I accompanied my mother here as part of a routine mammogram and breast density test. My mother is in her late 70s, not very mobile and has dementia, so to say that getting her out of the house is not easy is an understatement. So when Montclair Radiology called the night before to confirm our contact number for contactless check-in, I felt a little reassured. "Okay, this place is covering their bases" I thought. (The number they had on record for us was my parents' landline, but I gave them my cellphone number for the check-in since my parents don't have a smartphone.) I asked the woman on the phone, if it was okay if I came with my mother, since she's not very mobile. She seemed a little hesitant, but I had never been to this place before, so I hoped that it might be easy for my mom to navigate or that one of the staff would help her, since they didn't seem to want me to accompany her. was only the beginning of our nightmare.
The day of the appointment, around 10 in the morning (our appointment was at 12:30) they call to ask me to send my mother's insurance card and ID in advance. Great. I'm excited that we can get all the paperwork done in advance so the appointment can go smoother. We arrive a little early (the appointment was 12:30 but we arrived in the parking lot at 11:30). My dad suggested we call to say we are early, in case we can be seen. At first I don't like that idea (I don't like to be a bother) but I do it anyway. No one answers, but I leave a voicemail with my name and number. 12:30, and still no text from them for the contactless check-in. I call and leave a voicemail again. No response. Finally, I call for the third time at 1:11PM, where I finally get an answer. I tell the woman on the phone that I never got a text for my mother's appointment, and we have been waiting in the parking lot for two hours. She tells me that she will check the list, and she informs me that my mother was dropped from the list for being a no-show! I ask her, how is it possible that she was a no-show, when I made sure to fill out the paperwork, send them pictures of her insurance card and ID, right before coming, and then not show up? How could she be a no-show, when we called three times, left voicemails, and no one called back or responded? The woman, now sensing my agitation, introduces herself as the Assistant Manager and keeps apologizing, saying that the link for contactless check-in was sent to our landline, and when no one responded to the LANDLINE, my mother was dropped from the list, even though they called the NIGHT BEFORE to confirm my cellphone number. I ask the Assistant Manager why bother to call the night before to confirm a number, that they won't bother to use? On top of that, I had put my mother's mobile number as my number in the registration form I had filled out and sent prior to coming, so (assuming they did their job correctly) they should have had my cellphone number in two places!
The Assistant Manager told us to come straight in, after assuring me that my mother will be seen right away. We are greeted at the door by the tech. She sees how unsteady my mother is, so when I ask if I can come along, she doesn't protest. We make our way to the elevator (the condition of the building is FILTHY, which I know isn't entirely Montclair Radiology's fault, but it doesn't make a good impression).
We are finally in the area where they do the mammogram. This time I can't go in with my mother. Okay, I think, what could possibly go wrong? I can't really tell you everything that happened in there, as I wasn't there, but my mother told me afterward, that they took her temperature in the middle of the procedure. In case you're reading this review later, it's currently May 21, 2020, and we're still in the middle of the Covid-19 Pandemic. My mother's temperature should have been the first thing that was taken. Secondly, while I was sitting there waiting for my mother to come out, the tech came out and asked me "Is this for a regular mammogram?" I remember just staring at her. Isn't SHE the one who's supposed to know? Shouldn't she be looking at the doctor's prescription (which I had sent in advance that morning) to see what kind of mammogram she should be doing?
Finally my mother gets done. She needs a breast density test, so we sit, because the sonogram room is apparently filthy. (Mind you, there are no other patients other than my mother, so there was plenty of time to have someone clean up the crumpled pillows and bed sheets on the cot and to spray everything down with disinfectant.) We wait, and finally get it done. I would tell you more in detail about it, but when I tried to type more Yelp cut off my review for being too long. So I'm going to stop it here so the review makes sense. Bottom line: unprofessional, dirty, don't go here! read more
