Fired my doctor today

[Rustsmith]

I fired my doctor today. It all started on Monday last week when I called to get a refill on my scrip for Neupro patches. The nurse would not pick up the call and did not return 3 voice mails. When she didn't pick up on Tuesday AM, I called the receptionist to find out what was up. She went back to the nurses station and told them to pick up on my return call, which they did. She seemed somewhat put out and a bit rude, but agreed to call in a scrip to my mail order pharmacy. I told her that I only had 14 days of meds left and that it took more than a week to get them, so please expedite the request. I kept checking my account with the pharmacy - no scrip. On Thursday afternoon at 4:30 I was finally able to speak with her again after a number of calls and messages. She said she had the doctor's approval and that she would call it in before the end of the day. Then we had a three day weekend due to the US Independence Day celebration.

Come first thing Monday, I called the pharmacy - no script. The pharmacy sent a fax to the doctor requesting a scrip and I again left a message requesting that they process it ASAP since I now only had 7 days of Neupro. At noon on Tuesday, still no scrip. Fortunately, I have a stash of pramipexole for when I run out.

Therefore, I am changing doctors. I was getting reasonable medical treatment, but his nursing staff is COMPLETELY incompetent and the boss is responsible for his staff's actions/inactions.

Fortunately, I was able to get a new patient appointment with Dr. William Ondo in just two weeks. I already know what to expect from Dr. Ondo's staff because my wife is a patient of one of his colleagues, so this will be an upgrade in level of care that I wasn't expecting to need just yet.

I just wish it had not required the week of aggravation and constant phone calls that were ignored.

[Neco]

That is reprehensible...

I hope you are planning to complain to the organization your doctor is with. That should NOT go unpunished

[debbluebird]

I have to see my doctor every 3 months to get my scripts. I need hard copies to take to the pharmacy, since I take Methadone, it can't be called in. She writes me three scripts, one for each month. That way I don't have to call and try and get them every month. We can't run out or we are in trouble.

[ViewsAskew]

I wish that hadn't happened, but I don't think you'll be sorry to be in Dr Ondo's care. I'd definitely see him if I lived in your neighborhood.

I have a doctor I really like...but his staff isn't much better. I've been going around with her for a couple weeks now. She's very nice...but she's not that competent. I have another doctor whose office manager is barely competent. Maybe it's common? Doesn't make it right, though!

[Polar Bear]

I am very fortunate - my doctor's support staff are really good, cooperative, and will do all they can to help when there is the occasional blip. They would never, ever not answer the phone, if they are busy a message tells us where we are in the queue.

[Rustsmith]

The script was finally received by the pharmacy last night, eight days after my original request. It is scheduled to be sent out in two days, so hopefully I will only have one day back on pramipexole.

@Neco, I was to wait a few days to see if they would ever process the script without further prodding. When I saw that the pharmacy had receive the script, I sent a long, detailed email that I hope the doctor will receive and not get "censored" by the staff. I agree, this doctor has several other issues in his "back house" support staff that he may very well not be aware of. There are at least two "heads" that would roll if I had my say in the matter.

@ Debbluebird, my wife takes a medication that also requires dated paper scripts, so we go through the same process that you are using for Methadone. She even has to sign for the package when it comes by UPS or FedEx because they are not allowed to leave it with anyone else.

@ Polar Bear, I may be just a bit spoiled because of my allergy doctor's staff. My allergist is regularly voted one of the best doctors to work for in the area, so she gets the best nurses and keeps them forever. I had a dust up a few years back with her head nurse when I told her that she was the only one of the staff who hurt me when she gave allergy shots. She initially took offense, but we are now great friends and she assigns herself to me whenever I come in. I also have a bit of a special status with the doctor (after 27 years), so the staff does everything they can to be helpful. As a result, I love visits to that office even though I know that it means pulmonary function testing, which I hate doing.

