An outpatient treatment specialized in eating disorders for both adults and adolescents. Please share your reviews!
An outpatient treatment specialized in eating disorders for both adults and adolescents. Please share your reviews!
Hi, I’m a journalist for The Telegraph US. If you were concerned by your treatment experience at Dr G******’s clinic, please get in touch. My email is cameron.henderson@telegraph.co.uk.
They are not really that expensive compared to other doctors. They are super helpful like you can email their RN anytime for guidance on symptoms or medications. There are other physicians in this practice and mine is really good. She gets all the physical problems solved while you are working on the emotional ones. They treat symptoms aggressively and really get to know all your quirks plus they communicate regularly with your outpatient team so everyone knows what is going on. They found and corrected some medical issues that no one has ever found before so I am thriving.
Hi all! Wondering if anyone has any recent experiences to review here?
I love my doctor at Gaudiani clinic. The positives are feeling heard and not having everything blamed on my ED, also having access to my doctor easily by phone. The cons, the virtual component can be hard if I need an in person exam and I do wish they had after hours on call physicians. Also it is EXPENSIVE!
Thank you for the recent comments that are providing a candid and (what I can only assume is a) very honest look into the Guadiani Clinic. I am at possibly the tail end of this fight, with pretty much nowhere to go, and I had hoped that perhaps this place could help. I see now, that is not the case, at least in my opinion, and I will definitely be saving myself the time, energy and $$$ by not reaching out. This type of practice was very alluring, but sadly, it seems like another exploitative avenue for those of us who truly need help. Le sigh. So thankful for this website—it’s beyond informative/useful and is truly helping so many. <3
While the doctors are kind and thoughtful during appointments, the clinic itself has major issues, as other people have commented on.
The clinic really positions itself as one of a kind, with concierge access to your physicians. When you read carefully, the website says “hybrid” concierge which means this: you can only access anyone at the clinic during clinic hours, if your doctor is out of the office you’re lucky if you can reach the nurse, and after 5 PM Mountain time and weekends you have to go to urgent care or the ER because there is not anyone available.
So you pay a very large “membership fee” of several thousand dollars, which solely permits one to become a member of the clinic. It includes nothing other than supposed “access” which is extremely limited. Then, you pay a minimum of $200 per 25 minute appointment thereafter. If you go over 25 minutes you may be charged more.
If you have questions or concerns in between appointments and email your doctor, she will send your email to their nurse and have her answer it. This clinic knows they have a captive audience because there isn’t another clinic in the US that does what they claim to do.
However, they seem to send almost every medical issue to the ER because while they announce that they utilize “groundbreaking telemedicine and are licensed in nearly every state” what that means is that they are too far away to actually take care of you unless you live in Denver and can go to the office.
So if you are 10000% medically stable and have a lot of money to throw at this clinic for some compassion over the course of about 20 minutes every so often…feel free. But if you do have medical issues that need management, be prepared to not have access or advice from anyone other than to go to the emergency room. Oh, and then the ER also can’t reach your concierge doctor either because there is literally no after hours person on call even for other professionals.
Honestly, I wanted to love this clinic. They claim to be different and so caring and want to repair the trauma done by other medical professionals who don’t understand eating disorders. It’s a wonderful premise. But they don’t deliver in any way. I could go to an HMO doctor in my city who takes my insurance. Sure, I wouldn’t be able to email them, but they could probably see me if I was sick and avoid sending me to the emergency department.
*Like the last review mentioned, I’m assuming it’s okay to mention the Dr.’s name since the clinic is named after her*
I’m so glad the Gaudiani Clinic has a page here. I wish I had known about this website while I was researching potential doctors to see. I’ve been a member of the Gaudiani Clinic for about a year and a half and I plan to stay with Dr. G for the foreseeable future.Throughout the course of my eating disorder I was never able to find a medical doctor who was able to treat the medical complications of my eating disorder. I had a great relationship with all of my other outpatient providers but I still struggled with the aftermath of engaging in my eating disorder. I would be in good health during treatment and hospital stays but as soon as I discharged to outpatient my medical problems would worsen due to lack of appropriate medical care. I had seen multiple doctors who would take my insurance who were not able to manage my medical problems. Since I started seeing Dr. G, my medical problems have stabilized and I no longer end up in the ER or hospital once a month.
