Heritage Valley owns all the doctors here in the Valley. You quickly get the impression that they don't really want your doctor to get to know you as a person, but would prefer that you take your silly illness to one of their Convenient Care facilities and stop bothering them. I had a good relationship with my previous doctor (who retired), and I wonder whether my husband would still be alive if it had been he who had seen him towards the last, since he had exhibited concern on numerous occasions (to the point of even calling us PERSONALLY at home), was familiar with my husband's medical history, and really cared.
The latest: The doctor's office was supposed to be open (according to what they had told me before and what their pre-recorded message said), but it was strangely and inexplicably closed when I called at 3. Incidentally, they close for lunch between 12 and 1, because the concept of staggering lunches to provide service to customers during that time (a concept well-known to most businesses) seems to escape them.
If this is the trend of internal medicine, I am glad I am old enough to remember when patients were more than just meat to their doctors, and you could get an appointment to have the doctor see you when you were sick and not just one or two times a year for your routine check-up. read more