Malcolm Smith pulmonologist is a joke and I wish I had gone online to read all of the negative…read morereviews years ago as this office, in its entirety is abusive and combative. The front office employees hover over others with full blown conversations right in front of you, typical of UCLA, so there is no respect of privacy for the patient and very little to no regard for optimal patient treatment. Dehumanizing is certainly one way to put it. And not to mention some of their sour attitudes in both their verbal and nonverbal communications with you. When I tried communicate to the office manager, jasmine jack, about how inattentive and dismissive the doctor is, and how he really does not make much of an effort at all, all she did was to continue gaslighting me and defending her employees to her customers, even after this became an established behavioral pattern in the doctor, years after year. And UCLA wonders why people don't bother complaining to them!
I wish I did not stick around for the several years that I did. At first I thought that maybe the doctor was having a "bad day" but the next time and next time and next time I saw this man, he would completely ignore me giving answers to his questions, even though I reiterated my answer to him -
FOUR TIMES! Still ignored me! Complete
Silence on his end, and again, established behavioral patterns. Yes, that's how
Much this fella "cares." And yes, the office mgr still gaslighted everything. They do not try to help you, especially when you don't tell them what they want to hear, they rarely to never return phone calls, letters you wrote in the mail, etc., and if they do, depending on their various different mood swings, they are not helpful. They never leave their names when leaving messages and receiving incoming calls. One time, I tried to humor the office manager to set up an additional phone appointment with the doctor since his communication was inefficient the last visit. I ended up being transferred, put on hold numerous times,
Long wait holds, etc., I spent more than an entire hour trying to connect with the doctor for a phone appointment, and never got to connect because this man does not listen and nor does this office. All this because this fella is inflexible with not wanting to do Doximity or zoom. Other doctors are
Much more agreeable than this and when there is a problem, others will try to find workable
Solutions, but not this doctor and not this office, for sure.
Also, I cannot make an endless amount of doctor appointments just to get my basic questions answered just because the doctor failed to be communicative during all
The times I already see him
For follow up
Visits. And especially when I already have 50+ appointments per month just to stay afloat and wait hand and foot on all these offices that really find no helpful solutions to incurable illnesses.
Interestingly enough, my spiritual counselor commented on how at least four or five other clients of hers complained vehemently about the abusiveness of ucla to her within the same week I had
mentioned all this office's abuses. These complaints and negative reviews of this doctor's office are some of their most accurate and honestly authentic accounts of having to deal with such abusive offices like this one. Adhering to the wisdom of these negative reviews is strongly advised if you don't want to suffer from its wear and tear of all this office's antics.
This group, typical of ucla offices, has no shame, on every level of the word. And not a care in the world about us. When encountering the occasional employee that is respectful and trustworthy, that is a rarity inside ethe UCLA affiliation.
Thankfully I am in much better care with a different doctor.
But now this office does not want to send me a copy of my own medical records to me now too.
Note Regarding signed authorization forms:
When the patient provides the entity with his own signed authorization form to obtain a copy of records and go over policies like insurance coverage, communications, and the like, the entity is obligated to accept the form that the patient provides over their own forms. Any form of manipulation and coerciveness and pressure to sign their forms in addition to the ones you already provided them is unlawful under the Privacy Rule and these are bad business practices on their part. Under any circumstance, do not succumb to their abuses and intimidating tactics to strongarm you into al their phishing schemes to find excuses to know things about you that is none of their business and as they try to look for excuses to withhold sending you a copy of your own medical records to you. WE must be steadfast and persistent in knowing our rights as patients as these entities will stop on no account taking away what little rights we have in the first place, even when they are in the wrong. Report them to the Office of Civil rights but be ready to stay in the saddle with them for the long haul.
