Dr. Dimitrios Asters

This is for the office on Northern Blvd. Honestly, I do not recommend this office to anyone. You will have to wait ATLEAST 2 hoURS from your appointment time to see the doctor. For example, I was here at 10:56am for my 11am appointment; however it is currently 12:30pm and I am STILL waitiNG. This is ridiculous to me. How can the people be so slow here? It seems like the vibe I am getting from here is that, they don’t really care about the patients. Will be asking for a referral to a different rheumatologist location.

This should be a review about the dr not the office staff. He’s great! He takes his time with his patients… People complain they wait too long. Big deal! You are actually getting a doctor who is willing to TALK and be thorough! People also complain when the doctor rushes them out of the room and doesn’t explain a damn thing. Pick your battles people!

I went to see Dr Aster because I was replacing the rheumatologist I had. He was also recommended by 2 other Dr’s I see. I’m never going back to him. His assistant was replaced with a more competent one, but not by much. Needed a refill of my
meds. n the pharmacy was told that he hadn’t seen me in a year. WTH it had been 3 months. This world is going nuts. Good luck all of you.

This is for the office in Astoria.
I was so excited to find Dr. Asters because he was within walking distance of my house, had openings, and the receptionist was so kind and really took her time to explain what I needed to bring on the phone.
Unfortunately, that’s the nicest thing I can say about my visits.
First visit: Two hour wait. As I was getting up to reschedule, I was called in. I asked if the wait was normal and if I’d be waiting more (as I had to pick someone up) and I was given death glares by the staff. Dr. Asters performed an exam. He discounted any of my symptoms that were over a month old. He also said he didn’t like the results of my blood test; he took more blood and asked me to come back.
Second visit: Two hour wait. My blood work came back, nearly identical to the first one (abnormalities indicated, no positive matches for anything specific). Dr. Asters then told me I was fine, and that I should just take OTC pain meds. «After all, it’s not like you’re having problems walking.» Even though I WAS having problems walking, and I didn’t want to take 12 – 15 pills/​day. After pointing that out, he nodded and shuffled through my paperwork. He ended up writing me a prescription and asked me to come back a third time.
Third visit: One hour wait. I told Dr. Asters that the medication wasn’t working, and he seemed confused. I also told him that some of my symptoms were getting worse, and he reacted very suspiciously. By which I mean, he kept glancing over at me with a puzzled look on his face. At one point he said that I sounded like someone who just had a lot of problems. Finally he told me he didn’t know what was wrong with me and I should go to a neurologist «just in case.» He took blood a second time, and told me he’d email me the results in a week.
He never emailed me a copy of my blood work. I contacted him, with no response. I called his office to get a copy, and they told me they couldn’t find it.
When I finally updated my primary care physician on these visits, he flipped out and told me to see another rheumatologist. I now have a diagnosis and medication that works.

Good doctor. Very thorough but very long wait time. 35 to 45 minutes past your appointment time. Don’t bother coming in on time and forget about being seen early. The waiting room gets crowded and the staff doesn’t seem to help very much.