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How does the one 3 hrs drive in the other direction look, review wise? It would be worth your sanity, and self respect. Forget that other guy. If I had wanted that kind of abuse I would have stayed married.
Good question and I really should have looked into that direction and for sure would have but dumb blonde me checked out the other city first before checking the reviews. IF that doctor talks to me the way it's been reported then I will only have ONE visit with him. Then I'll be headed the other direction-after I check the reviews.
And LOL @ you about marriage
I have no problem exchanging bed side manner for competence.
But "First, do no harm". This "doctor" is using verbal abuse which can make a patient more ill from the stress, and humiliation they receive. Common decency, and respect is paramount for healing, otherwise why are they doctoring in the first place? If only based on profit it will ultimately fail. Word of mouth will come back to haunt them.
Good question and I really should have looked into that direction and for sure would have but dumb blonde me checked out the other city first before checking the reviews. IF that doctor talks to me the way it's been reported then I will only have ONE visit with him. Then I'll be headed the other direction-after I check the reviews.
And LOL @ you about marriage
Please let us know how all this turned out. And, you are not dumb. Being ill takes so much from us, and puts nothing back.
I just experienced something recently with a new female specialist. I waited for an appointment, appearing to be in demand, having good reviews and all. Her office asks that you arrive 30 minutes early, which I had, even though I had filled out paperwork in advance and mailed it to them, so I sat there, reading. Then, after being put in a room, I realized I had been there an hour, then hearing the Dr. enter another patient's room, being another 20 minutes wait. (I have to laugh, since they make a big point about having a fee if not cancelling a day in advance.. surely would not want to inconvenience them). Well, that was not the worst part.
So, we met and she already had an head's up about my condition. Initially, I thought I would like her. She asked some questions, but I sensed by her demeanor that she was impatient, cutting me off, finishing sentences, possibly a facial expression. At one point as I lay on the table (while quiet, her assistants being in the room), I thought I might ask a question, yet she said "time out!" (I would have liked to have seen my own expression while looking at the ceiling, my eyes opening wide). Now mind you, it was late in the day, maybe she was worn, but I felt put off and a bit misunderstood about what I was experiencing...(yet I have a follow-up appointment in a few weeks). If she is the same the next time, that will be it.
I am not young and have seen a variety of Doctors, having procedures, pleasant interactions and positive experiences, having communicated well with others - so this was weird and made me feel bad.
I will add that I looked again at her reviews and though it indicated "lesser ones", they were somehow not visible when clicking on. So, you wonder how meaningless that is in the end, as mentioned, how some have only glowing reviews, are made up or are otherwise omitted, some not having reviews at all.
My Pain Mgmt MD has a dry erase board up in his Pineville office requiring ALL his MOAs to put 5 Google reviews of 5 stars up per week. He had 5 MOAs but we still have to weigh ourselves and take our own BP when we get called in. He is now a NO OPIOIDS Practitioner and only prescribs Lidocaine patches, injections which he does in office. He never makes any eye contact with you, sits with his back to you asking questions, and assumes you are a drug addict if you are in Pain Mgmt.
I normally check out the 1 star ratings and HEAR what they say. People normally don't go in hoping to be displeased.
I ALWAYS search for reviews BEFORE i try out a new doctor. I also use "remote viewing" to see if I can 'read" the doctor before I make the appointment. This has worked very well for me. What this means is: if I can't find a good review and if my remote viewing doesn't reflect back on the kind of person I want as my doctor, I just don't go. For me, it's unhealthy for me to go to a doctor I don't have a good fit with.
Here is a real life example: My primary care provider gave me a referral to another doctor. The reviews for this doctor online were much less than desirable....he had a terrible 'bedside manner.' So, I took that doctor off my list. Meanwhile, some friends - the husband has Alzheimer's - also got a referral to this SAME DOCTOR that I had checked out online. I didn't say anything to them because I didn't have first-hand experience with this doctor...it was only my opinion. Plus they choose doctors and healthcare very differently than I do. We don't think alike about a lot of healthcare decisions. Since I had checked this doctor out, I was very curious to find out how their experience was with the doctor.
