About us
Full Service Dental Suite, Orthopedic Surgery, Alternative and Integrative Care, Cancer Consultation, Digital Radiography Service, PennHIP Certified, OFA
Business highlights
Services we offer
MEDICAL & SURGICAL CARE & CARING FOR DOGS, CATS, SMALL MAMMALS, BIRDS & REPTILES. X-RAYS & DENTAL WORK.
Amenities
Free Estimates
Yes
Senior Discount
10%
Accepted Payment Methods
- American Express
- Check
- Visa
- Discover
- MasterCard
Number of Stars | Image of Distribution | Number of Ratings |
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74% | ||
9% | ||
11% | ||
6% | ||
0% |
Filter reviews by service
The major problem that I had with Oak Tree was one of poor responsiveness and communication outside of her scheduled visits. On three different occasions I called with a concern (new symptoms, a bad reaction to a medication, a relapse) and didn't get a call back until days later and sometimes not until I had called a second time. When I would get a callback, I had to explain the problem all over again -- it seemed like the person at reception wasn't relaying the information in an effective or timely manner. After the second time this happened, I discussed it with Dr. Smith and he said all the right things: sorry, I should have gotten a call back the same day, it won't happen again. The third time, I called first thing on a Monday morning because my cat had had a relapse of symptoms that Sunday -- she threw up multiple times and stopped eating. I left a message and asked specifically that Dr. Smith (who I confirmed was in the clinic that day) call me back that day. I didn't receive a call until Tuesday afternoon, and then it was a vet tech who said that Dr. Smith wasn't there that Tuesday, but she would have him call me Wednesday morning. In fact, I didn't get a call back from Dr. Smith until Friday afternoon. By that time, I had taken her to a different vet clinic, they had done tests and already called me back with the results.
The vets and staff at Oak Tree are friendly and provide good medical care, but the level of responsiveness and communication was really lacking for me. I have since switched to a new vet.
I've been going here for about 8 years but will find another vet.
Every time we go the staff is different. The desk clerk had given me information about fleas that was not helpful, while selling me expensive medication but little else.
Everything turned to very bad when a woman that I was seeing in there left for a young man. He could not complete things for my cats. I did not like them at all. He was very unprofessional that guy.
The doc and receptionist was trying to sell me another kind of antibiotic. I then corrected the receptionist on her mistake. She stated that I should buy and use the new prescibed antibiotic because my dog weighed different from his last visit, and the newer med is for his weight group. Dr. Gundelly aslo confirmed that is why I need the new med. I was getting hot under the collar because my dog weighed the same at both appointments. I was feeling hustled. My dog also needed eye drops that cost 24.00 here. I bought neither product from them.
I then went home and searched online for the eye drops. I found them for HALF the cost the vet was selling them for. I called the vet and told them California Pet Pharmacy will be faxing a form, they needed a RX from the vet. At first they denied the request. When a called the vet again, they then sent over the RX. The eye drops was 12 bucks and some change.
I saved 50.00 and I am now looking for a more honest vet.
He is probably the most compassionate, thorough, I don't even know how to describe him, he won't do anything unless it is necessary, is always looking out for the animals' wellbeing first. The staff is phenomenal. He just goes above and beyond. My cat goes in every three weeks.
The wait time is fast - they're good. The prices are reasonable.
While our dog was healthy, we were happy with the clinic. They send reminders for vaccinations, we never had to wait a very long time, and the prices for routine services seemed appropriate.
Starting about three years ago, however, our dog began showing symptoms of Addison's disease, then a year later, diabetes. Since then, her healthcare has become more complex, and it has been during these past few years that we have had problems.
On two occasions, we had an urgent question and left messages for Dr. Mandel, but received no call back until well after the fact (one of those times, we simply had to take her to the doggy ER on Miles Rd.). When I called to follow up, the second receptionist could not locate the note the first receptionist said she had taken. After this incident, I personally met with Dr. Mandel to discuss communication issues. He was apologetic and said he would be more communicative, so I felt good about continuing care with him.
