I have used Barton Health Physical Therapy (phone 530-543-5896, 530- 543-5712) in the hospital in…read morethe past for two cases: once for neck pain and once for shoulder/arm pain. But this review is just about my most recent experience with them.
I had my doctor's office fax over the referral to them for occupational and physical therapy on Thursday, May 2, 2019 (fax number 530-544-6512) in preparation for a surgery. Not having heard back from Barton, I called them yesterday, Wednesday, May 8 to set up the appointment. Stephanie said they had not received the referral. So I called back my doctor's office again and the person there said she would fax it again. We confirmed she had the correct number, which I got both from Stephanie at Barton and from their website. She also confirmed with me that the fax went through.
So I called Barton again around noon yesterday and left a message there to set up my appointment. A day later, today, at 3 PM, no one had called me back. So I called again and spoke to Stephanie again. She said she hadn't received it still, but she could go ahead and set up an appointment and I could just have them fax over the referral (again, for the third time).
She then said she would call another of their departments to see if they had received it (even though she had just told me they hadn't). She put me on hold. After waiting, someone with a different voice returned to the phone and said they had not received it. She said it take 5-8 days once a fax comes in to place it in the patient's record. LOL. That is ridiculous. It takes that long after receiving it to put it in the record? What a backwards, messed up organization. At any other medical office, they can either schedule right after they get the fax, or for Stanford Health, it takes 2-3 hours to put it in the computer.
So I said to the new woman please transfer me back to Stephanie, who told me she could schedule me, despite their not having the fax. She said ok, but then the same voice appeared on the phone and said she was Stephanie. I was confused, but asked to be scheduled. She said no, and gave me the same explanation as before. So either that was Stephanie the whole time, and she just pretended to transfer me, or that was the new employee who lied about being Stephanie. Bizarre and unprofessional and contradictory. Why would she say she could schedule me with no referral, and then say she couldn't??
This employee or these employees are lunatics and incompetent. I will not be going to the physical therapy there after this experience. Don't they want new patients??
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UPDATE: Ironically, about 10 minutes later, as I was writing this Yelp review, a new person, Robin, called me. She was from the Barton Center for Orthopedics and Wellness (https://www.yelp.com/biz/barton-center-for-orthopedics-and-wellness-south-lake-tahoe), a brand-new, state-of-the-art addition to the hospital which wasn't there when I was a patient there last year. This was different from Barton Health Physical Therapy above where the referral was faxed to.
Robin said she had received a fax and wanted to schedule me. I am not sure how she got her hands on the referral, since this was a different department of the hospital. I told her about my experience above and said I was angry at Barton. She tried to soothe things over and she said she was from a completely different department, but I said I wanted some time to think about things. She said she would at least scan the referral in so if I called again it would be there.
I don't think I am going to Barton now because of how I was treated by Stephanie. It is too bad, since from the pictures on their website (http://www.bartonorthopedicsandwellness.com/ortho-wellness/ortho-wellness-about-us.aspx), the new building looks spectacular and I am sure they would provide good service. Now I must suffer.
