I visited Dr. Bedford's office as a new patient twice during November 2018. I initially felt positive about my first two appointments; however, all testing was not provided to me in a timely manner, I was misdiagnosed and went untreated, and Dr. Bedford took a week to call me back, which ultimately made the positives experiences more or less irrelevant as the information delivered to me was not completely valid. I am very dissatisfied with Dr. Bedford's care and do not recommend him. If you would like to read details about my experience, read below, and I listed a summary at the bottom if you'd like a quicker read.
The reason for my first appointment was that I was having stomach issues. I have had issues in the past, but they were due to gluten four years prior. I brought in all of my previous tests and provided Dr. Bedford with a thorough history. Dr. Bedford advised that I get blood-work and a stool sample to get a full scope of testing. He also advised that I continue following the FODMAP diet, a very restrictive diet, that I followed religiously for THREE WEEKS. He also advised that I take probiotics....He also said that I might have bacterial overgrowth for which I could take a three hour test of blowing into some machine or take antibiotics for ten days (I did not seek treatment or testing for this, thankfully). Dr. Bedford was quick to categorize my symptoms as possibly/most likely being IBS. This was a premature assumption as IBS should be "diagnosed" after all tests come back negative. Additionally, putting me in a category of patients that he typically sees is unprofessional... a young woman in her 20's/30's whose stress/anxiety causes stomach/gut problems. Scared and confused about what was causing my stomach problems, I listened to Dr. Bedford and allowed him to label and categorize me. Following this appointment, I felt relieved to have found a doctor who seemed knowledgeable and willing to look at the full scope of what was going on.
Within a week, I completed the blood-work/stool sample and I scheduled a follow-up appointment that was just about two weeks exactly from my first appointment.
At the second appointment to review lab-work results and get a diagnosis, Dr. Bedford stated that ALL of my tests came back negative and the only "diagnosis" that he could make was "situational IBS." He assured me that I am a young and healthy woman. He spoke at length about situational IBS and how my symptoms are stemming from stress/anxiety and gut/brain signals, etc.
Exactly one week later, Dr. Bedford left me a voicemail stating that my stool sample results came back and I had E.coli. He told me that a prescription for an antibiotic had been called into my pharmacy and I needed to go pick it up and begin taking it immediately. WOW! This is when my feelings toward Dr. Bedford changed. It took an additional day for the results to be uploaded to my patient portal (showing two types of E.coli detected).
I tried calling Dr. Bedford back a few times and it took him ONE WEEK to return my call (at this point, it had been two weeks since my follow-up appointment when he had stated that I was fine and it was most likely situational IBS). During the call, Dr. Bedford said that if I was no longer symptomatic that I did not need to start the antibiotic (Thankfully, I did not take the antibiotic because I was no longer symptomatic, but if I had listened to Dr. Bedford's advice and took the antibiotic it would have been unnecessary and could have caused my stomach additional problems). He was not sympathetic or understanding of my confusion of now being told I had E.coli. I had questions about whether he thought I still had IBS with the news of E.coli...he said that I seemed "stuck" on the whole IBS thing. I do not want IBS and am thankful it was "just" E.coli, but had spent the whole follow-up appointment two weeks prior discussing IBS with him. He blamed the delay in telling me about the E.coli results on the lab. It is extremely negligent that Dr. Bedford and his office took 15 days from the date that the stool sample results were "drawn" and "received" by the office, and one week after my follow-up/diagnosis appointment.
In summary:
1. From the moment I met Dr. Bedford, I was labeled a young female w/ stress/anxiety leading to IBS, which is offensive as this was simply the dr.'s judgement
2. I went untreated for E.coli
3. Dr. Bedford took two weeks from the date the lab results were available to let me know that I had E.coli
4. At my follow-up/diagnosis appointment, I was misdiagnosed with situational IBS and was told that all tests came back negative (not true, I had E.coli as indicated by my stool sample results)
5. The doctor took ONE WEEK to call me to let me know that I had E.coli after my follow-up/diagnosis appointment. He rashly told me to start antibiotics immediately for E.coli even though I no longer had symptoms.
6. The doctor took another ONE WEEK to call me back after leaving the voicemail. read more
