I love NP Paige. She gets five stars. She is empathetic, has great bedside manner and truly cares…read moreabout her patients. Everyone on the phone is also lovely, hard-working and cooperative. I never have a problem calling in or calling the nurses to ask a question.
I hesitated writing this review, but I feel like it's important people are informed about the treatment they may receive from the front desk staff here. Not only is the staff openly cold and brusque, their process and demeanor aren't the greatest. I would give the staff and the way the patients are processed one star.
I have a lot of health issues so I'm at a lot of doctor's offices. I have been at least to ten different specialists, my PCP, a dentist and oral surgeon this year alone. Yes. At these offices, if I have a scheduled appointment, I show up at least fifteen minutes early to fill out paperwork, deal with insurance information, and the person at the front desk has no problem with intake or even saying hello.
Their set-up is just bizarre and seems mildly against HIPAA or something, as you have to write your reason for visit on a sign in page that anyone can look at next to your full name.
I default to overtly polite and reasonable to a fault in clinical settings. Once I had to wait over an hour for my scheduled appointment because of their sign in system. It was really early in the morning and as I approached the front desk to greet the dark-haired staff member, she grumpily pointed to the sign in sheet and cut me off mid-sentence - "sign in please." (Again, I've been subjected to this treatment at least three or four times. I once even saw her talking to another patient so I figured after she was done I could at least say good morning, but I was cut off mid-sentence again.)
I lifted the plastic covering the sheet of paper, signed my name and reason for visit and time of arrival, then sat down in the narrow waiting area. I was fifteen minutes early.
Fifteen minutes passed and I was not called into the appointment. Fine. Twenty minutes passed, I figured they were backed up. Ten more minutes, nothing. I see my NP come in and take another patient. I figured maybe I was double booked and the other patient had a more important issue, so I didn't say anything. After forty minutes of waiting, the front desk person came up to me sheepishly and asked when I got there, had I been there the whole time?
Yes, I signed in on the sheet.
No apologies, nothing. The staff member coldly laughed and looked at the sheet, and I guess the first page had stuck to the plastic and I ended up signing in on the second sheet and she didn't say my name.
She said nothing else about this, no apology, and took my insurance information.
When I got back to my seat, I wasn't able to hold back my tears at that point and began crying, trying the best I could to not cry and alarm other people around me. I hid my face with my sleeves and made use of the tissues. I was sick, in extreme pain from my chronic illness and extremely vulnerable, fed up with the extreme hurdle it seemed to be to simply be able to give my name and verify my insurance information (which I have to do every time I go to the office?) with the front desk and give them my co-payment. Again, having a chronic illness and chronic pain is really not a great time and having to go to at least three or four doctor's a week is enough of a pain - the mistakes, cold attitudes and being unable to even exchange basic pleasantries with the person you have to see once or twice a month to get access to care doesn't really help.
When I finally got in to see my NP over an hour after my appointment was originally scheduled, I apologized profusely *to her* and explained I wasn't an hour late, that I was actually fifteen minutes early and I had signed in on the wrong sheet or something. She apologized to me!
The multiple visits I've had where the staff has made me feel completely unwelcome and stupid for even deigning to enter the practice has actually compelled me to book elsewhere and I have an appointment somewhere else next week for my issue.
I have to go in to sign over my medical release forms to my new doctor and I'm not looking forward to trying to explain while being cut off that I don't need to sign in, that I simply need to write a signature on a form.
