I have nothing but contempt for this place. At the time, it was the only place that we could realistically go to on a regular basis, so we put up with their nonsense for almost a year. Now before I go into detail, I think it's important to clarify that these people are DOCTORS. They're tasked with treating a wide variety of mental illnesses; they hold their patients' mental health in their hands. This is why I am so appalled by the way their business is run. A kid messes up my sandwich? No big deal. A store charges my card twice for one purchase? It sucks, but it'll get fixed and I'll live. My wife's mental health suffers due to incompetent staff? Unbelievable.
First, let's address actually GETTING an appointment here. You'll want to start by calling... Just don't call at any time in the middle of the day, as it appears both people at the front desk take lunch at the same time for a 5-hour period. Don't bother leaving a message, they won't call back. Just keep calling until you finally get a hold of someone, who will schedule your first visit for next month.
A month goes by and you go to your appointment, arriving 15 minutes early to take care of any paperwork. After an hour of waiting with no explanation, you finally meet with your therapist/psychiatrist (in my wife's case, she needed to see both, which doubled the amount of painful visits), who will try their hardest to get you out the door as soon as possible. Wonderful, isn't it? I understand that the average psychiatrist appointment is short due to the nature of their job, but they have no right to cut the hour-long therapy sessions we paid for short. But hey, if anything major comes up that you couldn't cover in your session, "you can call me directly any time"... Lies.
First, read up a couple paragraphs and you'll see how difficult it is to get a hold of the office. The doctor won't answer their cell. The front desk won't answer their phones. If they do, they will forward you to a voicemail so you can "leave a message for the doctor", and that message will never be returned. How can they do this? Seriously... How can someone sit there, listen to some crying over the phone begging for help, and just decide to never respond? What kind of sick individuals would do this? Okay okay, I exaggerate a bit... No one is sitting there ignoring cries for help. They're just ignoring the messages entirely. My wife tried to call them as instructed whenever something came up, and after a few months the voice mailbox was full, never to be emptied.
So I bet you're thinking, "These doctors must suck!" right? Well, to be honest, not entirely... This is actually where it just gets weird. When we first went there, both the therapist and psychiatrist seemed kind and knowledgeable, but seemed to be struggling to work around ITIC's poor management. If put in a professional environment in which the staff answered the phones, properly relayed messages, and staggered appointments in a way that prevented significant overlap, I imagine they would do quite well. Too bad... But I did say it gets weird, didn't I? My wife's therapist disappeared... No, I'm not making this up. She just disappeared. When we went to our appointment, they informed us that she simply never came back from vacation and they couldn't make contact with her (note that they didn't call and tell us BEFORE I took time off work to drive down to the office...). Similarly, my wife's psychiatrist simply up and retired with no prior notice given to the office or his patients. I think this shows just how little he cared for the people that relied on him.
The final straw was the replacement psychiatrist... A patronizing, forgetful woman of dubious intellect. I don't know how she got the job, but after several visits in which she literally did not remember my wife and was unfamiliar with the medicines she had been taking, we called it quits.
Ultimately, I feel this place did more harm than good to my wife's mental health. We both agree that since seeking help elsewhere, everything has been so much better. She actually gets to see people who care and will give her the time she needs in a stress-free environment... I just don't understand why that's too much to ask of ITIC. read more