[Polar Bear]

Rustsmith = That's good to hear about the good staff. In any business the 'people friendly' has to start at the bottom. I too had occasion over the years to make my voice heard over a couple of issues i.e. having a script done 3 times and it still being wrong. As I had the 3rd conversation with a support staff at the health centre, my boss came through the office and said..... "I hope I'm never on the end of that".
(Well actually, as it happened there came a time when he was but that's another story.)
Thing is, I am a normally placid person, the peacemaker..........until.... repeated inefficiency starts to give me grief. And especially nowadays when the thought of being without WED medication is beyond stress. I guess this is what is called 'being dependent'.

[Rustsmith]

Afternoon followup:
My email to the doctor certainly seems to have had an effect. I received a phone call from the nurse (for the very first time) with an explanation of why she did not make the call to the pharmacy until yesterday. The excuse seems somewhat lame, but at least she called.

I also received a call from his marketing/PR manager (he has several different sleep clinics). This was a much more involved call and she agreed that the staff performance had been unacceptable. I told her that I had already made other arrangements and that my email was only to notify them of their problems so that they could be fixed. She assured me that steps will be taken. But at this point, that is no longer my problem.

[ViewsAskew]

I'm glad they are taking it seriously....but as someone who often works with clients after mistakes happen, I have to wonder why they have a tendency to ignore the many smaller things that clearly indicate there is a problem and ONLY react after a client is so upset that he or she leaves. (or whatever other big problem occurs because they didn't take care of it when it was s small problem)

[Chipmunk]

Afternoon followup:
My email to the doctor certainly seems to have had an effect. I received a phone call from the nurse (for the very first time) with an explanation of why she did not make the call to the pharmacy until yesterday. The excuse seems somewhat lame, but at least she called.

I also received a call from his marketing/PR manager (he has several different sleep clinics). This was a much more involved call and she agreed that the staff performance had been unacceptable. I told her that I had already made other arrangements and that my email was only to notify them of their problems so that they could be fixed. She assured me that steps will be taken. But at this point, that is no longer my problem.

I'm impressed. The clinics around here don't do email; you have to send a message through MyChart to contact your doctor's office and I know those messages are censored by the nursing staff - drives me crazy! I doubt a message complaining about their performance would make it past them.

[Neco]

That's just how larger businesses are. It costs them time and money to address issues and unless a customer is affected they will not act unless forced to.

[debbluebird]

I have found that there are a lot of people who really don't care about their job. All they want is their pay check. The time that we have used to correct mistakes is unbelievable. People just don't care.

I try and avoid the staff.

[Rustsmith]

A significant part of the problems that I experienced may be due to the major shortage of qualified nurses in the Houston area. The good ones find a doctor, clinic or hospital where they enjoy the work and like the boss and then they stay put. The lesser ones and the ones approaching burnout can drift from doctor to doctor or clinic to clinic because there are lots of open jobs. This situation makes it difficult for new doctors or clinics that are trying to expand and it has been going on now for quite a few years. I don't know what the exact number is, but some of them may have to run through 10 nurses before they find one to keep.

[debbluebird]

It seems so funny to me to hear about Houston. I got my nursing degree in the area and worked at Texas Children hosp. It was 1994. At the time there was too many nurses and not enough jobs. I was lucky. I had worked on a floor before I graduated and then they hired me afterwords. My friends all took any job they could find. No one really had any choice.

[Rustsmith]

One final update to this thread. My former doctor's office offered to provide me with some samples of Neupro patches to hold me over until my delayed prescription arrived in the mail. I thought that my supply was going to last until the new ones arrived, but I didn't quite make it. I therefore had to go by on Monday and pick up the samples. When I used one the next day, I noticed that it wasn't sticking as well as the ones that I got from my local pharmacy. When I looked at the box, I saw that the expiration date was yesterday. I think that I ended up getting enough medication from the expiring patches so the rotigatine was probably still good, but it appears that adhesive is what drives the expiration date. I don't know who is to blame here, do the companies give doctors samples that are nearing expiration or did the nurse find some samples that needed to be disposed of and gave them to me?