Does anyone else have (had) a Dr that they really like, but

[Kimberle]

REALLY hate the office staff?????

 

[Disney Doll]

I LOVE my doc, and I like most of his office staff, but there are a couple I could live without.

What I have done is get really friendly with one of the girls who works full time, so when I call, I ask for her. She's there most of the time, so it usually works.

His staff has improved over the years. I can remember calling them when I was in my 20's for a problem and they gave me such a runaround that i told the doc to flag my chart or something so that the staff knew when I called that my concerns were vaild, because I was not the type to call with every little thing.

Since then, it's been better.

 

[C.Ann]

My DD did/does (ob/gyn) and it's very difficult for her.. The entire office staff is just downright nasty, rude and arrogant.. Still - she loves the doctor so she tolerates whatever she can until she reaches her boiling point and then gives them a dose of their own medicine..

 

[punkin]

Me too. I used to have a GYN who was fine but his office staff was unbelievable. I finally switched doctors.

My children's current pediatric practice is like that too. I love most of the MDs (am OK with one of them) and cannot stand the office staff. They always act like I'm inconveniencing them. Well guess what-it's not your job to talk to your friends on the phone while I am waiting to sign in with a sick child and I will make a scene if I have to wait more than 5 minutes for you to get off the phone.

 

[Micca]

Yep, Doc is a heckuva nice guy, office staff kinda surly.

 

[zippeedee]

My wonderful Endocrinologist lost his wonderful assistant because she was ill. Her replacement moved over from another department. The poor thing is totally clueless and overwhelmed. I was lucky enough to find a ton of thyroid cancer information on a yahoo board. I had to walk her through every step... "shouldn't I have a follow up appointment?" "Did you order my tests?" etc. Every step of the way, if I didn't ask, it didn't happen. All while miserably hypothroid and scared to death. She seems to finally be catching on, now that that hard part is over.
I pity the patients who didn't know to question and direct her!

 

[megan4777]

Let's put it this way...Dh received a letter from his insurance stating he was NOT cleared for his surgery b/c the office staff at one of the 2 surgeon's offices didn't get their paper work in on time...
On Monday...I may be their worst nightmare

 

[Forevryoung]

I trust my life with this Dr and have been seeing him for 5 years. This is the conversation with his only receptionist last week:

Me: Can you tell Dr.___ to give me a call back regarding ___
Receptionist: On your cell phone?
Me: Thats fine
Recept.: I dont think we have it
Me: I'm sure you do. The dr called me last week on it.
Recept: Well it's not in the computer so we don't have it.

Or how about the time she phoned in the wrong perscription during finals week in January. I walked all the way to the pharmacy (about 1.2 miles) in the freezing cold at night for them to hand me the wrong pills. I freaked about that one.

 

[DisneyMim]

Yes!! Years ago I had a dermatologist who was very well known, a doctor to the "stars" so to speak, but his staff was horrible! They were always so rude and cold. I finally stopped going to him and have found another one whose staff is wonderful. Some people need to get over themselves. If they don't like their jobs, change, expecially if they are working with the public.

 

[CherCrazy]

Kimberle....

When I read your post...my first thought was "I have to see if she lives in CT" and YOU DO!!! Is your doctor by any chance an ENT doctor?

My son was going to college in CT, broke his nose, and went to the nicest doctor up there. He was great, but his office people were ALL b****es. They screwed up the paperwork for the hospital surgery and blamed ME!!! Then they lied to the Dr. about it when I caught them. It cost my son weeks of having a broken nose/deviated septum until we could finally get the surgery done. Needless to say, we found another doctor...I wrote a letter of complaint, but they probably threw it out before he got to read it.

 

[luvthatduke]

Just this past month I've had to be seen,
and my toddler, too (all of us go to our Primary, no Ped).
Our doctor is good, we like him, but the nursing
staff there is not to be believed (and I LOVE nurses, many in my family).
They are rude, angry most of the time, and don't care if
they make a mistake - they just ignore it.
Having to go to this office makes me nuts, I have to admit,
but I don't want to give up a doctor that's known my DS since birth.

