Mishal Bender & OB/Gyn Associates

If you need a prompt response for birth control or any other medication DO NOT GO HERE! They’ll put you on the back burner and they don’t care if there’s a lapse in your regimen. They just want you to come in so they get paid. Even if you have an appointment they’ll ignore you until you go in. Really «professional». I’ll go ahead and file a complaint with the State Board it Medicine.

This review is for Dr. Mishal, he is a great surgeon but when it comes to pregnancy not good at all. His bedside manner are the worst, myself and my husband are pregnant with twins and we didn’t get a ultra sound until 18 weeks when our DS test came back high and when we got the ultra sound that’s when we found out we was having twins. Dr. Mishal never had us do a ultra sound at 6, 8, or 12 weeks but he kept checking the baby heartbeat, when we asked him questions he provided us with short answers, even when i told him my breathing was different he told me to walk slow (smh). After my visit I immediately changed over Doctors to Dr. Throung who is wonderful I highly recommend going to see her, first visit i can tell she read my chart and had a plan in place for my pregnancy. I know I’m in good hands with Dr. Throung.

This place is infested with medi-​cal patients. They apparently have priority here. I asked the receptionist why the long wait (as we waited over an hour with an appointment) and she advised me that they had to take it the medi-​cal patients first. What the heck? I work hard in my career, and yeah I don’t qualify for medi-​cal but I have PPO. I thought that was a good thing? I waited over an hour and was about to pay a good amount of money for long term prenatal services, but realized this place wasn’t for me. They are running a mill for medi-​cal patients from the inner city areas. I almost thought I wasn’t in Downey; hey if medi-​cal patients is who they want to serve, so be it. In the end, I walked out. They don’t need my money here

Dr. Mishal is a terrible doctor !! My wife came to him thinking because he had great reviews, he would be perfect. My wife went to emergency at 15 weeks because she was bleeding. The hospital said my wife was ok. When she went to go see Dr. Mishal, he laughed it off and said my wife was over reacting by going to emergency. Later in my wife prenancy, she was feeling pain in her left leg and lower back. He ignored it, and wouldn’t take her off of work. Because he was a doctor and it was our first pregnancy, we trusted him. A week later, my wife went into labor. My wife water broke at work. My wife was pregnant with twins, and our little girl water broke but the boy was ok. We was told by the hospital, because the babies were 22 weeks there was a high chance of us losing them and infection setting in. We saw Dr. Mishal a few days later and it seemed like he didn’t care. It looked like he even had a little smerk on his face while talking to us. A few days later, my wife went into labor, and we lost both of our babies. I will never forgive Dr. Mishal for not caring. We went back to his office after losing the babies and he only took my wife off work for a few weeks he never said he was sorry for our loss or nothing. My wife got pregnant again and with early signs of preterm labor, kaiser put her on bed rest. We now have a healthy girl.

I’ve been a patient here for six years now, and since day one the service has been wonderful. For the first couple of years, Dr. Bender was my Gynecologist. He was great. He always answered all of my questions and concerns. When I found out that he had transferred to another location, I was bummed out. I didn’t know if another Gynecologist would be able to fill his shoes. I was even considering going to his new office –that’s how much I liked him. I decided to stay at the Downey location, and I’m so glad that I did. I was fortunate enough to get Dr. Pham as my new Gynecologist. He is the sweetest doctor ever! I tend to get nervous whenever I step foot in to a doctor’s office, but he always calms me down and assures me that everything will be okay — and it always is! He is a genuine person! Don’t even think twice about going to him. You will not be disappointed.

FIVE stars for Dr. Pham. He is a-​m-​a-​z-​I-​n-​g! He has been my doctor for 8 years and he delivered both of my kids. He is patient, compassionate, caring and very thorough. He is very personable and always laughs. I can’t say enough good things about him.
Minus one star because wait times in the office are horrendous 95% of the time. They book about 10 people for the same time and since the doctor doesn’t rush with his patients, the wait time absolutely stinks, usually between 1−2+ hours.

I have great respect for the competency of all the doctors in this office, but if you are looking for flexibility in your birth plan, don’t bother. I am receiving care for a third pregnancy with them, and am finally giving up the idea that they will respect my birth choices. If you want to birth med-​free, no problem, but if you want to reap the benefits associated, they won’t play along. No alternate birth positions. Isn’t that the whole pointof going natural? They won’t do VBACs or delayed cord clamping either. They are talented, trustworthy individuals, but it is their way or the highway. I’m in the process of researching other OBs. The staff is ok, but the outstanding one is Mirabelle. I really liked her when she was my nurse.