The price of the Gaudiani Clinic is not cheap. If you want specifics, the clinic’s website has information on the associated costs. I am extremely fortunate to have a family willing to support me both emotionally and financially. Like I mentioned, I had seen several doctors before coming to see Dr. G. If you have an outpatient medical doctor who can manage your eating disorder symptoms, I wouldn’t recommend the Gaudiani Clinic. But if you’ve had experiences similar to mine when dealing with medical professionals and you still experience medical complications relating to your eating disorder, Dr. G is an AMAZING doctor and has a wonderful team.
I’ll give a brief rundown of how things at the Gaudiani Clinic work. As a note, I have never seen a physician not covered by my insurance or been a member of a hybrid concierge clinic before the Gaudiani Clinic so I don’t have a great frame of reference in terms of expectations. When you first contact the clinic, they’ll answer any questions you have about joining, have you fill out a couple forms regarding your treatment history, medical history, personal information, etc. (I might be leaving something out because it’s been a minute since I went through the intake process but that’s the general overview). If you decide to move forward, the next step is an initial consultation with Dr. G (there’s also another doctor at the clinic but I don’t really know how that process works). Before meeting with Dr. G, she’ll probably have you get lab work done or send over medical records so she can review them before meeting with you. Your initial consultation / assessment with Dr. G is two hours long. Typically patients come to the office for the first meeting. I was not able to as everything was shut down due to COVID-19 (this was back at the beginning of quarantine). Even still, I got to meet the team at the clinic over video prior to my appointment with Dr. G. Anyway, the two hour long meeting with Dr. G is super comprehensive and goes over just about everything you can think of. In my opinion, I don’t have the words to express how compassionate, competent, and collaborative Dr. G is. After struggling with ongoing medical issues for years I finally felt heard and validated. Dr. G also took my insights into consideration regarding treatments I’ve tried in the past, what worked / didn’t work for me, etc. She answered all the questions I had and took the time to get to know me as a human. At the end of the two hour session, she sent a full report with her insights to me as well as my outpatient providers. The next step was deciding whether to become a member of the Gaudiani Clinic. Again, I am incredibly fortunate to have the resources to be a member of the Gaudiani Clinic. Once I became a member, Dr. G worked with me to determine how often I would see her. I usually see her every month or two months but the frequency is super individualized based on your circumstances. Between appointments I could email or call Dr. G and her team if I had any medical concerns or questions. They’ve always been super responsive but they do not respond outside of business hours.
I have also required a higher level of care while seeing Dr. G so I can also give some insights there. Dr. G is well connected in the eating disorder world and will get you in contact with admission services at the treatment center you plan to attend. She is also very proactive in making sure ROIs are filled out and that your medical records are sent over. In my experience, Dr. G has also been able to keep in touch with me and coordinate my medical care with the treatment center while I am at a higher level of care so there aren’t any lapses or mistakes in care. I have also spent time at the Gaudiani Clinic in person for several days for a process they call wraparound. There are a couple reasons why people do wraparound but I went because I was intensely struggling with eating disorder behaviors but could not immediately admit to a higher level of care due to waitlists. During that time, I went to the clinic in person and did supported meals/snacks while being medically monitored (labs, vitals, IV fluids, etc) all day for several days. It was an amazing benefit of the Gaudiani Clinic and it just about saved my life without needing to navigate the complexities of emergency rooms and typical hospital admissions which I have had horrible experiences with in the past.
This review is getting long so I’ll wrap it up here. In summary, the Gaudiani Clinic has been more than worth the investment for me personally. It is expensive and I would only recommend the Gaudiani Clinic if other doctors haven’t been able to give you the medical care you need. But if you’re like me and have not been able to receive the medical care you need as a result of your eating disorder, I can’t recommend the Gaudiani Clinic enough. The whole team, Dr. G included, is so understanding, compassionate, and incredibly knowledgeable about anything and everything eating disorder related.
Correct! Names are fine in these cases – you are right it would be pretty impossible to review otherwise.? And I really appreciate your caution about that, so want to thank you for that and let you know that you and the previous poster are absolutely correct in your intuition about it being okay to use Dr. Gaudiani’s name here.
