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Old 05-06-2011, 04:59 AM
 
2 posts, read 16,148 times
Reputation: 15

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I'm trying to find the answer to this question about filing a complaint on a Dr. but haven't seen anything posted on how to go about doing this. I will tell you of my experience yesterday at a Doctor's office in Lumberton, NC.

I had an appointment scheduled for 1 PM on May 5, 2011. I was contacted by their office on May 4, 2011 on reminding me of my appointment.

I arrived at the office at 12:30 PM to fill out the paperwork necessary for a new patient. I noticed the waiting room was full, so I asked the receptionist how long of a wait will I have. She proceeded to tell me it would probably be like 4 PM when I get to see the Dr. The receptionist told me she was still with her patients from her 9:30 AM appointments. Well I'm a diabetic and I told her I had to go get some lunch, since I took off school for this appointment and would not be able to wait that long. She in turn told me that would be fine. So I left and came back by 3 PM. When I returned, the receptionist called me up to the window an hour later and told me I had to pay for my services at that time, so I gave them a check and she did the electronic check. Just 3 minutes later after paying for their services, the receptionist stated the Dr. couldn't see me today that I would have to reschedule my appointment for tomorrow since being a new patient would take me at least an hour with the Dr. I told her I couldn't return tomorrow unless you have a time I can come after my school. She stated to me no. Well at that time I asked for my money back and the receptionist stated they couldn't give it back to me at this time. I would have to wait until the check cleared my bank and theirs. So I want to file a complaint on this Medical Clinic. Also at the time of my 1st arrival for my appointment, I used their restroom and they had no soap to wash your hands with, so I told the receptionist about this. She told me she would let them know about it. Well 3 hours later I had to use the restroom again and there was still no soap in their dispenser. I turned that into the health board of NC.
Kathy Schuetze

 
Old 05-06-2011, 06:56 AM
 
Location: State of Being
35,879 posts, read 77,166,091 times
Reputation: 22751
Quote:
Originally Posted by kathyschuetze View Post
I'm trying to find the answer to this question about filing a complaint on a Dr. but haven't seen anything posted on how to go about doing this. I will tell you of my experience yesterday at a Doctor's office in Lumberton, NC.

I had an appointment scheduled for 1 PM on May 5, 2011. I was contacted by their office on May 4, 2011 on reminding me of my appointment.

I arrived at the office at 12:30 PM to fill out the paperwork necessary for a new patient. I noticed the waiting room was full, so I asked the receptionist how long of a wait will I have. She proceeded to tell me it would probably be like 4 PM when I get to see the Dr. The receptionist told me she was still with her patients from her 9:30 AM appointments. Well I'm a diabetic and I told her I had to go get some lunch, since I took off school for this appointment and would not be able to wait that long. She in turn told me that would be fine. So I left and came back by 3 PM. When I returned, the receptionist called me up to the window an hour later and told me I had to pay for my services at that time, so I gave them a check and she did the electronic check. Just 3 minutes later after paying for their services, the receptionist stated the Dr. couldn't see me today that I would have to reschedule my appointment for tomorrow since being a new patient would take me at least an hour with the Dr. I told her I couldn't return tomorrow unless you have a time I can come after my school. She stated to me no. Well at that time I asked for my money back and the receptionist stated they couldn't give it back to me at this time. I would have to wait until the check cleared my bank and theirs. So I want to file a complaint on this Medical Clinic. Also at the time of my 1st arrival for my appointment, I used their restroom and they had no soap to wash your hands with, so I told the receptionist about this. She told me she would let them know about it. Well 3 hours later I had to use the restroom again and there was still no soap in their dispenser. I turned that into the health board of NC.
Kathy Schuetze
Kathy, I am sorry you had a chaotic experience at this physician practice. However, this physician most likely had an emergency that set the whole day's appointments back. If that is the case, it is unavoidable and nothing that can be "rectified" or addressed.

The receptionist you spoke with told you that the doc was running late - HOURS late. At that point, it was up to you to reschedule, as the chances of a doc being able to "catch up" would be practically nil.

If you rescheduled for the next day, the payment was really of no consequence. I agree that taking payment up front before the appointment (I am assuming a copay of maybe $35 or so?) when you didn't get to see the doc was upsetting, but most practices typically ask for your insurance info and copayment before services are rendered.

Sadly many areas of the country are underserved and physicians are overloaded. Charlotte is not one of those areas, but Lumberton may be (just throwing that out there). In areas where physicians are overloaded, there really is little that can be done to improve wait times for appointments.

It sounds like the practice manager should have been more proactive in re: to rescheduling appointments around lunch time rather than letting things drag on til 4 pm, but that is not a problem with the physician's performance - that is a problem with office staff.
 
Old 05-06-2011, 07:38 AM
 
Location: Durham UK
2,028 posts, read 5,411,683 times
Reputation: 1150
Whilst I understand that there may be a shortage of physicians in the area and there may have been an emergency (although not really sure what "emergencies" PCPs deal with other than those that would be referred on to ER), it would have been far better if the practice manager had called all the afternoon appointments, BEFORE LUNCH, and asked them to reschedule.
This would have saved people taking time away from work/school, travelling to the practice and paying co pays.

