Charles B Wang Community Health Center

I had traveled to Mexico and basically contracted a stomach virus, but had wanted to be seen by a doctor just to make sure everything was okay. The secretaries had asked me on the phone what I needed to see the doctor for, so I explained to them: Stomach pain and diarrhea. I then made an appointment the same day.
When I walked up to the desk they then asked me again what I was here for… Are you serious? In the middle of a tiny waiting room where everyone is sitting and listening to every word being said. And I also already stated on the phone what I was there for. I knew this violated patient privacy, but I answered regardless. Stating that I traveled a week prior and that I was experiencing stomach aches and diarrhea. I was then given a very shocked response: «TRAVELED?! TO WHERE?!» … NOT professional at all. At this time Ebola was a major health issue… Although I stated that I traveled to MEXICO and NOT AFRICA, they insisted that I wore a mask. This was probably a good idea anyway, because they decided to NOT give somebody with actual respiratory issues hacking and coughing (and btw *not* covering her mouth) a mask. Wow.
Now.the wait was torture. I probably waited over an hour to see the doctor. When I finally was able to see someone, I felt as if he had no idea what he was doing. I once again explained my symptoms and instead of looking at me and giving me an answer, the doctor typed away at his computer (as if he was searching for the answers).I waited several minutes for him to finally stop typing… In the end, he pretty much said it was a stomach virus and that it should pass on its own. however if in 4 days, I still had symptoms, I should come back and get a stool culture. …What a complete waste of time.
And just on a side note: Just at the exact moment I had apprehensively told the women at the desk that I was having diarrhea, the man that had walked in right behind me farted! (Of course everyone probable thought it was me.) Embarrassing! And just one example of why they should have never asked me in the first place! At least just write it down when you sign in.sheesh. –_​_​–

The gynecologist on the Canal site was responsive and nice, but dismissed both sets of symptoms. Later, both were diagnosed as medical problems. No tests were administered, so we wasted $ 70 that we had to spend elsewhere.

This is the worst health care I have been! It always took me a very long time, at least few hours to wait although I had made an appointment. And I have not seen my doctor for three years, so I tried to make an appointment to do the physical examination, and the front desk asked to wait at least two month to schedule. By the way, the attitude is soooooo awful! Looks like I owe her 10 million dollar! Never come back again!

May V. Special thanks to Dr Allan Ho .Last year he did a hysterecscopy on me which should be a minor surgery. Unfortunately I went into cardiac arrest due to complications of allergy to the anaesthesia administered. Luckily Dr Allan and the group of doctors at New York Prebysterian managed to save my life that day. Many thanks to Dr Allan from a grateful patient who survived to tell the story.

I have been coming to CBWCHC for about 8 years on and off, I have seen doctors at both this location and Flushing. All of my experiences have been good. It can be slow but all of the care I have received has been comprehensive.
Most recently I have been seeing Dr. Douglas Chen. I have found him and all of the PAs, nurses, and receptionists to be helpful and give really effective care.

Charles b wang is a hit or miss. Staff can be helpful or unhelpful. So 3 stars for that. Sharon fan nurse practitioner, is awesome. She’s very nice and friendly. Gets back to you quickly. One time Sharon wasn’t in so I saw another doctor, I don’t remember her name but she was rude. She was checking my throat and stuck the stick so far back my throat I was going to gag. Then she yells at me for not opening wide enough. Okay. Anyways, I recommend this place for Sharon.

This review is specifically for Dr. Allan Ho, not Charles B. Wang Community Health.
A Hero does exist.
Dr. Ho is an amazing doctor who performed a very difficult but successful surgery of six (6) hours which he put a lot of effort, attention to detail with careful care and time for me as a patient. Prior to be put under the surgical knife I was immensely stricken with stress, panic, fear, grief, great anxiety, nervousness, conviction, and utter pain in the pelvic area. He interpreted all pathology labs and hospital lab reports plus the details of my surgery. I am eternally grateful to come across a knowledgeable, qualified, compassionate, humble, sincere medical professional who cared for me during my difficult surgery and post-​surgery continual treatment. I wished to have meet him in my youth to resolve my musk melon health issues, but there is no time machine to return to the past as «better late than never» for moving forward. I cried the night of my surgery because I am very thankful for having an amazing doctor who, despite of the difficulty, kept all my gynecologic organs intact per my wishes. He is the man of the hour who accepts responsibility and hones good ethics, integrity and morals. I have all the gynecology medical care in the world that I need from Dr. Allan Ho! Dr. Ho gave me clarity and enable me good gynecologic health.
Now, a new chapter begins
Dr. Allan Ho, my gynecology doctor, is my HERO
He is a resonating symbol of hope for good health
A beacon of light for healing
He righted a long overdue wrong

