I used Dr. Judy P. Rawls as a General Practitioner for 20 years and I recently moved my business to…read moresomeone else. I am a professional, respectful, and low-maintenance patient. Today, I am a 48 year old female. I was recently blind-sided by perimenopause & I realized I should have left her practice many years ago. At least since I was 40, I've asked other CRNP's at Rawls' practice to conduct testing to determine how are my hormones. I am not in the medical field, but I know that there's *got* to be some kind of diagnostic testing to determine women's health. And since I was 40, I have been dismissed by the CRNP's and nurses at her practice with 'you have a period - you're fine' and an accompanying long blink and head shake. (Note: Just b/c a woman has a regular period doesn't mean she's not in perimenopause or menopause.) At some point, her office did start performing regular blood work to check my cholesterol and thyroid and, according to their tests, I was within the 'normal' range. After I shared this test data with my new GP, he just looked at it, shook his head, and said that he & I were "starting all over." The testing she performed over the years was inadequate. According to my new GP, there are a few different thyroid tests that can be conducted to determine someone's health. In my case, I'm looking at perimenopause and how to manage those symptoms. You can imagine my surprise when I woke up one day with acute symptoms when, all along, my then-GP (Rawls) had been telling me **for years** 'you have a period - you're fine.' Absolutely no other input from anyone in her office, no discussion, nothing. At least my GYN told me I was perimenopausal prior to this discovery but that was based solely on my age. Rawls performed little to no baseline testing on me to share with my GYN or me. Rawls' office has repeatedly dismissed my requests for testing of any sort for perimenopause for many years. I guess what baffles me the most about this is that Rawls' office is nothing but females. One would think that female care providers would advocate for their female patients. That was not my experience with Rawls' practice. It was the complete opposite. And, oddly enough, my new GP is a male who has expressed more interest and concern than anyone at Rawls' practice ever did. I recently gave him about 5 or 6 vials of blood (in one sitting) to conduct testing. I think for my annual testing in Rawls' office I gave 1 or 2 vials, once a year. And it's not that my insurance won't cover the testing. If that were the case then why can my new GP conduct testing but Rawls' office "couldn't?" I did ask Rawls' receptionist about more extensive testing and was instructed to reach out to the lab to find out if insurance would cover it. I reached out but no one ever replied to me.
I did recently call and speak with the receptionist (Stacey) about this stuff. While Stacey was nice, she did try to gaslight me into thinking that, unless I ask for care and unless I'm displaying symptoms, then basically they it's not their fault if I don't get the care that I deserve. What Stacey (and everyone else at this practice) didn't and doesn't realize is that I've been asking for this for at least 8 years, now. And for 8 years they've been dismissing my requests. I didn't even bring this to Stacey's attention or the fact that their lab never reached back out to me because I didn't feel like arguing. I just wanted to try to glean whatever useful information I could from her before kicking this practice to the curb. The best piece of advice that Stacey gave me was to read the book "The New PeriMenopause" by Dr. Mary Claire Haver. That was the best piece of advice I ever received from this practice.
I've had several other negative experiences at her office over the years. Once, I was terribly sick with salmonella poisoning and my daughter, who was maybe one year old at the time, had an ear infection. Both cases, at the same time. This was around 9 years ago. I had to get my elderly mother to drive both of us to Rawls' office. My daughter and I were seen by Jennifer, but Jennifer openly refused to care for my daughter by saying, "I don't care for babies." I did not have the energy to take my daughter to the pediatrician and I was hoping (and praying) that we could, both, be seen by someone at Rawls' office. Jennifer gave me medicine for salmonella poisoning but she refused to care for my daughter. Rawls' website (thefamilypracticeofmadison) advertises that her office sees babies to elderly - this was not my experience. I never took my daughter back to her practice, ever again.
Another time, I saw Rawls herself after I'd been in a bad car accident. This was around 10 years ago. Luckily, I wasn't injured but the accident was a serious roll-over. I went to the emergency room and had x-rays done of my head & neck. (Continued but no more room here)