I had been a patient with Island Doctors for a few years but I just dropped them and have gotten a new primary care doctor. They are the worst medical offices I have ever been to. The staff is rude, impatient, and dismissive to the patients. Appointments are made, but when you arrive, they tell you that your are mistaken and never made an appointment, even THOUGH you are showing them the appointment card that THEY filled out and gave you on the previous visit. On numerous occasions this happened and on one visit, they told me that the dr. wasn't in the office and my choices were to just drive home or see the substitute dr.. I had no objections to a substitute but since they had called me the day before to verify my appointment, I feel they could have let me know the dr. wouldn't be available then.
Also, getting a referral is nearly impossible. I have been seeing them for a back/leg injury that occurred in 2020 and after four years, they have not helped me at all. They just keep ordering MRIs and various xrays and then never follling up on the results. Finally the doctor said there was "nothing he could do" and said he was referring me to a Pain clinic. Well, after wasting several months going there, they did not help me. They also told me on my first visit that they "do not prescribe opiates or other pain medications" as if I was there merely to get drugs. I am a 73 yr. old woman and not
interested in drugs. I told them this from the very beginning and said I wanted to find out the CAUSE of the pain and be referred to the appropriate dr.. This was in November. It is now the end of March and they still haven't been able to do the referral. My primary care doctor, will only refer patients to their cohorts and frankly, these doctors are only in it for the money and to get as many patients as possible. It is nothing but a money making medical factory.
When the primary care dr. finally sent a referral in to my medical advantage plan, it was done incorrectly and was denied. I also have had an eye exam and was told by my eye dr. that I need cataract surgery. He provided me with copies of the exam and recommendations for several IN NETWORK opthamologists. The referral dept. at Island Drs. refused to refer me to any of the drs. on the list that Humana sent to me and insisted that there are no Opthamologists in this area, other than Gainesille and St. Augustine, which is absolutely not true. When I questioned them on this, they were rude and outright lied to me. Oddly enough it just so happened that the doctors they insisted were the only ones in network, just happened to be affiliated with - guess who? Island Doctors!
After I contacted Humana and made a formal complaint, they sent in a referral to Humana, however they filled it out incorrectly and put MY name on the form as the referring physican, so it was denied. The dr. they were referring me to is of course one of their network of afiliated drs., not any of the ones I showed them on the preferred network. It has been since November waiting on that referral as well as one for a neurologist. I cannot believe how unprofessional and incompetent the staff at Island Doctors is. They should not be allowed to be in Humana or any other Medicare Advantage's network. They prey on older people and apparently hope that since we are older, that we are too stupid, weak or senile to notice how poorly we are treated. I would rather see a Witch Doctor than ever set foot in an Island Doctor's office again. I can only hope the new doctor I have made an appointment with is more concerned with patients and not just in sending people for endless tests for no reason and doing nothing whatsoever as far as actual medical care is concerned. They couldn't even give flu shots, pneumonia, covid or any vaccinations at their office. They did NO actual medical care at all and seem to be merely a referral service for their afilliates. I had to go to my pharmacy to get all my vaccinations. The office staff are rude, completely without empathy or compassion in any form and defensive and accusatory if you call them out on their lies. I hope that enough complaints are made to either shut them down or run them out of this state. It's difficult enough getting older and having health issues without being treated like cattle or made to feel like just moving parts on an assembly line. Being sent for never ending, unneccesary tests, xrays, being referred to various doctors for non-existent problems, then being told that you need even more tests for things that you don't need, having appointments canceled without any notice, or worse, going in for an appointment and being told that your doctor is no longer at that office and has moved but no one bothered to mention this when confirming your appointment. Also, the Pain Management place filed my secondary insurance claims incorrectly so they too were denied. It's just a system wide lack of competency. read more