I was injured on April 30th, and my lawyer sent me to Redefine Healthcare in Paterson for…read moreevaluation. Upon getting to the facility there was no parking in the underground lot, so we had to park on the street which was a .25 cent for 10 minutes and no one in the facility had change for singles so we could feed the meter. We did eventually get a parking spot in the underground lot. I had to fill out paperwork and the assistants up front were very nice and helpful. I was then directed in the back where I was called in by a young male (assistant) who did not tell me his name. He questioned why I didn't come sooner to the facility, and I explained that this was the first appointment and had I gotten an earlier appointment, I would have been there sooner. He left the room and said the doctor would come in shortly. Enter the doctor who did not introduce himself and sat down. I had to ask him who he was, and he told me that he was Dr. Freeman. He wanted to know what happened and I told him. He then examined me and decided that since I was still in a lot of pain, physical therapy was out of the question or at the very least they would have done ice and/or heat. But he wanted me to get an MRI of my right arm before any therapy could get started. Dr. Freeman then left the room saying that he needed to get an authorization for the MRI. I was not told to leave, stay or anything. Again, the young male assistant opened the door and asked if had seen the doctor which I had. He said I could leave. At this point I was confused because I thought I was waiting for the authorization. Another assistant said that this authorization could take 7 to 10 days to get it. But she also said that I would have come back there for a follow-up after the MRI. I told her that I was not coming back to that facility and please book the next appointment closer to my home which she did. There was no way that I would come back to that facility even if it was just for a follow-up. So, we left. One week later, I called the facility and wanted to know if the authorization came through and I was told that I had to get the claim number for my case even though they had spoken to my lawyer the day of my visit. As you can imagine I was extremely upset and said I was not going to get the claim number because it wasn't my job. I did reach out to my lawyer who called them, and he got the claim number. Again, I waited for the authorization and so one week later on June 2nd, I called them twice that day and no one called me back. The next day, June 3rd, I called again, and someone answered and said that they should have the authorization by Thursday, June 5th. In the meantime, I asked the assistant should I call the claim representative of my car insurance to speed up the process. All this time, this should not have been on me to do the calling for anything since I had a lawyer, and this was an accident as I was hit by a car. I did call the agent claim representative and he explained that the authorization was denied because I did not do physical therapy. I told him in no uncertain terms that I was NOT instructed to do physical therapy but to have an MRI making sure that there was no tendon or ligament problems due to the accident which injured my right arm. He proceeded to call the facility and had the order reversed and I did get the authorization.
In summary, I know all that was a lot but being in the medical field for a lot of years, this was totally unacceptable from the time the male assistant spoke to me as well as the doctor who did not even introduce himself to me. This doctor was very unprofessional and had no bedside manner. If this facility is for pain management and/or personal injury situations, there should be a better communication between patient and staff. Don't get me wrong, the facility was clean and very modern, but the staff apparently didn't know what they were doing or should be doing to ease the suffering of people who were in pain. If this is a pain management facility, they did not ease the pain but only caused more pain. I cannot believe that it took my five weeks to get an authorization for an MRI which I should have had at least within the first two weeks of the accident. I spent many sleepless nights because of the pain which could have easily been avoided if I had gotten the authorization sooner to see if there was any damage done to my arm. To this date, I am still in pain and do not have full mobility of my arm. I caution anyone going there to be very well prepared and ask lots of questions before leaving because no one tells you anything. The end.
