Should I keep him or not.......

[EweSheep]

I have a wonderful family doctor that we all love him and his bedside manners. However in the past two years since he moved in his new office at the hospital, his staff was the pits. I've never had so many cancelled appointments, run arounds, missed call backs and rarely ever got things done for specialists (they have to call the specialists for appointments and then call us to inform us of the appointment dates). AND spending alot of time in the waiting room too, as long as 30 minutes and once you got into the exam room, it can take an hour to an hour and a half. I know my doctor spend time with each and every patient but it is his staff that put him in a bind but doc won't do anything about it. He said good staff is hard to come by.

Should I change doctors? I can not see taking my daughter out two hours from school and ended up in his office waiting for an hour and 45 minutes after our appointment time, finally get to see him for ten minutes and off we go, after 5 pm. Its getting ridiculous! As for me, during her school days, I had to wait an hour in the waiting room, sitting about 20 minutes then see him for ten minutes and off I go. I really don't need to take her out of school that she really needs to be in there rather than sitting in waiting room.

We had this doctor for over six years. As much as I love him but hated his staff and how it was running, I am debating whether or not to change doctors, because there are doctors closer to where we live than driving across town. He was the only doc that would take us in when we had Medicaid and Medicare. We now have insurance so Medicaid and Medicare would be secondary. I hate to go thru all the motions, transfering all the files but if I must, I must.

What would you do in this situation that you know it is not going to change anytime soon? Express Care is much faster and have one doctor there that we all enjoyed having and liked him and requested him. However my doctor hated Express Care because "they don't know what they are doing and they are giving medications like candy". Well not all of them are that way but they do prescribe the same thing that my doctor prescribed.

I've got a mind to go to Express Care for my primary doctor but they can not do high blood pressure medications (it was rejected by my Walgreens) and it's getting frustrating to find another doctor that would accept Medicaid and Medicare along with BCBS insurance. Do they MUST submit charges to medicare and medicaid when they do accept BCBS insurances?

 

[schellie69]

That is a tough call, I hate waiting in a doctors office, they can keep you waiting but if you are 10 minutes late you are out of luck. I can't tell you what to do but maybe do some doctor shopping and see if you can find another doctor that you like I have one daughter who is disabled she was on our insurance and had the medical card, most places billed our primary insurance then what ever they didn't cover the medical card did never had a problem using both insurances. Good luck.

 

[EweSheep]

We were never late for appointments. We try to get there about five to ten minutes early for our appointments in case they have paperwork that we need to fill out.

 

[NottinghamChicks]

Quote:
I work for a doctors office with three providers. We have a template for scheduling appts and need to get special permission to double book (which we rarely do) or to schedule appt that do not ultimately fit into the time frame that our template represents (from the Dr). Most likely the staff is booking according to what the Dr says and perhaps they are checking patients in who are late for their appts which will also put your Dr behind schedule. So it sound like a combination of the two. His scheduling will vary and sounds as though it has according to the group he works for. Each office is different and has quotas they need to meet (yup like a salesman) I will never get a late pt in to see the Dr if it puts the next pt more than 15 minutes off schedule with their appt. I will make them wait to see if we get a "noshow" and then slip them in there or make them reschedule. He does not have good help if they are not helping him. There are many good Drs out there and the front staff is what makes the office run smoothly, so I would find another Dr who has staff that will schedule your specialists right away and call you in a timely fashin. Ther is NO excuse for sluggish phone calls or bad scheduling. You need to ask lot of questions when looking for a new Dr. Don't be afraid to ask about wait times, cancellation policies (both yours and theirs), How referrals are handled, are they done at checkout or after you leave? and if someone is late for appt do they take them before you? Be a pest, you are your own advocate, no one else is looking out for you and read between the lines when they give you their answers! Good Luck

 

[pdsavage]

I just this year switched the family doc of 10 years,the last straw was waiting for over 30 mins in the waiting room then being passed over in the exam room 3 times by patients comming after my daughter had allready been in there for awhile.
Now we have a great young docter without a huge patient load and he takes the time to talk to his patients.

