Murray Orbuch, MD

Dr. Orbuch patience and professionalism is incredible! he helped my loved one when no other doctor could. I am upset that people on Unilocal are posting a 1 star review because they had to wait longer then what they wanted… patience pays off!

Great GI doctor. Very knowledgable about new treatments and procedures, and spent a lot of time experimenting with different drugs than helped me to manage my painful symptoms.
I would recommend him highly.

Dr orbach was truly fantastic and was extremely helpful and patient. Easy to work with and was super nice.

Dr Orbach is simply the best GI Doctor that I have ever been to and an amazing person to boot.
I am been struggling with Chrons’s for over a decade and have dealt with my fair share of misdiagnosis, quacks and even a doctor that recommending a medication that created an issue with my pancreas. Dr Orbach has tirelessly experimented with several novel treatments and I finally have some relief from my symptoms.
Dr Orbach takes time with his patients. I never feel rushed the way I do with other doctors and he has gone out of his way to be helpful. This includes communicating off hours, speaking to me on weekends and telling me different ways to save on the expensive medications that my treatment requires. Perhaps this is why some of the reviews have complained about a wait. He doesn’t speed through visits like many «factory» doctors do but practices medicine the way people did decades ago where he actually cares about his patients and listens carefully to your thoughts and feelings about treatment. So what if you have to wait a bit for stellar treatment ?
His treatment plan has quite literally changed my life and saved me from long days and nights of agony. You can’t put a price on that kind of excellence, thoroughness and effectiveness.
If you want the best GI Doctor in NYC, go see Dr Orbach. However, if you are bothered about a short wait (I have been seeing him for years and never waited more than 30 minutes), you should go see another «fast food» type Doctor that will push you out and likely mis diagnosis you.

This review is solely about Dr. Orbuch’s receptionist Erica who is unequivocally the most ghetto, unprofessional excuse for a receptionist with whom I have ever had the displeasure of attempting a civilized conversation. A little over a week ago (last Tuesday), I took time off from work to attend an appointment scheduled for Dr. Murray Orbuch. During my time at the office, I forgot to ask for a verification letter needed to classify my time from work as documented sick leave. Two and three days after my visit (Thursday and Friday), I made several failed attempts to speak with someone regarding my request for the verification letter. This past Monday, much to my relief, I was able to speak with a receptionist by the name of Erica. I attempted to explain the need for the verification letter, but Erica who obviously did not understand my request got upset and accused me of wanting to use the doctor to get sick leave from work. By that point, I was very upset because I was accused of being a crook and angrily explained to Erica that I needed the letter to verify to my employer that I had in fact taken the time off for a doctor’s visit. She then proceeded to document my request and my question regarding vitamin D3 and told me my message would be communicated to the doctor. I called on the following day on Tuesday, only to be told that the doctor was not at the office. I decided to call today, Wednesday July 29^th at 3:57pm and it was at the point I was faced with the most nauseatingly shameful and distasteful encounter with Erica.
At 3:57pm, I called the offices I and asked to speak with Erica to whom I communicated the need for the verification letter. Among other things Erica said the doctor was seeing a high volume of patients and had not written the letter. She placed me on hold and a few minutes later returned to ask whether the letter could be handwritten and I conveyed my interest in having a letter of any kind from the doctor. She decided to place me on hold and picked up the phone a few minutes later to say the letter can be picked up at the end of the day. I asked whether the office had a fax machine to which Erica answered in the affirmative. I asked whether Erica could fax the letter to me, she told me she was seeing a high volume of patients and could not fax the letter. She did however say that I had called a number of times and it appeared that I am in dire need of the letter and I was welcomed to pick of the letter that evening. At some point, she decided to place me on hold again. After she returned, I said I was not able to pick up the letter and asked could it be faxed the following day, to which Erica said no, I asked whether the letter could ever be faxed ever, and Erica decided to cut me off and speak over me in a very rude and disparaging tone, to which I responded, «Excuse me! Excuse me!» Erica in turn responded by placing me on hold at 16 minutes, I decided to call the doctor’s office using my office phone while I kept my personal phone on the line. In essence, I was able to speak with a very pleasant young lady whose name will be later included to this post as I can’t remember it, documented my concerns and apologized for my experience with Erica. After I hanged up my office phone, this same young lady picks up the call Erica had placed on hold, at that point I revealed my identity and explained I simply wanted to know how long, if ever my call would be picked up, at that point it was 22 minutes and 37 seconds, remember, I was placed on hold at 16 minutes.
A few minutes later, I called the office to speak with the office manager as I was very disgusted by the poor customer service I had received from Erica, and unfortunately, Erica picks up. I asked whether it was Erica, she refused to answer and in turn asked me to identify myself, which I did, I then placed my request to speak with the office manager. Erica responded that the office manager had left for the day and placed me on hold. I hanged up, called back and had the pleasure of speaking with the very same young lady who had been so gracious to me. She told me the office actually did not have an office manager and everyone reports directly to Dr. Murray. Again she reassured me my number had been registered and she would communicate my need to communicate my experience with Dr. Murray. Dr. Murray, as much as I would like to continue visiting your office as I attempt to identify the source (s) of my GI issues, I will not do so if your frontline workers (Erica) lack the basic customer service skills to resolve issues requiring none to little strenuous effort and prey on a patient’s need for a document to victimize him/​her. I will also not patronize your service if multiple calls have to be made for a document as standard as a verification letter. It will be a long time before I can erase the memory of this very distasteful encounter; Erica has just enough skills to deal with inanimate objects, not human beings.

