I am writing this review 7 years after the incident, but it was an incident that I will never forget. I was at UCLA Medical center for an ENT appointment after I had pneumonia. Cedars gave me a list of doctors to pick from for my follow up & Dr. Levine was listed. I needed to find a primary care physician & because Dr. Levine was a pulmonary specialist, I decided to walk into the office to meet the staff and ask a few questions. It was a very surreal experience! I asked the receptionist a few questions & asked her about making an appointment. When I asked if there were any cancellations for the day, she became very rude & said "this is not that kind of office". When I asked what kind of office it was, she said she was calling security!? I am still till this day very confused as to what happened that got her so upset. As I was trying to explain myself to her, the doctor walked in & asked what was going on. He told me to sit down & wait. I just wanted to explain myself...I had been very sick (104 fever for 5 days the week prior & in the hospital), and happened to be there for an ENT appointment so I wanted to check out the office to see if he was someone I could choose as my primary care physician since all my doctors were at UCLA. I was not intending to get an appointment that day, but figured I would ask as cancellations do occur & parking at UCLA was $11. As I was waiting to talk to him, I could hear the same receptionist badmouthing another staff member to the other girls in the office...very tacky. I worked as a medical assistant for 3 years & this was not acceptable behavior.
After about 20 mins of sitting there, confused & very uncomfortable, the male staff member called me in to be seen by the doctor. I showed him the paperwork from Cedars & he said that I did not have pneumonia (even though I have X-rays & hospital records saying that I did). He said that if I had come to him earlier on that he would have given me Tamiflu & I would have been fine. I explained that I did not have a primary care physician & I was just stopping in since I was down the hall at another appointment. He completely ignored that & continued talking at me explaining that his receptionist was with him for a long time & I had no business being rude to her. He also asked me what I did for a living, started asking if I knew some people he did that were in the same industry & when I didn't, he told me that I must not be very good if I didn't know them!?
A week later, Dr. Levine called me to "check in" on my condition, because as he said, that's what he does. I was so shocked that I just said "fine" & hung up. 7 years later & I am still confused about what happened and bothered by how I got treated. I was just there to ask about scheduling an appointment. read more