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Tuesday, August 11, 2015

Dr. Office Failure

Early last week I had my annual doctor appointment. Then yesterday her office sent me an email survey to take. Normally I don't do this kind of thing but I actually wanted to give some feedback because some things had gone wrong. 

For example, the office usually sends out a postcard saying it's time to schedule my appointment. I got no card this year. Instead, one day I just remembered that it had been about a year. I called the office to schedule my appointment but all I got was a message saying that number is no longer in service. It had to be wrong. This number was for an entire OB/GYN department within one of the local hospital systems. It's not like they could have gone out of business. So I did a google search and all the listings still had my doctor at this practice and at this number. 

Determined to find my doctor and make my appointment, I did a search on the main hospital website for my doctor and found a new location and a new phone number. What the heck! I called the new number and asked if my doctor was still in practice there. While I was relieved that she was and I wouldn't have to find a new doc, I was pretty annoyed that the entire practice relocated AND changed their phone number (a totally unnecessary change in this day and age) without notifying me. I've been a patient there for 5 years for crying out loud. I think I deserved a heads up on this matter.

Then when I arrived for my appointment I was forced to fill out all the new patient information again. Something they should have sent to me by mail so I didn't have to waste 20 minutes at the office filling it out. Apparently when they relocated they lost most of their stored data. Both medical and demographic information was just gone, even though it was all computerized. I just can't for the life of my understand how that could have happened. You don't lose information stored in a computer when you relocate a computer. Plus, this is not some small private practice, it's a large practice within a major hospital system. Don't they have an IT department to handle this kind of thing?

I appreciated getting the survey and having a chance to express my frustration over how all of this was handled but when I reached the end of the survey I discovered that by submitting it I was giving them permission to use my feedback on their website along with my full name. So the only way to respond to their survey is by giving up my right to have it kept internal. 

Ummm NO! Not okay. What the hell! They wasted way too much of my time. I need them to pull it together - quickly. I really don't want to search out a new doc. Especially since my endometriosis is becoming more of a problem.


2 comments:

  1. I would call the clinic administrator. I have to do that all the time with my neuro's office, and it's actually led to some changes.

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