Dr Gilli has been a doctor for my grandparents ever since he took over a previous practice of their retired doctor.
While we all love his personality and the office personnel and he is very straightforward, I have had the hardest time advocating quality healthcare for my grandparents at this office. Both my grandma and myself have had to call the office about twice minimum just to get a question answered or results delivered--and that's MINIMUM.
Regarding availability, communication, and organizational skills, this office is an overworked machine facing a drought of support. I believe that the staff does care, but they honestly just have way too many patients. They are stretched way too thin, and they cannot physically give every patient the attention they need and both of my grandparents have slipped through the cracks for the past year.
My grandfather had a stroke last year and my grandma has been declining just the same. Before I could get any home health aide to be authorized by their insurance, we needed to see Dr Gilli. Even though we had told him over and over again that he was unable to see him in person unless he was delivered by medical transport (which would've taken at least $300 round-trip--talk about a hefty co-pay!) we were finally able to see him over a video visit after a month, and my grandpa still never got his home health aide authorized. We also needed a doctor note assessing his financial ability so that we can help him qualify for Medi-Cal, and he refused on the condition that he has not seen grandpa in person.
Last month I contacted Rosie the medical assistant, who is just a darling even though she is also just as hard to get a hold of. My grandmother has been having acid reflex for six weeks straight, which is very concerning - she couldn't even go out into town without throwing up. Rosie made a phone call visit (Telehealth) to accommodate for the following week, confirming with my grandmother as well--which is wonderful.
When we got the call, the doctor was not available after all. Then an office person got on the phone with my grandma before she even had her appointment--thinking she already had her appointment--and made 2 follow-ups in person, one on 7/9 at 1pm and one in August.
Then my grandma proceeded to tell the office person that she never had her Telehealth appointment because the doctor skipped out during their conversation, so they let a nurse practitioner hop on with no prior knowledge or medical records in front of him, he had NO idea what was wrong, what the visit was for, any of her history, and basically avoided liability for the office by handling the mishap.
Now--if you're wondering if it gets worse--here's the kicker. My mom had to take off work to drive 2 hours to my grandma to take her an hour away to her appointment made by the receptionist for July 9th, 1pm. I was with my grandmother during this call, and we wrote it down together and put it on the fridge. I know there was no mistake.
After my mom took a paid holiday off on her own time to take my grandmother to the doctor on the reported scheduled time, the office decided to tell her that she never had an appointment. Not only that, but they would not even acknowledge that there could've been some miscommunication (which I know there was, I was there when we wrote it down together) they made no amends to accommodate. They treated my grandma like a piece of trash, as well as my mom who devoted hours of her time to get there.
We will never be coming back here again. While I am so happy the office manager Brenda has been the person to introduce us to the option of hospice and I think that Rosie is such a caring person, I don't know what in the world is going on with the quality of this health care that my grandparents have been sliding through the cracks every single step of the way of their decline.
I am furious, saddened, and disgusted by this privatized medical care system that doesn't seem to care about the people who need it the most.
I wish the best of luck to Dr Gilli, but most of all to his patients. read more