Long story short...my friends went to the same doctor we both were referred to. They had a terrible experience with this doctor's office....the physician assistant or PA for the doctor prescribed a medication that should never have been prescribed for an Alzheimer's patient. Even I knew that. Over the weekend, the wife had to lock herself in the bathroom when her husband - the Alzheimer's patient - had a meltdown and became almost psychotic. When she called the doctor during this violent episode, the referred doctor NEVER RETURNED HER CALL. He could have at least given her counsel...like "the medication will wear off and his mood will change in a couple hours". My note: if she had called an ambulance, the husband would have been toast because Alzheimer's patients do not respond well to ambulance trips, or to hospitals, for that matter. What's more, hospital staff, even though they have medical degrees, nursing degrees, do not do well with Alzheimer's patients. They are not trained nor do they know the patient, which presents a huge obstacle in treatment and in treatment outcome. Hospitals often give medications to Alzheimer's patients that their bodies cannot tolerate...so this would have compounded the original problem. The wife, using common sense, did stop the problem medication, however.
Needless to say, she immediately found a new doctor for her husband, the Alzheimer's patient. The new doctor is fantastic and they are still using the new doctor over one year later.
Moral of the story - always check reviews of any doctor you are referred to. Don't just assume that your primary care doctor has the full scoobie on doctors they refer their patients to. If primary care docs want to be super-accountable, they will also check reviews before referring patients to the new doctor. Sometimes I just give up and don't go to a new doctor because I cannot find a doctor with good reviews...meaning the reviews reflect a less-than desirable bedside manner, arrogance, abusive behavior and language, note lack of follow-up, note not returning many phone calls. I keep asking around, with friends and clients, to see who they use, hoping to get a referral from them to a super-good doctor. Since I work on the periphery of healthcare, and am a highly sensitive person, I sometimes just don't go to a doctor at all, because it's too disruptive for me to go to an incompetent doctor.
Where they were trained, did residency ect is actually irrelevant. You can have a complete quack from harvard medical school. ALL medical schools are unbelievably competitive to get into to.
Also, medical school/pre med is much different than anything else. For example, a person of average intelligence can get into an ivy undergraduate school if they work really hard and are mature for their age in high school. Getting A's in high school and being a good athlete/extra curriculars ect is much easier than trying to get straight A+'s in a full pre med curriculum with o-chem ect. Really no comparison. You can bust your ass and fail miserably at pre med and not get in to medical school. Common sense/arrogance/personality traits is what really separates the quacks from good doctors. Not what medical school they went to. They are all brutally difficult.
Reviews matter somewhat and bedside manner is very important especially in a primary care doctor. It CAN affect your health. A doctor that doesn't listen to patients is a doctor that is going to miss something.
Let me offer you the flip side: be wary of doctors who have lots and lots of good reviews. You can hire a company that will write fake reviews to enhance your reputation. I know a MD who is paying a company to do exactly that, to salvage a reputation that would be in the toilet otherwise. I know him well, we went to middle school and high school together and still have lots of common friends from those days. It's a standing joke in our group that he became a MD.
Usually you can tell the fake reviews by how vague they are: "the doctor is excellent", "his staff is very good", "he takes time to listen to you" while the genuine bad reviews are much more detailed and describe a specific situation, like the two in the first post above.
I never go to a doctor who has the vague reviews. They are phony and are of no help whatsoever in choosing a doctor. Can't believe doctors pay for vague reviews!! That should be a crime...meaning the doc should sue any company who writes vague reviews.
Normally, I wouldn’t look at reviews, but judge for myself.
But in my experience, pain management doctors are a different animal entirely. My husband goes to one who he likes, but he has gone to a couple of others over the years and the experience was awful. Either the physical location was scary, or they treat you like a drug seeking junkie.
The offices were shabby, and the staff was behind glass. In one case, the receptionist called our insurance company before we were admitted into the inner sanctum. One office was full of very handicapped old people, with walkers and wheelchairs, and the guy was too cheap and uncaring to even put in a double door or an automatic opener. The able bodied patients had to keep getting up and opening the door. The magazines were 6 years old.
It almost seems to me that a lot of pain mgmt doctors are only in it for lack of other options.
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before checking the reviews. IF that doctor talks to me the way it's been reported then I will only have ONE visit with him. Then I'll be headed the other direction-after I check the reviews.
If she is the same the next time, that will be it.
So, you wonder how meaningless that is in the end, as mentioned, how some have only glowing reviews, are made up or are otherwise omitted, some not having reviews at all.
