Dr. Satnam Atwal, MD

Rude, incompetent, arrogant, narcissistic! Stay away!!!

I am a doctor myself and was a patient here for over a year with no real issues (besides Dr. Satnam Atwal refusing to write anything besides illegible paper scripts, which are a pain when dealing with controlled medication). Unfortunately, when I moved, the office took way too long to send my records to my new physician. Further the records were completely illegible and thus of no help. When I called asking for perhaps typed transcripts of the records, or at least a rewritten legible summary, the secretary was incredibly rude and refused to help. I am now in a position of being unable to prove that I was prescribed a medication by Dr. Atwal because his office (and by extension himself) refuse to acknowledge or fix this issue. This is not a terrible customer service, but also a poor and unsafe way to practice medicine that risks delaying care for patients in vulnerable positions.

Terrible terrible doctor. Does not listen. Within 5 minutes diagnosed me with bipolar disorder. Due to covid for the past year, he has to call in prescription's, so says and never does!! I go 1-2 weeks without medication for the past 6 months. The office does not answer the phone and you have to leave a voice mail. they do not return calls, and the medicine is not called in! I have sent e-mails and numerous phone calls. When you finally do get a hold of the incompetent receptionist, she states it was called in, and it is the pharmacy's fault. He does not listen and the phone appointments last no longer than 2 minutes. It takes the office longer to process you payment over the phone than the time he spends with you. He is very dismissive and unreliable. I wish I had the option of a zero star

Please please PLEASE. Do NOT go to this doctor. Read the healthgrades review, read hiz google reviews, he is 100% the worst doctor I have ever seen. He is dismissive, rude, unprofessional, unreliable & goes through new staff every month or so as a result of his behavior. He is awful at communicating, and will give everyone different answers and waste patients time. He does not care about his patients at all, & only cares about the money. I have been going to this man for 13 years, & now will be switching doctors. I have been trying to get him to fill out a prior authorization for new insurance for FOUR WEEKS, over a month without the medication I need, & he has fought me every step of the way, refusing to fill it out, leaving it incomplete, ignoring ny insurance, etc. The amount of disrespect & lack of care this man has for his patients, especially someone that was a patient for literally, THIRTEEN YEARS, is mind blowing. Please do not go to the doctor.

Unfortunately he has prescribed incorrect/unintended dosage twice in less than two years. He doesn’t listen; clips my sentences. Takes phone calls mid-appointment in front of me (pre-covid in-person). Held in-person appointments without regard to covid till suddenly they were by phone. Based on the canned re-caps on how I’m doing; they are just wrong. I never visited such and such place. I can’t prove it but based on my experience with bp treatment over 12yrs, stable, same med; he withholds the stabilizer choosing to prescribing mo-mo. He withheld a refill after a missed appointment until he could reschedule; left me suddenly out of stabilizer and for a half a week or so; it was rough. The benzo; multiple refills. This is backward to my experience and I think he’s farming my insurance and holding the critical med back. This has resulted in mis-dosage as stated above. I moved here from the mid-west and Visalia is SO underserved. I’m not doing great. Still looking for help.

I've been with him for 2 years. Quick visits. He doesn't like it if I tell him I'm not doing well. He's never been rude to me but he's not a doctor who will try to find out what's going on with me. Pretty narrow-minded psychiatrist. As others said, I was also diagnosed with bipolar on my first visit even though I don't have hypomania or mania. He said that if depression doesn't improve with antidepressants, it's a bipolar disorder instead. I give him 2 stars because he prescribed me medications I suggest that I try. But no, he is not a good psychiatrist. Office staff is not nice and his office in Visalia is messy and unpleasant - his empty lunch box was on the floor for Pete's sake!

Dr. Atwal is very caring and intelligent. I have been seeing him for a few months and he really helped me. I went on medication recently that he prescribed and it changed my life. It is also nice talking with him.

I’m so sorry I ever met this Doctor!!! He’s rude and so is his staff!!! He’s very disorganized, has food and empty coke cans on the floor!! He only sees me and all his other patients 5 to maybe 8 minutes. You walk in sit, asks how you’re doing with his back turned away from you. He’s already writing my prescriptions on my refills. Please people read all his reviews!!!! TY??

I have had the same experience as just about everyone else who left a poor review. I Too, was diagnosed as bi-polar within 5 minutes. All my follow-up visits take a max of 10 minutes. I asked to take myself of of one of the meds .Depakote, and I haven’t noticed one bit of difference.i probably never needed it. When I try to mention anything I might be struggling with, like feeling more depressed or withdrawn, he just gives me platitudes. Get out in the sun, go do something fun, etc. I don’t know why I’ve stayed with him so long. Searching for a new Dr. now.