I don’t write many reviews. You have to either be amazing or completely make me dissatisfied for me to take the time to say something about a company (positive or negative). Although I am very happy with Dr. Mishal as he is a very nice and funny Dr. He answers all of your questions and most of his staff is very nice and friendly. However, when it’s time to get your appointments beware of a sour face girl named Cecilia. She is one of the rudest people I’ve ever met! When I asked her a simple question about my next appointment she looked at me like if I was speaking a different language. She muttered something and I couldn’t understand. So I asked to to repeat herself because I couldn’t hear her and she replied in the rudest way and much louder. I was shocked that no one there said anything to her. She works slow and doesn’t seem to know much about what she is doing. She takes orders from the dr and anything outside of that forget if she knows! I was scheduled to get an ultrasound done and I was told by Dr Mishal that the paperwork would be sent to the hospital that day. When I called later in the afternoon to make my appt. the hospital said they hadn’t received my orders yet. So I called the Drs office and Cecilia was at lunch but the very nice nurse said she would make a note for her so she could send it right away. She said she would’ve sent it herself but Cecilia is the one responsible for scheduling and appts. So I waited several hours and called the hospital again and sure enough, they still hadn’t received the paperwork. Ugh! Frustrated I called the Drs office again and spoke with Cecilia herself. I asked her about the paperwork and she said she saw the note but was still working on patients from Friday (mind you this was Monday). So I told her that I only had a certain amount of days off and the hospital said I’d be able to get in that day but they needed the paperwork. She gave an attitude and said she was still working on Fridays and works in the order she was given. I told her she needs to learn time management and get her stuff done when it needs to be done the same day– like we were told it would be. Maybe don’t take hour ½ lunches if you don’t have what you need done. When someone is told one thing and it takes 2 days to get it done then you’re not doing your job right. Maybe consider a different job.

All doctors on staff here are awesome! I’ve been cared for by all when i was pregnant with my daughter at least once (they do a round robin type deal, you never know who will deliver your baby). My choice, Dr. Troung! SHE ROCKS! She honest and straight forward! I actually look forward to my annual exams!

Dr. Loy Pham is my wife’s doctor and he is great. We are expecting our second child and he has kept us in the loop on everything. The front office I also great. Friendly and attentive. Just like every where else, you have to wait. Be patient, otherwise don’t come here.

So Here is my breakdown, I will give this place 3 star all in all, till I feel a bit more comfortable or content/​or discontent with them.
5 Star for Dr. Mishal
2 Star for facility/​wait time period
0 – 2 Star for Front desk staff
3 – 4 for back office staff nurses/​Ultra sound Tech
This review might be a bit confusing but once you read my story you would understand, hopefully. Well its start by me looking for a new OBGYN Doc, I had Kaiser for about 10 Years and honestly, I wish I would have been able to stay there.
Anyways my first encounter with this office was off to a good start, the ladies were polite and seemed efficient over the phone. When I went in for my first visit, the waiting time was about 40min, I thought well it’s my first time and paperwork needed to be in place before the visit, so I brushed it off. The visit went well, the back staff nurse was nice, and Dr. Mishal was also nice, seemed honest, and very informative, was actually glad and felt relieved when I was going home. My second visit was for an ultrasound, it went well and pretty fast.
This is when things take a turn, my third visit was for a Thursday, I initially asked for a Friday appointment but Dr. Mishal doesn’t go in that day, I was told. The week before my appointment, I was called by a woman telling me that my appointment has been changed to Friday, But I remembered that the Doc won’t be in that day, so I stated, «oh but Dr. Mishal won’t be in Friday, that’s why I was given Thursday appointment». She stated oh well The Doctor will be in that day, another Doctor switched the day with him, I didn’t think anything of it, so I said okay, well better for me. Appointment time come, to my surprise the Doc was not in, and I already had missed my Thursday appointment, I was flagged as a no call no show. I informed the nurse, no my appointment was changed by you guys last week to today, I am here for my appointment now, and the front desk person, Sandra, I believe was her name; she said well because you missed your appointment yesterday, the doctor is not in today, he won’t have any days available till next week. I though it extremely rude, unprofessional, and downright bad that she just told me to my face, I missed my appointment, even though I just told her, I am here for my appointment, I did not miss my appointment, are you telling me I am lying to you, that I want to miss work, pay day care, and come at a wrong date, waste my time, really did you not understand that you guys changed my appointment!!! She even asked another front desk person to see my profile because since I missed yesterday, they had called me to follow up to why I missed my appointment, they also left a message. NOT correct, no one had called me, much less left a message, otherwise it’s obvious I would have known of the situation and would have not come in!!! Anyways the other woman said yes I have your profile here and we did leave a message, I just couldn’t believe what I was hearing, so I asked okay what’s the number on profile, I thought must be wrong info, and no it was my correct contact info, so these people, I don’t know what they were talking about, all excuses, it obvious that someone in their department messed up and they didn’t want to admit, take the fault, nor apologize for this huge inconvenience they put me through.
Anyways, I had to go back… At this time, I was more in than out and needed the surgery to get done, plus the doc was nice, and that’s hard to find! So far I had surgery, the doctor was again informative of all he planned on doing when I underwent surgery, so far the recoup wasn’t as easy as it was in the past, and I declare it to be because of the lack of follow up instructions, or post op instructions or instruments needed for recoup. I’ve had the same procedure done several times with Kaiser and the aftermath was easier, and I strongly feel it was because of this small little blow tool they gave me to take home and blow air into, this tool helps the lungs and strength of abdominal wall for faster less painful recuperation. Although I must also state that time has passed and I’ve aged, and also have to factor what was taken out his time, also would have contributed to the more painful aftermath. This surgery was hard I’ve had a strong, itchy, raspy, nonstop cough that I cannot seem to get rid off, I drink lots of H20 when it hits, and that lessens the cough and pain but man it’s though.
Anyways needless to say, I will continue to go with this doc for the follow up of my procedure, I’m not stupid, but I am currently looking for another facility to go to as my OBGYN place, although it does depend on my upcoming appointment, because as with anything continuous exposure to something can make it or beak it.