To sit there like lemons and allow people to come for the afternnon appointments, knowing that at 12.30 pm the 9.30 appointments were still being seen (how many 9.30s did she have) is palin and simple bad practice and bad customer service.

I would definitley make a complaint, if only to draw attention to the fact that there is a shortage of PCPs and the issue needs to be pro-actively addressed.
 
Old 05-06-2011, 10:43 AM
 
Location: State of Being
35,879 posts, read 77,166,091 times
Reputation: 22751
Quote:
Originally Posted by Whatsthenews View Post
Whilst I understand that there may be a shortage of physicians in the area and there may have been an emergency (although not really sure what "emergencies" PCPs deal with other than those that would be referred on to ER), it would have been far better if the practice manager had called all the afternoon appointments, BEFORE LUNCH, and asked them to reschedule.
This would have saved people taking time away from work/school, travelling to the practice and paying co pays.

To sit there like lemons and allow people to come for the afternnon appointments, knowing that at 12.30 pm the 9.30 appointments were still being seen (how many 9.30s did she have) is palin and simple bad practice and bad customer service.

I would definitley make a complaint, if only to draw attention to the fact that there is a shortage of PCPs and the issue needs to be pro-actively addressed.
Yes, I agree and said as much . . . but this is not a case where a doctor needs to be "reported" as a bad doc - rather, this is an office matter. My feeling is it would be fairly worthless to complain to the office manager as the office manager obviously is not running the practice very well - resulting in: 1. no one being re-scheduled early in the day - and 2. payment should not have been taken for services not rendered.

If the doc has a contract w/ the hospital (i.e., is an employee of the hospital) then one could complain about the way the practice is being run - contact the hospital CEO. But if not, there isn't much recourse in re: to internal management of the practice other than writing to the practice manager and/or doc expressing displeasure.
 
Old 05-06-2011, 01:25 PM
 
3,071 posts, read 9,104,428 times
Reputation: 1659
You have a right to complain but thats all. You have no case and finding another doctor is ALL YOU CAN DO,,, SORRY
 
Old 05-08-2011, 06:18 PM
 
Location: america
324 posts, read 860,624 times
Reputation: 208
Are you serious? Me thinks you have way too much time on your hand....
 
Old 05-08-2011, 08:13 PM
 
Location: Charlotte, NC
11,839 posts, read 28,828,128 times
Reputation: 2809
Actually there's quite a bit more she could do but in reading her comments I don't see the point. Now I used to have a doctor who would order lab tests for anything he could think of whether it related to me or not. Some of them bordered on quackery. My insurance company told me that if I suspected fraud on his part that they would be happy to look into it for me. I simply switched doctors after he asked me how I felt one afternoon & I told him that I felt like throwing him through a window.
 
Old 05-25-2011, 10:53 AM
 
2 posts, read 16,148 times
Reputation: 15
Well this is one thing I did manage to complain on that Dr. Office for sure, sanitary problems. I was there like I said at 12:30 and I used their rest room at that time. I noticed they had no soap to wash the hands & reported it to the office secretary and by 3:30 PM I had to use the rest room again and guess what? They still never filled their soap dispenser. So I filed a formal complaint to the Department of Health. This is not a good practice in a Doctor's facility. Another thing I noticed was, when the receptionist opened her little window, she had very cool air conditioning blowing out towards me. Well the waiting room where the patients wait before they go back to the room to see the Dr. had absolutely no air condition at all blowing. It was so hot sitting there and it was like 89 degrees outside at that time. I've had a heat stroke 2 times in my life, and I can not take the heat like that either. This office has to be reported for sure for everything, but they would not give me the managers phone number to contact. So that is why I came on here to maybe get some advice to report this facility.
 
Old 05-25-2011, 02:47 PM
 
3,071 posts, read 9,104,428 times
Reputation: 1659
Get a lawyer and sue them for millions and millions of dollars...lol
 
Old 05-25-2011, 05:42 PM
 
Location: Ayrsley
4,713 posts, read 9,665,667 times
Reputation: 3824
Quote:
Originally Posted by anifani821 View Post
Yes, I agree and said as much . . . but this is not a case where a doctor needs to be "reported" as a bad doc - rather, this is an office matter. My feeling is it would be fairly worthless to complain to the office manager as the office manager obviously is not running the practice very well - resulting in: 1. no one being re-scheduled early in the day - and 2. payment should not have been taken for services not rendered.

If the doc has a contract w/ the hospital (i.e., is an employee of the hospital) then one could complain about the way the practice is being run - contact the hospital CEO. But if not, there isn't much recourse in re: to internal management of the practice other than writing to the practice manager and/or doc expressing displeasure.
Agreed. And one thing to remember about working with docs is this: When you have your time with the doc, you want to make sure he or she spends enough time with you to do any needed tests, as well as to ask (and answer) any questions you may have. And so does everyone else. Unfortunately, this can create a backlog if a doctor needs to take a bit of extra time with one or more patients earlier in the day.

As Ani said, this is really not a complaint about the doctor, but rather one about the management of the office. The doc is usually not the one in charge of either scheduling or filling the soap dispensers. If it is the doc's private practice, then a written note to the doctor and / or office manager would be the best recourse if you feel you want to bring it to their attention.
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