I was a patient of Dr. Dhawan for many years. For the majority of that time, I was happy with her…read morepractice. Recently, however, I had a problem with her office staff that spiraled out of control. Apparently, her office was (and may still be) using a outsourced company to take some of her phone calls. It was more than just an answering service, however. The people from this service would provide information and pass along requests to the in-house office staff, unless they don't.
I was prescribed medication that contained counter indications for my kidneys according to the literature. I decided to contact Dr. Dhawan's office on a Sunday and I expected to leave a message. Instead I got the outsourced service. I explained my concern and was told the Doctor would be informed and return my call. That never happened.
I waited a couple of days and called back. No one in the "real" office staff had any knowledge of my first call. Some additional promises were were made and not kept. By Friday afternoon, I was pretty wound up. I called the office again trying to get some kind of timeframe for when I could get my simple question answered. That call did not go well, and I was irate; I'll own that. I just wanted to know how and when I could get my question answered. Dr. Dhawan's office assistant became upset and told me she didn't want to talk to me. Instead, she was going to put her manager on the phone. I later found out that her manager was not in the office. That sorta explains why I was placed on hold forever. I finally realized that twern't no one coming back. So, I hung up and called back. This time, I got the answering machine that I was expecting a week ago.
Now, at this point, I had been screwed with for a week and it was 4:30 in the afternoon on a Friday. They weren't answering the phone and that meant another weekend before I could speak to anyone just to find out if and/or when I can get this simple question answered. So, I sat down and enjoyed a beer to relax. Haha! No, you know that's not what I did. I grabbed my car keys and drove down there. When I arrived, perma-hold chick was hiding in the treatment area. Another lady greeted me and kindly listened to my epic story. She apologized and promised to have Dr. Dhawan call me.
The doctor did, in fact, call me probably the next day, but it was soon enough. The first thing she did was answer my question. She answered it a lot. Like, it was more or less a yes or no deal, and she spent fifteen minutes on this topic. I assume she was burning time so she would have an excuse to ignore the customer service problems that were definitely on my agenda. And yes, that's what was happening. I thanked her for the exceptional fifteen minute yes or no answer and told her I'd like to discuss the problems I had.
She would have none of it. She began to berate me for being impatient. She then--and this is really good--accused me of placing myself as a higher priority than her Covid patients who were dying. What?! Umm, no. She has also mastered the art of talking at the same time as I did, never once giving me any opportunity to say anything.
So, towards the end of this encounter, I knew I wasn't going to get anywhere and I shutdown. I politely let her finish saying crazy things and she ended the call. I doubt she knew anything about what actually happened or even when I first called. Her staff probably rallied to create a new narrative that omitted what they did and dialed up my hated of people dying from covid. Because that's just so who I am.
It's too bad that no one will read this. There are like six reviews here or something.
So listen: as far as I know, Dr. Dhawan is a good doctor. Everything else might be a ticking time bomb, but your mileage may, and almost certainly will, vary. Stay safe out there. And if you're on Lithium, get your blood work done regularly.