Dr. Allan Ho is an excellent Dr. and I wholeheartedly recommend him.

i am pregnant and chose dr. king kong as my ob，now im 32w+ but the policy changed！！I come here because i want dr. kong to deliver my baby，now it changed to who is on duty the due day whould deliver my baby！the other 3 doctors i even didnot heard of！it’s our right to chose our doctor！it is not resposible without noticing us until now！i come from queens to visit my doctor for 7 months，now maybe another doctor will deliver my baby even we don’t know each other！i wrote my complain in the office and nobody answer me！there are still lots of mommies are in the same situation and they cannot speak english，we need help or we will never come here！

The doctors are fine, the nurse, nurse aides are fine, but the 3 – 4 women who sit at their desk talk to each other so much that they forget you’re even there and so you wait hours for something that should have taken 1 minute. If you told them you can only come on a Saturday, they give you a Tuesday anyway and once you get home and realize that then you NEED to change your appointment, well good luck, it might be another month if you’re lucky. They gossip so much that they start talking to you about some other co-worker’s personal problem.
When someone is late for their appointment, they down talk the person and it’s not even funny.
To whoever is running this place, this is a big problem, investigate, shave your head, put on a wig, mustache, do an undercover boss, whatever.

This place operates under the guise that they’re a non-​for-​profit organization. Their mission statement states the following:
«Our mission is to eliminate disparities in health, improve health status, and expand access to the medically underserved with a focus on Asian Americans.»
I was referred to this place from my primary physician to get some lab work done. Months later, I get a call (followed by several subsequent calls) from their receptionist; in addition to, several follow-​up letters in the mail demanding that I reimburse the clinic for the lab work because my insurance company declined to cover the lab tests. It turns out the staff failed to timely submit a claim with my insurance company, and in turn, they came after me for reimbursement. They claimed that prior to receiving treatment, I signed several forms promising to reimburse the hospital should my insurance decline to reimburse the clinic.
They haggled me for several months thereafter to reimburse them, and then finally dropped the case.

I transfered here after I hit my age limit for pediatrics. The facilities are great and clean. Dr. Cheng was my first doctor but I’ve had the priviledge to meet most of the doctors here. One of the doctors was very thorough with my check up. When I told him I was visiting India, he pulled out a book and we both looked at the locations I was visiting to see what vaccines I actually needed. Dr. Pong also helped me with my sinus infection that wouldn’t go away. I highly recommend the doctors here.
They are also very good at keeping tabs on your check ups. I received calls and a letter telling me that I didn’t complete my blood test.
There are many organizations who send their clients to this health center. One of them is the International Rescue Committee and they would send their refugees here for free healthcare.

