Dr. Michael Joseph Bolger, MD

This review is long overdue. Dr Bolger and his team provided excellent care to me and my family when I faced a devastating diagnosis as a young mother of two. Before our first visit, his staff provided gentle words to my husband cautioning that the sign will say “Cancer Center.” After diagnosis, Dr Bolger developed a plan to aggressively address my disease through every means, carefully watching my counts and adjusting along the way. Blood work was done there in the office with results available in a few minutes to be discussed with either nurses if it was a treatment appointment or with him if it was a doctors appointment. Later Dr. Bolger worked in consultation with colleagues when it seemed appropriate to use medication not usually indicated for my diagnosis. He offered a treatment path with less risk of life threatening side effects to delay drastic measures and to give me more time with my little children. He watched the unique ways in which my body and my disease responded to treatment and adjusted the plan accordingly and that made all the difference in leading to a successful outcome where there was little chance of one. To me this is what doctors should do- what the standards of care and statistics suggest first, but watch how an individual responds to tailor the plan because we are all unique. Dr Bolger is an excellent doctor.

I can’t thank Dr. Bolger enough for finding my husband’s pancreatic cancer on just a hunch. He is a great guy. He is patient with all of our questions.... and our family has lots of questions! And Lori is there for us also! This is the Doctor to see!!!

Dr. Bolger has been great with my treatment and telling me what to expect.

Opinionated, dismissive. Asked few questions of patient as if he'd already formed his opinion. Truly disappointed

I meant to write this review about two years ago, and I feel very guilty for not writing sooner. My husband went to a kidney doctor and he suggested that we see Dr. Bolger because of a result of a blood test. The first thing Dr. Bolger said, " Do you know why you are here?" My husband replied, " Not really. " Dr. Bolger said, "you have cancer. ". No explanations. This is the first time we ever hear hd that word concerning my husband. We were in shock. Then he said I am going to ask you three pages of questions. He only wanted yes or no answers. No explantions! Some answers definitely need an explanation. He went through several tests and Dr. Bolger put him on an oral medication for Multiple Myaloma that cost $2500 dollars per month. If it helps we would manage to pay it. Every month he would get a blood test with results going in the wrong direction. But he did not change the medication. About four months after being diagnosed we were supposed to go to Florida for two months. His nurse assistant called with the blood test results from a couple of days before and said have a good trip. We will see you when you get back. We talked to our son who is a physician and when he was told the blood test results, he sent him straight to the hospital. He said his dad would have ended up in the hospital in Florida within a week and very ill. We never went back to Dr. Bolger. By the way, we never saw or talked to Dr. Bolger after he was diagnosed. We thought that some of the blood test appointments were supposed to be with Dr. Bolger. Wrong! Only the nurse called with test results. Even if my husband wanted to talk to the doctor, you could not talk to him. Only the nurse. For an update, he now goes to Siteman, which is fabulous. You get blood test results before you leave the office. With a question, you can speak to the doctor. He is happy to answer questions and explain things to you. They changed his medications immediately and gave him injections which cost us nothing as they are covered by insurance. At the first appointment. With the Doctor, he gave him an outline for treatment, answered questions , and made us feel very comfortable. Now my husband is in remission, taking no medication. and sees the doctor and gets old tests every two months.

Perhaps the most knowledgeable doctor I've ever dealt with. Extremely thorough in his research and patient in answering questions. Top notch...

If Dr. Bolger chooses to treat you well, and he get your diagnosis correct right off the bat, you're probably in good hands. If you do something to irritate him, like ask a question, forget it. You will get nothing good from him. He is a recovered alcoholic. That is why he had a license to practice suspended at one point. He was disciplined several times while serving as a MD in the Navy for not showing up for duty due to inebriation (flat passed out drunk per the court documents I read). I believe the court documents also mentioned that he was drunk on the job a few times as well, but I'll admit it has been a while since I read those documents and I am a little uncertain about that. As far as I know, he no longer drinks, and he is an intelligent man, just not a very helpful one if he chooses not to be. He really does not like being questioned.

Dr. B as I call him, is a very kind and wonderful Doctor. I couldn't have asked for better. He truly cares about his patients. So happy he was highly recommended to me.

I completely disagree with the reviews I just read about Dr Bolger. His questions are yes and no unless he wants a more detailed answer... This is because he is here to understand what he is working with and long-winded answers can start to cause confusion. His bedside manner was light-hearted and he seemed to enjoy the chance to help me figure out my crazy blood clotting history. I would rather have a pompous jerk focused on my well-being than an afternoon with chatty-cathy focused on the talking instead of results. Dr. Bolger could just as easily complain about his patients as they have done him but he's above that nonsense. If you're unhappy, maybe you're expecting too much or not opening your mind to different personalities. I was appalled to read such negative responses because he just walked out of my hospital room and it's the first time, in 18 years, that I took a sigh of relief. He took time to research and understand what my body was doing to me...told me what his plan was and explained why. If more physicians took the time to look at the patient instead of the dollar sign we would have a lot of Dr. Bolger's taking care of us. Thank you, Dr. Bolger for allowing me to be your patient.

