Reviews of Malcolm Roth, MD (Plastic Surgery)

Wallace Hall

Where do I start? Well, last year (2013) my wife was diagnosed with trigger finger in both hands by a leading orthopedic group in the Albany NY area. At that time I had health care insurance through my employer. In December 2013 she had surgery on her left hand by the hand specialist at the "leading orthopedic group" that diagnosed my condition. The surgery went well, and did take care of her problem (locking fingers, etc), however the pain continued for 2 months, and she was forced to take Tramadol every 4 hours on a regular basis to relieve the pain. Her doctor gave her no other instructions or advice to help or prevent pain. The surgery for her right hand was scheduled for January 20th, 2014. With the advent of the ACA (Obama Care), my employer dropped health insurance coverage, and we had to get our new insurance through the NY health care exchange, As a result, we had to find a new hand surgeon, as her current surgeon did not participate in our new health insurance plan. I did some research, and found Dr. Malcolm Roth. We called and set up appointments for an initial consultation and subsequent surgical appointment. From the moment we entered the offices, we felt relieved. The staff gave us their prompt attention, and made us feel welcome immediately. After a brief 10 minute wait, we met with Dr. Roth. He went over the notes from my wife's previous surgery, explained her options, offered choices, and went to lengths to make sure we understood exactly how he was going to proceed. The surgery was scheduled for February 25th at Albany Medical Center. After her surgery, Dr. Roth met with us in the recovery room. He gave my wife a prosthetic device that was designed to keep her hand elevated. He did give her a prescription for Tramadol, but asked that she try not to take it unless absolutely necessary. He asked her to try taking Tylenol to relieve pain, and to avoid the Tramadol unless she absolutely had to have it. He gave instructions to keep her hand elevated above her heart whether standing, sitting, or lying down. Shortly afterwards, we left the hospital and went home. That night around 8:30 the phone rang. It was Dr. Roth. He called to check up on my wife, see how she was doing, and how the pain level was. What a surprise! I cannot tell you the last time we had a doctor call us at home, after hours, to see how we were doing. It has been 3 weeks since Dr. Roth performed the surgery on her right hand, and almost 3 months since the other doctor did the surgery on her left hand. My wife is in the rare position of being able to do a “side-by-side” comparison of two doctors performing the identical surgery, one on the left hand and the other on the right hand. The difference is night and day!!! She has more pain in her left hand that was done 3 months ago than in her right hand that was done 3 weeks ago. To us, Dr. Roth is a miracle worker. Dr. Roth is a genuinely caring human being, showing compassion to his patients, and taking a personal interest to make sure that my wife was recovering well. We highly recommend Dr. Roth to anyone needing his services. Our only regret is that he doesn't practice general medicine, as if he did, he would be our family doctor as well.