However, it's not Dr. Mandel, it's his staff. We have also had previous issues with the office staff correctly recording prescriptions, but what happened this week is the final straw. We ordered a prescription for our dog from an online service, which in turn requests confirmation from the vet's office before they fill. Dr. Mandel's office denied the prescription because our dog had not had a blood test recently. We had never been notified that she was up for a blood test, and no one called our home to tell us the prescription had been denied (the online company should have contacted us too, but I expect much more from my vet!). ! Weeks went by and we were almost out of medication when we realized what had happened. My husband called the office when we realized and they did fill it immediately, but their computer also showed that her annual checkup is due in September....so how is she overdue for a blood test?
"Hi Member, I know how much you love Bella and your experience must be very frustrating. Our office did receive a fax from an internet pharmacy for one of the medications Bella depends on to control her disease. We contacted the pharmacy and explained that the amount requested, (I believe 100 pills), would have exceeded the time between required examinations and blood monitoring for that medication, (which can have effects on the liver, bone marrow, heart and pancreas), and that we could fill an order for a lower amount or have you come in sooner than your September reminder annual for the blood work. This is not an infrequent occurrence and most pharmacies are very good about communicating this. In your case, however, you were only informed that we declined the refill and you were not told right away either. Internet pharmacies, even the good ones, are driven purely by profit, not with Bella's health in mind. When you did contact our office we immediately filled your prescription request and I further called the pharmacy and authorized the full refill after Deb explained that you had made an appointment for Bella. I apologize for you inconvenience and encourage you to call our office if you do not have immediate attention from future internet pharmacy orders. You may not know but we have a relationship with our distributor which allows for convenient internet ordering directly from our website. The orders all go through our doctors so problems like this are avoided, direct communication with our clients is maintained and the prices are set to match most on-line pharmacies. I also have all of our doctors e-mails on-line (mine is [email protected]), to make ourselves available anytime for our clients. I certainly encourage you to communicate with me directly if you have any problems. What sets us apart is not only the care but our client service so I appreciate your feedback. As I said, we generally have not had this problem with all of the internet pharmacies but I will speak with my manager and put in place a protocol of adding a call from our office in addition to the one from the pharmacy with all internet refills to be sure that clients ordering from on-line pharmacies, whether or not they contact us first, at least know what we are doing on our end. I appreciate the trust you have put in me to care for Bella and I would feel very sad to lose you as a client over this."
From the time I called to schedule, the woman who answered the phone was not very nice. The next event was the appointment. I arrived at 4:45, which is when I thought the appointment was, to find out it was at 4:40. Well, given my dog is very nervous, I try to arrive right on time, to avoid waiting. The person who had the appointment after me, at 5, was allowed in at 4:45 after I arrived. Despite my best effort to avoid having my dog wait in the waiting room, I was made to wait until 5:30 to get in the room to wait some more for the doctor and vet tech. I was so aggravated that me being 5 minutes late caused me to wait 45 minutes. I understand the importance of being on time in a practice, but I seriously thought my appointment was at 4:45. During the time my dog was panting and whining in the waiting room, I asked how much longer it would be, and the receptionist was rude and reminded me that I was late for my appointment. I asked if we could at least go into a room to wait since my dog has so much anxiety and she said no, there were none available. I brought copies of records from my former vet, as asked when I made the appointment and offered them to her, and she said she didn't need them to show them to the doctor.
Overall, once we saw the doctor and the vet tech, they were very nice and helpful. However, the nasty looks from the woman before we got in the office and then then the wait was not good. At the end of my visit, the same receptionist was supposed to check me out, and I heard her refuse in the room behind the desk to help me, so another woman stepped in to do it.