There is always a wait. Expect at least 1 – 2 hour wait even if you have an appointment; provided of course that his secretary entered you into the system. As a doctor, he seems average but I am sure there are better doctors out there with an efficient team.

While I would truly love to write a positive review for this office, I simply can not.
The people who work here have ABSOLUTELY NO REGARD for your time or a pleasant experience — at all. It’s 1 block from my job, so initially I made an appointment here simply out of convenience, but in reality it might be quicker for me to travel to out of state and back –_​_​_​– I’ve come here twice now and both times have had to WAIT OVER 60 MINUTES PAST MY SCHEDULED TIME just to be taken in. So frustrating when you have a full time job and work to be done, and even more frustrating that no one who works in this office has any concern or apology for the delay. This is protocol for them. The front desk staff could care less about your existence. I stood at the front desk staring at them for 5 – 10 minutes before anyone ever acknowledged me, only to be told «Oh your doctors assistant is out, she’ll be back soon we all work for different doctors». WTF. So none of you guys could help her out and get me checked in?! I just have to stand here while there’s 3 of you perfectly capable functioning humans doing nothing?! oh ok cool, makes total sense.
I will say the woman who actually finally came to help me (Yvette) was actually a nice person, and obviously the timing wasn’t her fault — but that doesn’t discredit the 60 mins I sat in the waiting room regardless.
Lawd. *woo-​sah*
I haven’t actually seen Dr. Murray Orbuch enough times to have formulated a strong opinion about him, but from what I have experienced — he’s not worth the frustration of this office and procedure. I’ll be taking my business elsewhere. If you visit the office, enjoy the wait. Seems like many other Unilocalers had a similar experience, wish I would have read them more thoroughly sooner.

I’m actually surprised to see some of the reviews on here considering his reviews on Zoc Doc.
I went to Dr. Orbuch a few weeks ago for the first time since I’ve always have had bowel problems. I’ve avoided treating it but it’s gotten to the point where I though I had to. The guy takes his time with you and on my first visit he ordered a full blood work-​up, two ultrasounds, a fecal study, and made me go to an eye doc because my blood pressure was ridiculously high.
I have many vague complaints and have more or less decided that I would just be living with them or seeking holistic care since any time I’ve had any of them checked out, nothing comes of it and I’ve been told I’m more or less a head case. Within about 5 minutes of my first exam he was already asking questions and had me pegged with possible hormonal involvement. I came back for follow-​up and then found out I do have quite a few hormonal imbalances. He gave me a recommendation and sent me on my way. In the office I burst into tears because I’ve been trying to get an answer to all this stuff for YEARS and he was the only one that was liberal and thorough enough to order proper tests. Right now, I’m taking probiotics for my gut (why didn’t i think of that) which seem to do the trick and he’s waiting to diagnose anything until my system is regulated. Which is fine by me. I’d be happy if I don’t actually have to go back. I’m just very thankful that he takes his time, is thorough, and knows what he’s doing.

I am so confused by the poor reviews on here. There are like 5 Dr. Orbuch’s in this practice, could the other reviewers be confused?
As someone with a diagnosed GI condition, I have been seeing a gastroenterologist regularly for almost 15 years. Dr. Orbuch is my favorite of all of them. He has always seemed very knowledgeable and up to date on the current research about my condition. He’s open to the idea of non-​medicine therapies if that’s something you’re into (he doesn’t poopoo them as nonsense like a lot of other doctors I know, ie when I asked him about a special diet I heard could help my condition). As for billing, one of the reasons I’ve always appreciated Dr. O the most is because of his billing practices and his willingness to talk through how it works with me. I’m sure he’s not necessarily responsible for some of the stuff his office does, but I’ve never had a problem. And I know for a fact that we have sometimes done different procedures/​tests because he knew he could find out the same information for a lower cost to me.
Like I said, I’ve been seeing Dr. Murray Orbuch for three years now, after a long string of other gastroenterologists in various cities around the country/​world, and I’ve never had anything but very positive things to say about Dr. M Orbuch.

I’ve had nothing but fantastic experience with Dr. Orbuch, really surprised by the other reviews. I’m moving out of the country in a few weeks, and will miss having access to him.
BTW — He has 64 reviews, and a 4.9 rating on zocdoc… I’m very skeptical of the truthfulness of these reviewers.

