This office is grossly unprofessional and does not respond to urgent needs despite what they advertise. I was very clear when setting up my initial evaluation that I was suffering from a TMJ issue that resulted from being ejected from a car going 85mph some 13 years ago and at that time I was discovered dead, got revived, and was put in a 3-day coma during which time the breathing tube was supporting a crooked jaw. When I awoke I couldn't walk, speak or see and had broken bones as well as a need for amputation. This meant the jaw was not the most urgent issue I dealt with and had to heal from at that time. I worked around the jaw discomfort for 13 years until a month ago when a piece of cartilage moved into the joint and locked my jaw shut, which is when it became urgent.
I informed the front desk of this issue and, after learning I had to wait weeks for an initial appointment, I asked if the office had all the equipment necessary to take X-rays / images / scans to diagnose me on the day of my appointment. They said yes.
Flashforward to my appointment after weeks of waiting in pain when I'm walking through the dirty building last renovated in the 1970's where their Danvers office is located. I walk in to the office and have to request the attention of two people at the front desk because they're very casually and loudly gossiping about a colleague for all in the waiting room to hear. I should have walked out then but, despite my better judgement and in excruciating pain, I was taken to the doctors office past the doctor himself with his feet up in the back room talking to a group of women. The nurse escorting me asked why I was there and I told him the story. When the doctor walked in, he burst out to the doctor when the doctor asked me to repeat myself, "Just wait until you hear this! This is the craziest story I've ever heard." You would think what resulted after that was a streamlined urgent response but no. I kindly shared as even toned as possible that I was in pain but, as with all injuries I suffer now, I compare it to when my entire body was in pain and bandaged. I was offered painkillers and I declined saying that I would rather feel alive and in pain than the way painkillers make me feel having tried all of them before including an IV drip of the highest doses of fentanyl directly into the artery in my neck. No, thank you. I was then given a copy of a referral for an MRI out of house having to wait even longer to be seen. That request was denied by insurance, which I found out after a series of 20 or so calls to my own insurance and Mass OMS' multiple offices in the following days, which I learned was because I had declined painkillers. I then went back in to get a new referral, stating I would take a prescription if it meant I could be seen, and had to follow up for days confirming that a new referral was sent. (It never was.)
In the time that I spent on hold with Mass OMS, I was listening to their advertising stating they respond to "urgent needs," which was a slap in the face for the cumulative month I spent waiting, misinformed, requesting urgent medical attention, following up myself, and unentertained by memories of the doctor with his feet up and the front desk gals' hot gossip / idle complaint about nothing that could possibly be more important than delivering "urgent" medical care to the people whose presence was ignored even in the waiting room. Better find a clean, pro-active and professional atmosphere where the staff is attentive if you want any help with an urgent issue!!! read more