Within three weeks, my dog had another issue and I called the office in panic because he was having a hard time breathing. Even though the office was supposed to be open, no one was answering. So I decided to call their other office location in Wickliffe. The receptionist there answered, calmed me down, listened to my concerns about the dog and told me call the Taylor office. Later in the morning, I called again, and was able to get an appointment. I was waiting to hear back from the staff at Taylor because they said our vet was in surgery and they were not sure when we could get in, or when the vet would be done.
I arrived at the time I had scheduled, and the one tech at the front desk told me that she had been trying to call me, and I wasn't answering, in fact blaming me for not being able to get a hold of me. I said that was weird, because my phone is working fine, she then tried to show me actually dialing my number at their desk and it would not connect. It didn't even ring, however, it was a recording that said the number could not be dialed. She said she tried to call me 4 times and I must have given them the wrong number the last time I was there. I checked the number, it was correct.
Based on my watching her dial and knowing my cell works, I asked her, " Do you need to dial a different prefix, like 9 and then 1 before you dial my number since it is not in the 216 area code?" and she said no, and I said, "Can you just try it, to be sure?" Sure enough, after she tired that, my cell phone rang. I received no apology from her, and this started off what was our last visit to Mandel. Again, the vet and vet tech were nice, but the front desk staff completely ruined any experience I could have at this place. I have found another vet in town that I love, and am happy to not be bound to a place that was so rude to me.
One note about cost, the cost of the two visits we did make there were more than our previous experiences for the last 6 years with a vet in downtown Chicago. I was shocked at how expensive things were at this place. One prime example, because my dog sometimes has an allergic reaction to his shots, our old vet would give him benedryl shot before the other shots. The benedryl was complimentary because it was to make sure he didn't get sick from the other shots, at Mandel this was an extra $20-30.
Overall, I am largely not going back because of blond vet tech who didn't know how to dial and the older receptionist who was rude to me on multiple occasions.
"Hello, I left you a voicemail with my personal cell number and e-mail but I have not heard back. Given your experience at my hospital, I would appreciate hearing firsthand more details and I would be grateful to have an opportunity to respond to all of your concerns. I have been in practice for twenty years and I have always taken great pains to instill a customer service oriented culture in all of my practices. In addition to providing excellent quality medical care, exceptional client service is at the core of my practice model. It is disappointing to hear your story and I sincerely apologize for your experience. I felt terrible as I read your review. I took over the practice in Cleveland Heights in 2006 and it has grown considerably in that time. The building itself is only now being remodeled and the main reason for it's growth is due to our commitment to client service as well as good medicine. It has certainly outgrown the two exam rooms and I am in the midst of constructing two more, in an effort to prevent the waiting that you experienced. I've also increased my staff as well. The average experience of my staff is over 10 years and all my core people treat the clients and patients as if they were part of the family, (which in our minds they are). A couple of more recent hires have proficiency and experience but are still learning client etiquette and the staff members you had problems with have since taken additional classes on client etiquette and service, (infact, the office manager had recommended the class as a condition of her continued employment partially based upon your experience...she remembered you as the client from Chicago who had seemed dissatisfied and had mentioned it to a tech, who, in turn, relayed it to her. After hearing about it, we immediately took action). I wish I had had the opportunity to talk with you directly before publishing this review because this employee has improved greatly since that time and I think your experience might be different now. I am happy that you have landed at a practice that satisfies the needs of yourself and your dog, "Harley", but I would offer you an appointment, at no charge, to try us again. You and I have never met but I have reviewed your chart and I think that I can help your dog as I have considerable experience in his specific set of problems. I would be willing to help whether or not you decide to ever return to my practice, (I hope you still have my contact information). Regardless, I do apologize for your experience and I regret that you had a negative experience at my office. Our goal should be to reduce your anxiety, not increase it. Your visit does not represent my efforts or my goals nor does it represent the majority of my staff who would never tolerate treating a client in this way. I still hope you will contact me."
My only advice - the waiting room is small so if you have a large or active dog you might want to leave him/her in the car until time for your appointment, weather permitting.
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