I met this physician in Missouri Baptist Hospital after a surgery that removed a malignant tumor from femur. The first day he introduced himself to my husband and me with a list of tests he was going to order. Fair enough. The second day he came in to do a history. I was NOT allowed to answer anything but yes or no. If I tried to elaborate on anything at all I was reminded that he only required (his words) a yes or no answer. The following day he came in with a diagnosis. When my husband queried him about the tumor diagnosis that had been returned that morning from the biopsy he backtracked and said he would look at the other tests that had come back. I made it to my first appointment with him the next week at MO Baptist hospital. I was escorted through the chemotherapy infusion area to a waiting area then to an exam room. I had been in shock that had progressed to anger since I had left the hospital because of the diagnosis, was very anxious and nervous after I had walked through the infusion center and was expecting to be presented with a treatment plan and answers to my questions to a diagnosis of incurable but treatable cancer. The visit went from bad to worse. The questions that my husband and I asked were given very short reluctant answers. My husband is a pharmacist and when trying to discuss the treatment regime. He was told nothing other than this is the accepted treatment to follow. By this time I was unable to hold in my attitude from not only my diagnosis but how the visit had gone and how we been treated. The doctor then started asking me where my attitude was from. Needless to say the visit was over. I saw a specialist at the end of the week from Siteman. It has been a totally different experience. I have access to staff and all of my questions have been answered with not only solid answers but with as much or as little information as I require. While my beginning treatment is similar to what he proposed, the next steps are different. Since my cancer is incurable at this time I almost feel like I been saved from a fate worse than that if I had to put up with not only his poor people skills but also the fact that he certainly was not up on the latest research into my condition.

Dr. Bolger has a great reputation. Perhaps he is an excellent physician, I cannot judge that. However, I found him to be unwilling to answer questions, other than on a very superficial level. Failure to answer questions in detail is a total knock out blow for me. I have to understand exactly what is going on and I have to participate in the decision making process for treatment, especially when cancer is involved. Since I could not work with Doctor Bolger, I personally would not recommend him. Be aware that at Barnes-Jewish a cancer patient is treated by a staff of specialists as needed, not just by one person. You have to go through a little bit of red tape to get your first appointment at Barnes-Jewish, but once you are there you will get first class treatment.

This is my second review of Dr. Bolger. (Don't know why my first one is not still here for others to read). My first few appointments with him were wonderful. He answered all my questions, was very friendly, and helpful. I gave him great ratings and told many people what an excellent doctor I thought he was. I said it was very refreshing to be with a doctot who seemed to know what he was doing, and spent time with his patients. Like a honeymoon, however, this great care and attention seemed to wear off, and his desire to be helpful waned. After repeated medical problems related to the initial diagnosis I began to question whether his diagnosis was correct. He refused, however, to entertain any thoughts that questioned his own. Quite frankly, I like the guy and I think he is a very smart man, but it became clear to me that he was no longer being helpful to me, so I've moved on. (As an aside, I am always amazed at how doctor's seem to forget who is paying the bill - i.e., the patient).While his staff are incredibly friendly and helpful, they are often placed in the middle to run interference for the doctor. This is evident by the fact that it is extremely unlikely to ever be able to have a phone conversation with him. It is always dangerous to attempt to convey messages verbally to a doctor through an assistent. My experience was that several times what I asked the assistent to convey was not conveyed accurately, and once the message conveyed was completely opposite of what I said. The answers to questions relayed this way very often did not address the question I asked, so I would try to refine the question, and attempt again. This clearly was not an effective way communicate with the doctor. It was frustrating for the assistants as well as me. I had to resort to making appointments with him to get the simplest questions answered. This clearly irritated him - it seemed to him that I was taking time from his others patients for minor issues. The simple solution would have been to make the time to talk to patients over the phone, or to communicate via e-mail - but clearly that wasn't going to happen with him.One other thing, while this site does not list sanctions against doctors, a competing doctor rating site does. That site listed no sanctions against Dr. Bolger. The fact is that his license to practice was revoked for a few years. Because I like this guy as a decent, and intelligent man with faults, I'll spare the details - which appear to be related to domestic issues. Finding the info is fairly easy if you search the right government sites. My real point for bringing it up is to point out that when researching doctors, you can't rely on just what is published on rating sites like this. It is common practice for professionals like doctors to hire Web reputation managers who can get negative info removed from sites like this one.

I'm sure Dr. Bolger knows his stuff, and his brutal interrogation and detailed history was thorough. But he is perhaps one of the most dismmissive arrogant docs I have ever seen. I have found out through others that his complete lack of bedside manner precedes him. If you need someone who cares about your pain and wants to help you understand your condition on a personal level, then find someone else.