WARNING: Life Story Ahead…
Having been a patient over in their pediatric center at Centre St. and loving it there because of Dr. Chao (she is seriously the most wonderful person), I had the same expectation when I was transferred over to Canal St. due to the unfortunate event of growing up. God forbid you ever need any forms for work signed here, don’t expect it to be finished in a timely fashion. I handed in one sheet of paper, double-​sided. The first side of the sheet was already filled out BY ME, so any nurse or doctor could have filled it out in a minute. Regardless, the minimum time they tell you to wait is one week. That makes sense, since I got my form back over 2 weeks later, after having called and inquired about my form multiple times throughout this time period. The clerical staff is extremely unhelpful and unprofessional.
Warning: Slight TMI ahead…
During another incident, I made an appointment for gynecology because I had a UTI and when I arrived, the front-​desk lady made sure to announce to the whole office that I had a situation and needed to pee in a cup, etc. etc. I wasn’t sure why the front desk was qualified to even address my symptoms because she isn’t a nurse. Of course, she ended up giving me the WRONG cup to use, so I had to do the whole horrible process all over again. For those Unilocalers who have unfortunately experienced a UTI, it’s not exactly the most comfortable condition.
A few weeks ago, I had horrible unexplained chest pain. I panicked and laid in bed for a whole day before going to the doctor. A nurse did an EKG on me and the results were normal. The doctor literally told me just that. I believe his name is Dr. Wu, who I saw because my usual doctor was booked for the day. He was clearly only comfortable speaking in Mandarin (which I’m not fluent in) so when I said I would prefer English, he hardly said anything. He told me everything is normal so I should just «rest and eat Tylenol». Thanks doc, but I didn’t come all the way here with chest pain to hear someone tell me that I need to take Tylenol. He offered a prescription for Tylenol, with which I replied, no thanks but I can get Tylenol without a prescription. He did not ask if I took any medications, had other symptoms, or did anything out of the ordinary. Completely unprofessional and uncaring. At the very least, I expect a referral to a doctor who does know what he or she is doing. As Im waiting for the summary of my useless visit to be printed out in the waiting room, my nose started bleeding and the nurse happened to walk by and just look at me in horror. No concern at all. She then came back a minute later and said, do you want tissues? Gee, thanks but I’d rather find out why I have chest pain.
The most recent incident (yeah, I’m not done), I unfortunately had to get a form filled out for work again. I’ve already switched my doctors but since it’s not effective until January 2015, I was stuck yet again with the unhelpful staff of CBW. Five days after submitting my form, it’s still not done (I expected this). However, they called me and I thought it was some miracle that my form was completed within the week. Oh, and it’s important to note that they WILL NOT call you to tell you that your form is done. You must call them (and keep calling) to check if your forms are ready to be picked up. They truly do try to make it as inconvenient for their patients as possible. I was informed by the staff of CBW that I needed to get a skin test. Okay, sure I
ll get a skin test. Then they proceed to tell me that they ONLY do skin tests after 2PM. Ok, great, but I have work so can I come in the morning? They proceed to tell me that they can make a note that I would like to get my skin test in the morning. So… will I be seen if I come in the morning? There’s no guarantee because the nurses are busy. Well, it certainly makes sense for me to come in early in the morning so that i MAY OR MAY NOT have my PPD done… makes perfect sense. CBW, stop wasting your patients’ time with unreasonable accommodations.
Unfortunately, I’ve noticed that it’s common for Asian doctors offices to overbook and take on more patients than they can handle because… money. Do yourself a favor and go to a doctor’s office who actually cares about you.

This bad review is about Dr. Helang C. Kravitz!!!
Dr. Cho Kravitz was very dismissive when I went to ask for help from an unknown allergic reaction that has affected me for almost everyday now. When I tried to describe it to her, she did not spend any time trying to understand my situation. So I offered to show her pictures that I had taken of my face when I had the allergic reactions. She did not even want to take a look at the pictures, saying «what can I do with those?» When I told her I have it almost everyday, she asked me «why aren’t you having it now?» She made me feel bad for trying to ask her questions. No patient should feel like the doctor is being mean and very unhelpful.

The only reason why they recieve one star is because of doctor nyguen. She is very good however the the other four star went away because of the other staff members. They try to bill your insurance any way possible. All I need is to fill out a volunteer form. I already did blood work and ppd in march of the same year. However they wont fill out my form until I see the doctor and do another blood work. But why? It is because they are a community center and they see people without insurance at a low cost. To make up for the loss, they try to bill people’s insurance to make the money. And staff members should learn therapeutic communicaton before even working there. Especially this one staff member on the 3^rd floor
All I asked was a simple question. Dont roll your eyes at me or give me a nasty attitude. If you dont like working there, then quit. No one deserves to be sceamed at. Anyways, im glad I changed my doctor. Never coming back to see these rude staffs anymore.

I go to Charles Wang Health Center only because it’s close to me. I booked an appointment to see the only OBGYN there, had to wait for almost 2 hours, but i didn’t mind because I know that’s the norm of seeing an OBGYN. The staff were really nice and courteous. Unfortunately my OBGYN was making conclusions too quickly just by a quick exam by hand. The doctor felt that there was uterine fibroid in my lower abdominal, and he said that I have to do a surgery to remove the fibroids or the entire uterus, and I wouldn’t be able to have a child after that. He then suggest me to get a sonogram. For someone young like me who has never been married, that’s just too scary and shocking to my understanding, I was so depressed for the rest of the day, i was even thinking of committing suicide if it’s tumorous; until I did some research on my own regarding fibroid etc.
What the doctor should’ve done is to have me do a sonogram first, and talk about my options from there based on the result. There are other treatments for non-​tumorous small uterine fibroids that do not require any surgical procedure, simple exercise and herbal treatment would do. He shot the gun by telling me that i need to do a surgery and i can’t have a baby anymore. He just examined me by hand for less than 2 minutes, at the same time he also used me as a model and showed the intern on how to perform this exam. This exam is embarrassing enough to be performed by a male OBGYN, on top of that, there’s another stranger in the room made me feel really uncomfortable. I don’t remember the doctor asked for my permission before having the intern in the room. Anyways, what he said had a big impact on me for awhile, hope he will change his way of practicing.