I received a list of providers from my insurance when I needed to find a psychiatrist. Dr. Atwal was the only one that was accepting new patients and could see me in the near future. Now I know why. I thought I had an appointment today. Turns out that it was last week and I had missed it. I explained that my purse was recently stolen along with the appointment card and that I never received a reminder call. The receptionist was condescending and argumentative and said I owe them $50 for a no show fee. I said I’d like to talk to the doctor about it and his attitude was even worse. You’d think that a mental health professional would be kinder and more understanding towards his patients but based on the other reviews I see it’s not only me. It’s really not about the $50, it’s about the disrespectful treatment. Shameful.

3/28/19 Very disappointing experience with this doctor. He did not listen, wrote me a script for the wrong medication and when I asked him to change it, he wrote the wrong meds AGAIN then insisted I take them! I told him to look at my chart and check it. Without looking into at it, He yelled at ME in front of the waiting room. I left and will never go to see him again. Stay FAR away from this arrogant doctor.

I needed a Phych Diagnostic Eval. because I need a Neurostimulator. I got a approval from my Insur. Co to see Atwal for the eval. It took a long time for me to get a approval from Humana. This DR is on the list of Humana DRs. I talked to his office several times prior to my appt on 8/30. When I got to DR Atwal's office he told me that he doesn't take Humana. I had the approval letter with me. He wouldn't even take the time to look at it. He was very rude to me. He hadn't notified Huma

I would not recommend Dr. Atwal to anyone. The appointment I made was for my son who was in dire need of help. As we walked in the office for the first time, Dr. Atwal was yelling at a patient in front of a waiting room full of others. We stayed to give him the benefit of the doubt however the visit ended without my son being able to see the Dr. and being yelled at as we walked out the door. Not to mention we drove an hour to get there. EXTREMELY UNPROFESSIONAL.

I have been in the medical field for 30 years and I think Dr. Atwal is one of the best. His experience speaks for itself. I guess I am one of the few that doesn’t have bi-polar issues because in the years I have seen him he never mentioned it. My first visit he asked a series a questions and I could tell he was following his diagnosis. The questions just confirmed it. People would be upset with their general practitioner if he diagnosed a cold within 5 minutes too. They must know alot more

Dr atwal must have been out of his mind when he took his oath as a doctor, absolutely no professionalism. He was awful to me and is an incompetent doctor, I would never recommend anyone with an addiction or seeking psychiatric help to go to him. He diagnoses every patient as bi polar within 5 minutes it’s ridiculous. Stay far away.

Dr. Atwal doesn't listen, he is the most dismissive person I've ever met. He became upset with me several times and even humiliated me in the lobby when I had to go back to his office to clarify his doctor's note. He is extremely rude and didn't respect me or my privacy enough to take me back ro his office for a quick discussion to clarify what his note meant. Do not go to him. You'll leave feeling worse than before you got there. I will be filing a complaint against him with the medical board.

I see a really bad pattern in these reviews. I had the very same problem. In 5 minutes he told me that I am bipolar. Sometimes I was in and out of his office in 2 minutes. He is a horrible doctor. You will more than likely be diagnosed as bipolar and be treated badly. I have a much better doctor now. And no, I am not bipolar.

This doctor should lose his liscence.I have been on a low dosage antidepressant most of my adult life and I'm nearly 50.I have been going through some family issues lately and have been a little bit down and was looking to either increase my dosage or try a different antidepressant. At my very first visit within 5 minutes he wanted to put me on bipolar meds.He must be getting some kickbacks from the bipolar pharmaceutical companies.Wow. Afterwards i have heard from others the same story

My wife has been seeing this licensed drug dealer for Bi-Polar for over a year now. On the initial visit she spent a grand total of five minutes in his office. All of the follow up visits are exactly the same, she walks in he asks if the medicine is working, she answers yes and he hands her a prescription. He does not ask any follow up questions or anything. Now the medicine that he has her on does not seem to be working, but due to the Bi-Polar my wife does not recognize that it is not working.

He interrupted me. He would not let me explain my situation. I never saw him before and in 5 min. he said I was Bipolar. He made assumptions based on very little and incorrect information. I am 59 yrs old, never diagnosed with any psych issues except mild depression. I am a professional and work in health care. I know what a complete evaluation consists of. He did not do that. While waiting in the waiting room, his patients went in and came out fast!