5 stars for Dr Loy Pham.
3 stars for the wait time.
4 stars for the girls on the front.
Setting up an appointment means waiting for about 30 minutes to actually see the doctor. So plan accordingly.
I wanted a woman OB GYN since I didn’t want a man going down there poking around and whatnot but I’m glad I chose Dr Loy.
Dr Loy is very professional and he makes sure to get you comfortable and feel at ease. He is very comforting and makes sure to explain everything to you so you understand what’s going on and why a surgery is needed if he finds any abnormality.
As for me, surgery went well. Back on my feet within 3 days, and even though I pushed my body too hard, recovery was farely fast. Won’t trade Dr Loy for anyone else.

Pretty clean and well organized. Girls behind the desk are very professional and friendly at the same time. Perfect temperature wich means not that hot or that cold just perfect.

I really like my obstetrician, Dr. Devadatt Mishal at Mishal, Bender and Associates in Downey.
Of course, he was in my medical group, so I was assigned to him since I originally didn’t really know any of the doctors in the area a couple of years ago. But he turned out to be a great fit for me.
The wait to see him once you’re in the waiting room can be a little long and agonizing, but I have NEVER ever had any issues with any of the staff whatsoever. And I’m on my second go-​round with a baby due at the end of August. (Keep in mind that he always on call during the day, so if he has a delivery he goes to the Downey hospital, then travels right back to this office within a fairly reasonable time.)
Dr. Mishal is very courteous, but also no non-​sense. He has a rather thick Indian accent, so he may be difficult for some to comprehend at times. It really shows that he cares about people and helping you take care of your baby. I am not at all embarrassed to ask him questions or tell him of all the happenings that my body experienced (is experiencing) because he assured me that they were all normal. He has good bedside manners and does not try to force his views on you.
I highly suggest that you do your own research on pregnancy before you meet with ANY doctor, not just him, to find out what you should be doing on a monthly basis because not all doctors have the time to sit down with you and explain it all. I honestly wish Dr. Mishal would have «coached» me a little more, but I learned quickly that it was best to tell him, «Okay this month I’m going to a childbirth education class… this month I’m trying to keep exercising, but is this exercise okay?» If you expect a doctor to tell you what you should be doing, how you should be eating, exercising, and shopping and setting up the nursery for your baby, then Dr. Mishal simply is not the doctor for you. He’ll give you tips after you ask, but it’s mostly like he assumes that you have a support system helping you along the way. Which leads me to another suggestion… FIND A GREAT SUPPORT SYSTEM that will help you with your birth plan, your monthly checklist, and all the jillion things that you need to do to prepare for your sweet bundle of joy and unconditional love!
At times I felt like I didn’t know what I was doing at all being a first-​time mother, but if you have any hesitations, just write your questions down ahead of time and ask Dr. Mishal when you get there. OR… call his nurse. She is also bilingual (I think Dr. Mishal is at least bilingual, if not trilingual) and very efficient at what she does.
If you are able to get in to see him, I recommend Dr. Mishal, OB/​GYN.
Review #235