of patients. They help pay your bills!
09/​28/​2015 @ 12:18pm
I received a phone from Rosalyn about an appt that I had on 9÷28÷15 @ 3pm. She called to tell me Gurvits is sick with the flu. I said okay, so then when can I come in? She’s like 10÷05÷15 at 2pm. I said okay no problem. But I need that to be a phone session. She agreed.
10÷02÷15
She called to remind me of the appt that was scheduled for ¹⁰⁄₀₅. I said yes. It a phone session. She says, oh she doesn’t do phone sessions. I said well that’s not what we discussed last week Monday. She said she will call me at 2pm and hand her the phone.
10÷05÷15 @ 2:05pm
No call from Dr. Gurvits office. So I called. Spoke to Rosalyn and reminded her that I have a phone session that is scheduled for 2pm. And that she told me that she was going to call me. Rosalyn tells me that Gurvits came in late and that there are 3 people with earlier appts before me and are waiting to see her. I told her, well how was I supposed to know that? Then she told me that she doesn’t have phone sessions before 5−6pm. I said, we made this appt on the day you told me she was sick. Why would you give me 2pm on the phone session knowing she doesn’t accept calls before 5/​6pm? She angrily puts the phone down and walks and yells at Gurvits and said here take this phone.
I hung up! Forget this! If you cannot keep track of her schedule then you’re not doing your job. It’s not my fault I called in at my appt time thinking I would be having a session. It’s her fault not keeping track of things!
She called me back I told her I hung up because she was getting flustered by me reminding her of our conversations. Then I told her more appts. Thank you.

i wish i could rate her zero. she told my mother she is not bipolar when in fact she is extremely bipolar and led to horrific chain of events due to her lack of knowledge and lack of care. she prescribed my mother the wrong medication and sent my mother into a downward spiral ruining all of her relationships. DONT GO TO HERRRRRRRR!!! she is rude and unprofessional and eats during her sessions. she has these men that come and hang out during sessions. Stay away! she’s evil!

It just goes to show you that reading reviews can be extremely helpful. I certainly wish that I had not blindly entered Dr. Gurvits’ office without reading some of the Unilocal reviews. If I had, it would have saved me considerable time, money, my dignity and, most importantly, several days of illness! I know that it’s difficult to comprehend, but BAD doctors are out there and practicing. Dr. Irene Gurvits is not merely bad, she is in an evil and crazy league of her own. As much as I’d like to write about my potentially dangerous experience with her, I can see that it would be redundant. The more personal reviews on Unilocal tell the story of her unprofessional, unethical and downright negligent behavior. BE AFRAID, BE VERY AFRAID.

I was unsure of what to expect after reading all of the reviews here. I have been on medication before and have special circumstances around certain medications. Dr. Gurvits was understanding and accommodating. The only complaint I have is about having to wait. The thing is that it was not the doctor who was late, she had several patients barge into the office and demand to see her with no appointment. The doctor did take the time to see them, and apologized for the wait. I guess this is something you have to contend with if you are seeing someone through insurance. I do realize this was a psychiatrist’s office and that is not the place to look for the sanest of people, but after experiencing the waiting room for this doctor’s practice, I can say that perhaps some of these reviews aren’t coming from someone who is grounded in reality.

Dr. Irene gurvitz is a HORRIBLE Dr. She is rude dirty late and doesn’t know how to administer meds or care to any patients. She nearly killed my sister with her excessive prescriptions of meds. Could not diagnos me sister. DO NOT GO TO THIS women.

JUST PLAIN AWFUL.
This is by far the worst experience I have ever had with a doctor.
1. I found Dr. Gurvitz to be completely lacking in empathy and active listening skills.
Ex) She flat out refused to believe me when I told her my mental health and psychiatric history.
2. Chronically misdiagnoses
Ex) She lowered my doses when I was worried my Major Depression was worsening. Obviously, this led to horrible results.
3. Consistently 45 mins — 1 hour late with no excuses or apologies.
Ex) Once she arrived to my appt over an hour late, carrying a takeaway lunch and shopping bags. Her assistant had told me she «had to go to Staples» and was therefore going to be late.
AVOID AVOID AVOID. Life is too short to be dealing with doctors like Irene Gurvitz.

Half hour before my scheduled appointment I was called and was told she wouldn’t be able to see me. I understand doctors have crazy schedules, but when dealing with mental health patients you would think the staff would at least give you an explanation/​be apologetic about cancelling (especially in such short notice; I was already close to the location). Every time I had to talk to the secretary she was dismissive and plain rude. I found another doctor, and I am actually glad I don’t have to deal with this secretary at all.

She’s incompetent! Worse yet, she has such an ego problem that she disagreed with my prior doctor’s medication simply to prove that high-​paid doctors who don’t take insurance are no more qualified than her. She seems to care and went well over the allotted time. Clearly, it’s not all about the money for her — especially given the fact that she knew I would not return based on her conclusion that I do not have ADD. So she spent over an hour with me to investigate whether my prior diagnosis was accurate. She concluded that I could not have ADD because I did well in college and law school! She was oblivious to all of the coping mechanisms I had discovered to get through school, all of which were classic ADD symptoms.
The ironic part is that she admits to not being an ADD specialist — yet she was sure she knew more than previous doctor who has treated me for over 20 years. I was only switching due to financial issues and a change in insurance which meant that I got zero reimbursement for out of network doctors.
She was also extremely unprofessional — she sits behind desk doing internet research as you talk — presumably for diagnostic purposes. And the forms she makes you sign are overreaching and not like any I’ve seen before.
Avoid her at all costs!

I found Gurvits through my healthcare plan and because she was conveniently located in my neighborhood. Talk about unprofessional and disrespectful! For my first appointment which was at 10:30 am, when I got there they told me she was going to be late. She showed up at noon! Forget her and find a professional who is respectful of her patients.

After an exhaustive search for the right doctor, I thought Dr. Gurvits fit my needs but to my complete dismay this woman promptly mis-​diagnose me to incorrectly prescribe a variety of meds. She somewhat listens to patients to a point where the rest of my comments are soon «in one ear and out of the other.»
Typical managed care treatment as Dr. Gurvits is affiliated with Western Queens Community Hospital. The woman operate two locations of Upper West Side Manhattan and Brooklyn.
Med Psych Services
A good doctor is hard to find without mis-​diagosing or mal-​practicing… thus the search trek onwards, NOT Irene G. Gurvits, MD!