Unfortunately, it is time to make public my treatment by this doctor's office. I have concluded,…read morethrough a number of events and over an extended period of time, Poinsett Family Practice could care less about how their Primary Care patients are managed and to a lessor extent .. whether their patients believe (subjectively) they are recieving adequate care.
As a patient for a number of years, I can say early on, my care was reasonably good. But after Covid, the level of professionalism in this office declined dramatically. Today, their professionalism is miserably bad; forcing me to seek another primary care physician.
Over the last eighteen to twenty-four months, the doctor-patient relationship deteriorated noticeably. His (Dr. Newman) demeanor was one of "casual indifference". He did not seem concerned about particular patient complaints, often glossing over my statements with either casual chit-chat or no reply at all.
Within the last two years, I asked him for a referral to a specialist. I was told, "Call your insurance company, they can give you one". When I called the insurance company, they did not understand those instructions and told me it was quite unusual to be told something like this. So I never got a referral to a specialist .. one that I could still use to this day.
Last Spring, I had a virtual (home) Doctor's appointment as a follow-up to lab-work. The window was a two-hour telephone appointment window. At three minutes before that two-hour appointment closed, I recieved a call from the doctor's office to inform me he was "running late". He was with another patient and that I should carve out another hour and a half to wait by the phone for him to call me back. After being ignored for the first two hour "appointment", I was to wait "on standby" for another hour and a half? Is this the way patient appointments are managed? Clearly, YES.
Subsequently, I contacted the insurance company to file a grievance against the Dr.'s office. After another routine visit with this doctor's office (Fall, 2024), no mention was made by them regarding the previous affair. No apologies, no comment. They scheduled two appointments for me this Spring (2025). One for lab-work (blood), another a week later for an "in-person" routine follow-up.
I completed the first appointment a week ago for blood-work (lab). No one from their office advised of any changes or attempted to verify the next appointment date. I appeared on-time this morning for the second appointment.
After giving them my name, I was called to a private area and informed the doctor cancelled my appointment last November (without notice) and rescheduled it (without notice) for this April. To repeat, I was not notified of either change. The reason the doctor could not see me this morning was because he was on vacation. Vacation. And no apologies -- yet again. I asked to speak with the office manager about this. After being ignored for ten minutes I left. Subsequently, I placed a telephone message requesting the office manager contact me. No return call. Ignored again.
By now, a particular pattern of professional abuse should be obvious. If you are reading this, you should ask yourself whether you should tolerate this standard of "handling" by your doctor. Perhaps you might not object.
I am not inclined to overlook the miserable treatment by Dr. Newman's office. I am not inclined to overlook the complete lack of courtesy, professionalism or accountability. Nor will I be overlooking the direct failure to provide a specialist referral when directly asked for one. There are other doctors out there that would, I assume, choose to treat their patients with far more concern and care. Overall, my treatment over the last three-to-four years has been just very, very poor and it is time to move on to another practice capable of doing better than just plain "TERRIBLE".