 

[annageckos]

I would be happy to wait an hour and 45minutes. It is normal to have to wait for between 2-4 hours for my doctor. But to me it is worth it. He spends time with you, up to half hour sometimes. I trust him and am comfortable with him. So for me the long wait time is worth it. Though I dislike the office staff. They do not call back, I have to call multiple times to get things done. They just do not seem to care.

 

[sourland]

We are starting to have the same problem with the staff at the doctor that we go to. I'll be having a physical in the next month or so, and I intend to address the situation with the doctor.

 

[Tuffoldhen]

I know my family doctor well enough after all these years that she is the one I would talk with first and say I'm having problems with your staffing and the office practices. Won't hurt to try that route.

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

I agree that you first should try talking to the doctor about the issues. If you prefer, you can write him a letter, and request that he respond to your concerns. I would not threaten to find another doctor. It is somewhat implied by your mentioning the concerns.

Our pediatrician's office has a magnetic chart on an easel that has each doctor's name and whether they are running on time or late, and how late (15 minutes, 30 minutes, 4 minutes, etc. I don't recall how late they list times). Sometimes there is a serious issue that takes more of the doctor's time than was scheduled for a particular patient; or a condition seemed serious enough to work in an extra patient. Having a chart that shows how the doctor's time is running allows you to say "that is too long a wait--please reschedule us for tomorrow."

I am a bit concerned about Walgreen's refusal to fill a prescription from a specific doctor or practice. It implies to me that for some reason the doctor's license to prescribe medicines is limited, which to me implies that he has some problem with his license to practice medicine. Now if they refused to fill it due to INSURANCE reasons, that is different, and does not reflect on the doctor or practice at all. I find it unusual for a doctor to tell his patients that a different practice or doctor is medically inadequate, whihc again raises my suspicions about the medical licenses. It would be a good idea to check with your state's medical licensing board to see if any disciplinary actions hav been taken with Express Care or its doctors.

 

[EweSheep]

did complain to our doctor three times about his staff. One lady quit which we can figure that one out when the reason "she found another better job elsewhere" was his response. When I address the problem to him, he was aware of it but nothing really has been done so far.

Does it happen every time? No, but it seems that way with my daughter which it takes a LONG time. Express Care has a better time schedule for minor things and this one particuar doctor that I really liked, he said he does not plan on going to own his own practice because of the headaches of insurance purposes and very HIGH malpractice insurance rates that shied him from having his own practice. All of the doctors at Express Care goes thru the same rigid practice as any other doctors.

As for the RX refills, I was needing high blood pressure meds and my own doctor was on vacation and as well as the staff. No forward message from the doctor's staff on answering machine to call him but to go to the ER. Well it is not an emergency but urgent written RX needed to supply me with a 2 week medications needed until my doctor comes back from vacation. One of the Express care doctors written me up for a 30 day supply, one time only. I went to Walgreens as usual, they denied me the medication. My butt was up in a creek and didn't know what to do. The lady RX said, let's try the doctor's office so she called his office. No answer. She can not fill the RX but told me if I really need it, I have to pay for the full price on two week supply on those RX and get back to my doctor for a written RX for more refills. So with my hands tied to my back, I paid the full price of $150 for my blood pressure meds for two weeks, one pill a day. Toprol was the prescription. I was angry and hot because I was used to paying $15.00 for a name brand RX per month.

the only time I've ever heard him YELL at the front desk staff for her mismanagement of her duties, is ONE time. When he asked me about my daughter's update whether or not I've heard anything from a specialist, no, I didn't. It has been three months WAITING for the appointment. He didn't say anything, got up and closed the door behind him. AND I heard him shout about why didn't you call this specialist like I told you to!