**I hope its ok to use the Dr’s name because it is also the name of her clinic, there’s no way to review the clinic without reviewing the doctor. It’s kind of an unusual circumstance***
Although this is an outpatient clinic I really appreciate the admins of this site putting up the Gaudiani Clinic. It is a very unique clinic that takes patients from all over the USA so I think its important to have it on this site. I spent A LOT of money here ($19,000) and I want to warn others not to repeat my mistake. This clinic is a private telemedicine outpatient clinic. So if you don’t have a doctor who specializes in eating disorders in your town, you in theory can work with Dr. Gaudiani on telemedicine as an your doctor. First off I want to say Dr. Gaudiani is a very competent doctor and is very caring, loving, and nice. It’s the clinic that has major issues. The cost to join her clinic is a yearly $5,000 retainer fee and she charges $500 an hour on top of that. I was told when I joined that this was a one of a kind concierge clinic. But the only thing “concierge” about this clinic was its price. Any medical emergency I had that fell outside of normal business hours I needed to go to urgent care or the ER for. I had severe bronchitis when I was a patient at Eating Recovery Center & my “concierge doctor” with “increased availability” wasn’t available for a weekend medical emergency. A normal concierge doctor would be available for emergencies like that with the exorbitant fees being charged.
Appointments were another issue. I would often get canceled on for speaking engagements that were more important than keeping our appointment times. I would get a phone call the morning of my appointment letting me know that Dr. G was busy so she would be calling me from her cell instead of telemedicine. She would call me from her car & count it as our “telemedicine” session. If I didn’t agree to talking on the phone with her while she was driving (instead of the face-to-face telemedicine) I would lose my appointment time. I always felt like I was a burden to her & keeping scheduled appointments with patients wasn’t a priority. I was really struggling in my eating disorder and every time I got canceled on (which was A LOT) I felt like I was being punched in the gut. I had just spent so much money and I felt like I was being taken advantage of. taken advantage of. It seemed like Dr. G’s biggest priority was promoting her reputation & growing her brand, not patient care.
My very first visit to her clinic I was supposed to have the standard 2 hour long appointment time. I was cut-off after an hour & a half saying my appointment time was up. She claimed it was a scheduling error. A scheduling error for what I was paying & the effort it took me to get to that appointment was unacceptable. I flew halfway across the country, paid for a plane ticket, hotel, Uber, etc. plus $2,500 for my first appointment, only to have it cut short by a half hour. I was not refunded any money for my first appointment being cut 25% short. Not only was I not refunded any money I was billed for the first appointment twice. Oops. This time it was a book keeping error. That was my first warning sign about her clinic but I overlooked it because I was so sick at the time. It’s hard to advocate for yourself when you are literally dying from your eating disorder.
In my first few weeks as a patient at her clinic she had a scheduled phone call with my psychiatrist to get my medical history & she stood my psychiatrist up. I get that things like this happen, but the reason this is a cash only clinic is because she claims you are getting something better from her than insurance doctors. The service is supposed to be better for what you are paying, not worse. I was embarrassed & felt taken advantage of that I had just dumped all this money into this clinic & basic things like keeping appointments, phone calls with providers, & accurate billing weren’t happening. She also went on vacation for 4 weeks during my membership with no back up physician covering. I asked to have some of my retainer fee refunded for not having access to a doctor for 4 weeks & I was told no. I was also double billed multiple times & she accidentally sent another patients’ private medical information to my mother by mistake in an email. She then waited a week to tell me & the patient whose HIPAA rights were violated.
I also felt very uncomfortable with the lack of boundaries with some patients. Dr. G was in the wedding PARTY of a CURRENT patient who is a member of the clinic. She wasn’t just in the audience at the wedding she was an actual member of the wedding party. Dr. G. showed up in the patient’s wedding pictures on my Facebook Newsfeed. Her dual relationships with patients made me incredibly uncomfortable. I felt an unhealthy jealousy towards patients who were treated more “special” than me that had outside relationships. It was really confusing for me to witness this. When I confronted her about it she got defensive and cited that nothing she was doing was illegal. I feel like just because something isn’t illegal, doesn’t mean its ethical.
I feel like people are convinced they can be saved by this clinic and they drain their life savings to join. I even know a girl who sold her car so she could join the clinic. One of my friends spent $13,000 at her clinic and its two years later and she’s still trying to recover financially from it. It almost feels like financial exploitation. I wish someone had told me before I joined her clinic that you can’t buy your way out of an eating disorder. Use a doctor who takes insurance you will get better quality care from a doctor that cares more about patients than a book tour. She actually has less availability than insurance doctors with all of her speaking engagements & vacation plans. I got better from insurance doctors at ERC, not at the Gaudiani Clinic. Dr. G is very nice and loving, but her clinic is a waste of money.
I had the exact same experience with this clinic, in terms of feeling financially exploited. They literally told me they couldn’t help with the symptoms I was having, but I needed to meet with my physician weekly. When I questioned why that was a “requirement” the physician (trying not to use names) was unable to medically justify it. This place really seems like a high priced clinic that only want to see medically stable patients who will not have any needs outside of scheduled appointments. Ugh.