The shortage of endocrinologists in the NW Austin area left us with few choices. So, after easily the worst care ever received from another endocrinologist, we ended up in the office of Padma K. Horvit. We should have turned around and left when we saw the primitive digs. It immediately brought "Mad Men" to mind but this was more like "Poverty Mom". I've seen some pretty sumptuous lobbys and waiting areas, Dr. Scumpia gets the high grade here for most lavish lobby compared to third world country for the inner offices, but this lobby made me think this doctor had very few patients and there was probably a good reason for it.
While we waited for the doctor we heard the front office staff talking with the back office staff about patients. Gee, isn't that kind of unprofessional? Maybe they just forgot we were out there. And they seem to have nothing good to say about any of their patients. But wanting to give this doctor the benefit of the doubt, before falling on the sword and making the long drive downtown, I hoped that maybe the doctor just didn't know what was going on. Imagine my surprise when the doctor herself came to the door to call us and I immediately recognized her voice as one of the catty kitties chatting down the patients. For real??
Dr. Horvit's approach to newly diagnosed Diabetics is to treat them like they are idiots. She talks down to you, makes you feel stupid and scolds you for being incapable of controlling your blood sugar. If I could do that, I wouldn't need an endocrinologist would I? After the initial scolding about everything I'm doing wrong, she gave out prescriptions and demanded I get labs done. I don't need to be reminded that labs need to be done when I'm fasting. But again, Dr. Horvit is very condescending. It seems she insists her staff be equally as condescending and rude to the patients. Nothing is easy with them, appointment reminders are rude. They take for granted that if they need to change your appointment, you'll be grateful to them for inconveniencing you and God forbid you tell them that the new appointment they've made for you is not going to work for you. Expect an interrogation about why it's not convenient and then they mess with you by telling you to just come in for your regularly scheduled appointment! After I get the voicemail telling me the doctor has a conference to attend to on my appointment, I remember another doctor I needed to see had called me with a cancellation. I jumped on the cancellation and got myself in. So when Horvit's cronies tell me to forget about the reschedule, just come in for the appointment they just cancelled in a voicemail, they demand information about how I could have made another appointment in the 13 minutes it's been since they called me. 13 minutes? Seriously? And the attitude! Chill out! Yes, somehow, without the help or whatever of this crack bunch of rude and inconsiderate people, I managed to make a doctor's appointment and I did it in 13 minutes. Just because they aren't able to make an appointment in 13 minutes, doesn't mean I can't. And then, AND THEN they tell me the doctor really needs to see me! Uh hello? I'm the one who called to make the appointment. And when I called to make the appointment, I was informed I had an appointment in May and that would be soon enough. And now, all of a sudden, if the doctor doesn't see me for the appointment they just rescheduled the world will collapse in on itself!
Ultimately, I couldn't take them anymore. Who needs that kind of drama from someone you expect to be courteous. I'm the one paying you remember? You work for me remember? The coup de grace was the doctor's refusal to "release" a copy of my labs to me because she hadn't reviewed them yet. Can you say Power Trip? This might come as a news flash to the doctor but the records belong to the patient. Horvit wields them like some kind of Thor's Hammer.
On my scale of 1 to 5 - 5 being I'd rather have a root canal and 1 being a liver biopsy, I have to put the entire experience as a 1 although insertion of a naso-gastric tube is probably more pleasant than a 15 minute appointment with Dr. Horvit and her staff of gossipy hens. I'm not a child, I don't need to be scolded,
I deserve some respect not just as a patient but as a person and respect is not a word in your office's vocabulary.
Fortunately, with the NW Austin/Cedar Park area's explosive expansion, there are new kids on the block and I have more choices now. That's good for me and everybody else who felt stuck with Dr. Horvit; bad news for groups and indies like Horvit. We don't have to take it anymore. read more