(To VH, my negative review is not a direct counter to your good experience or that of others, but an independent summary of my own experience — so I hope you are not upset!)
When I got set up on Oxford Health at my new job, I had to name a PCP (primary care physician) prior to even having one in the New York City area. So I went onto the extensive website and did a search for all PCPs participating in my network. Overwhelmed by the options, I narrowed down the search to Canal Street and surrounding areas, since it was halfway between work and home and I’d also had a very good experience with a nephrologist in an office near that area. So based on these silly criteria, I suppose I was kind of asking for it.
It first began when I stated that I wanted a physical exam (basically just to get a waiver signed for a board diving class) PLUS bloodwork and all the good stuff for ladies’ health. They told me that I instead had to make an appointment with a gynecologist and change that person to my insurance plan. Confused, confirmed over and over that this was what I had to do, and that I was also receiving a PHYSICAL from a physician on from the same doctor during the same appointment. All three or four operators I seemed to have spoken with by this point replied in the affirmative on all counts.
What happened prior to my visit was that Oxford got back to me saying that I (obviously) couldn’t have a gyno as a PCP. So, I left the PCP as the original physician but showed up to my appointment, figuring that at least I could get my waiver signed and my pap smeared (sorry).
At 9 a.m., the dreary ground floor waiting room was chock full of elderly and/​or generally sick and/​or disadvantaged looking Chinese people. I was the only non-​Chinese person there, and so everyone assumed I was Chinese and began approaching me with deluges of Chinese until I had to assert that I had no idea what they were saying. Even after it was generally understood that I was not a Chinese speaker, it was hard to communicate. Somehow, I got the medical assistant to help me print out a copy of the diving waiver (which I’d stupidly forgotten at my office). She then led me to an open office directly across from a disgruntled man staring in from the waiting room. There, a woman began lecturing me about sex education and asked if I needed any condoms.
I stopped her in her tracks and said that I was thirty, etc. etc., and that I was just there to maintain my health, and even if I was in need of prophylactics, I didn’t see the necessity of a sex health lecture in order to obtain these services. A part of me knew I was being touchy and that the intentions were good, but it was just a gratuitous experience.
The medical assistant/​student observed all the procedures of the female doctor, which were rushed and rougher than I’d experienced anywhere else… aka it HURT and she didn’t care. I was then dismissed without a prescription I needed, and stupidly forgot to ask about it because I was so busy trying to get my basic health waiver signed by anyone (since I’d arrived there under the impression that a physician was also going to give me a once-​over).
It turned out that all the general physicians in the entire building are housed under the same business, which means that you cannot see more than one practitioner in a day (something about insurance billing policies). I went street and flashed a bill, saying I’d pay out of pocket just to have someone confirm that I’m not falling apart and that I can jump off a board into water.
In the end, I stalked out because I was getting way late for work, and I realized that the receptionists’, assistants’, and nurses’ attention was actually not leading to getting what I needed.
A week later, I got several phonecalls saying they had to talk to me about my test results. It was difficult to get back to anyone who could say anything. Of course, my results were normal. For weeks later, I got random residual phonecalls asking if I need an appointment with a primary physician, or telling me my results were in.
I would recommend other community health centers before letting anyone else know that this one exists. Oxford should also mention on its website that this center and its practitioners truly seem specialized to serve the Chinese community. And that’s wonderful, but those seeking healthcare should know what they’re getting into when designating who their local physicians and gynos are to be.

I normally don’t review centers this highly, but as someone without insurance, this is as good as it gets. Don’t quote me as the prices may change in the future. If you’re in the uninsured boat like I am, it costs $ 60 for the visit, and $ 30 for bloodwork, so a total of 90 bucks! This is great compared to private doctors that run $ 200+. The doctor’s office is pretty organized and I was able to meet my doctor and get all the stats done within an hour of my stated appointment. It was a mid-​afternoon appt. And, the workers at the front desk that actually answer your call relatively quickly!!! (I scheduled 2 weeks in advance for a annual physical for work.) The female doctor I met during my visit was very professional and thorough. She was very good at explaining medical stuff, and I definitely would recommend her in the future. This center also has sliding fee scale for those who have documentation of income, but I don’t qualify for that. Other than that, definitely consider coming by the center for medical follow-​ups. They speak a variety of languages including Cantonese, Mandarin and English.