If I were to give this a title it would be, «Tell Me Lies Tell Me Sweet Little Lies».
Shame on me for not reading the reviews on him on here before going to the liar. Unilocal employees, when a person lies to you that is what they are.
He’s COMPLETELY arrogant. My surgeon back in California told me I’m not allowed to take aspirin or ibuprofen but this «doctor» wouldn’t accept that as an answer and I could slowly see the smoke come out of his horns.
He told me I had panniculitis. Okay, I looked into that and that seems about right with the symptoms there so maybe he didn’t lie about that. He drew blood and said they WILL be ready in the middle of the following week. He did NOT say that they SHOULD be ready in the middle of the following week. So, he had me worry an additional two days. The results were in on Thursday but he was probably out playing golf with his buddies. I was told that first thing on Friday I would be contacted with my results. During a phone call around 4:30ish he told the receptionist that I had nothing to worry about. Turns out when he called me back around 6pm that I supposedly do have things to worry about AND that my thiamine sample had been contaminated. I’m not saying that he necessarily contaminated the sample or that the lab did but somewhere it was and quite frankly after reading about how this «doctor» appears to be money hungry and more concerned about his ego than his patients, it probably wasn’t contaminated or he contaminated it himself. And get this! He said he had his receptionist call ME! I DON’T THINK SO! I don’t know who the hell he was trying to effing impress but he needs to get his facts straight! When I confronted him about this, he didn’t think it was a big deal. Um, excuse me but whenever you’re dealing with me, get your facts straight because if I catch you in a bold face lie I’ll call your butt out on it and don’t EVER try to make light of it!
So he has this policy where they’ll charge a fee if you don’t give 24 hours notice. I left a message on Saturday that I wouldn’t be showing up on Monday and I messaged him through his website which he acknowledged via email that I was canceling Monday’s appointment. I gave the day and time with each correspondence so I wouldn’t get charged with the no show fee. I also asked for a copy of my file. I never got my full file.
This was weird, he has a problem with my speech pattern! Okay, that’s a new one. No one has ever said anything about that to me before.
This «doctor» comes across evil and I sure as hell hope that he didn’t use a used syringe on me to take my blood because he’s so damn cheap.

I cannot agree more with the previous posters. STAY AWAY! I was a patient of Dr Orbuch’s for 3 years and he NEVER diagnosed my persisting issue and instead ordered cat scan after cat scan after MRI after GI series, never resulting in anything other than medical bills. He instilled fear in me saying that my diagnosis «didn’t look good», however NEVER pinpointed what he was talking about exactly. He is inattentive, insincere and uncaring. Take your GI issues elsewhere immediately!!!

Dr. Orbuch is an excellent doctor and I would recommend him unconditionally! He really cares and despite all the pressure on doctors today, is in medicine for all the right reason, putting patient care above any financial incentives. Dr. Orbuch has provided outstanding medical care to me and my family on countless occassions. For instance, he has recently provided sound advice to my husband and I when our 4 year old son had a rectal prolapse (even though he does not specialize in pediatrics). Most doctors would never give such medical advice for fear of litigation given the malpractice environment in our country. Most people really don’t understand all the financial challenges underlying the medical profession today yet demand so much of their providers. As a finance person, I myself would never recommend that anyone go into medicine for financial reasons. But having a husband and brother as physicians, I can understand why some people choose this profession. These are the people that you want to entrust your care to when you or someone you love are sick. It truly requires dedication and really challenges any other profession in terms of the vigor that is required of these people.

I have been going to him for a number of years now. He has a keen mind, and he is very keyed into the many differential diagnoses. Plus, he is affiliated with Sinai and NYU, the 2 best GI hospitals in the city. Dr. Orbuch went the extra mile to help me with my problems, and I have also sent my friends to him.

The worst gastro guy in the city, period. I was going under for an upper endoscopy at the crappy basement space he rents uptown for procedures; and as they’re prepping me for the procedure he starts arguing with me about politics. I asked him nicely to let it drop, and he didn’t. Instead he actually told me that I was a traitor to my country because I didn’t think the wikileaks guy should be put to death by an american firing squad… and he told me this just as I slipped out of consciousness due to the anesthesia for the procedure.
When I woke up he wouldnt tell me anything about what he saw, instead insisting that his office would have my results in the next couple of days.
A couple of days came and went, no results. I called a couple of times to no avail, and here it is a year later and I STILL HAVE NOT GOTTEN THE RESULTS FROM AN UPPER ENDOSCOPY THAT I WAS CHARGED FOR.
Stay far, far away from this guy.

Do NOT go to Dr. Murray Orbuch. I have many complaints with Dr. Orbuch, but my primary problem is that he OVERBILLS for services you never requested. Expect to spend several weeks of your life sorting out the billing problem, only to find out you have no recourse but to pay it. Then, you have to deal with a separate billing office, which is equally difficult. I feel cheated by him. In addition, I found he doesn’t want to diagnose the problem, but rather, is quick to throw prescriptions your way. When you press him for answers, he just says «don’t worry about it; get these meds». If you want to understand what the source of your problem is, you won’t get any answers from him! Stay away!!!

GI Doctor
I had a good experience with this doctor. He listens and is interested in finding the cause of the problem. Relatively easy to get an appointment and he returns calls quickly to discuss issues when you can’t wait for an appointment.
I generally prefer a female doctor but was comfortable with him.