 

[Kimberle]

Kimberle....

When I read your post...my first thought was "I have to see if she lives in CT" and YOU DO!!! Is your doctor by any chance an ENT doctor?

*LOL* No, that's not the one I'm thinking of. We do have an ENT. He's good, little "cold", but his staff is very nice.

 

[aprilgail2]

My daughters pediatrian when she was born had horrible office staff....I changed Dr's because of them and am very happy with her Dr AND her staff now! I am glad I switched anyway since the one I had picked out was a male and I would prefer my daughter see a female Dr...I remember how uncomfortable I was as a young girl with a male Dr so I am trying to avoid that for my daughter.

 

[Stacerita]

One of the sweetpea's pediatricians office was like that. It was a husband and wife md team. She was wonderful, he was nice, but the staff was horrible. They treated everyone as if they were below them. Refused to return calls or give messages. Always saying that we hadn't paid our copay last time (even though they wont see you unless you pay prior to the visit). They were down right rude. I work in the medical field so I am not ignorant when it comes to things they doctor would tell me. I would go up to the front office to check out, make new appointments and get scripts....but the front staff would tell me something that wasn't right. I would correct them and tell them what the md stated and that I knew what she meant. They would shake their head and tell me no I didn't understand and do what they wanted anyways. It was terrbile. I stuck wtih the practice for as long as I could because the one doctor was great. But when she retired I was out of there.

 

[Barb D]

I like the doctors and the office staff, but I hate their office hours! They're closed Friday through Sunday, so God forbid you get sick on a Thursday night. You have to wait until Monday morning (unless you consider it enough of an emergency to interrupt their weekend), when everyone else is trying to call for the same reason. I switched my kids out of that practice to a peds practice with more doctors and much better hours. But DH and I still go to the same family doctor. Fortunately we don't get sick too often.

 

[DawnCt1]

When I was working as an occ. health nurse, I had an employee that I referred to a cardiologist. While she loved her primary care MD, she hated his office staff. She liked the cardiologist so much that she asked him to be her primary doctor, just because of the office staff. He assured her that she had a wonderful doctor and said, "I will talk to him about his office staff, I have heard that before". He did, and the primary doc made some serious changes. Now everythiing is great in that particular practice. Sometimes the docs don't know what is going on out in front while they are out back.

 

[Rachie0507]

I switched offices when I was 4 months pregnant for this reason. I loved the doctor so much! She actually ended up leaving the practice shortly after because she couldn't take it anymore (hospital managed office, she had very little say in office staff). The final straw was when I had some bleeding during the pregnancy and I had to call the office 3 times over 8 hours before they let me talk to a doctor. The kept telling me somebody would call me back, but they didn't. After DS was born, our family doctor was on vacation and this same awful office was covering. DS's temp had dropped to 95 (in July) and he wouldn't eat when he was 4 days old and the office said it wasn't a big deal and wouldn't see him until 5 hours later. Now that I look back on it, I should have just taken him to the ER. When we finally were seen the doctor took one look at him and admitted him to the hospital.

 

[rt2dz]

I love, love, love my OB/GYN, but hate her phone staff (the appointment setters). The rest of the staff is really nice. The office manager has given me her direct line after I came in with a bunch of complaints so I can just call her directly to make appointments. I don't, but I like knowing I could if needed. They fired a bunch not too long ago, which really helped.

I am having the same problem with my kids pedi too. The entire office staff is horrible. Rude when you call. Constantly miscrediting payments. Yelling at you when you have balances, although, I have the canceled checks to prove there is no balance. THey never can find the paperwork. My first appointment of the day ended up being the fourth appointment of the day. Once we get through this round of well checks, I'm going to let my pedi know that we need to shop for another pedi because of it. He doesn't seem to be able to do anything about it.

And, no, in both cases I'm not the only one complaining. Especially with the pedi.