To hit the highlights of my 2 visits to this office:
1. The first time I went, they lost my appointment. My husband made the appointment the night before and I heard him do it. It was an emergency as my glasses fell into the oven and melted, so we needed a doctor asap. When he ended the call, he confirmed, "x time tomorrow night?" and they said yes. Despite this fact, they'd put my appointment time down as a different night in the computer. They fit us in, but it was still annoying and unprofessional. I hoped it was just a mistake, had my exam, and got some contacts. I had to wait for my exact prescription, however.
2. When my prescription came in, I had to see the doctor again. I was told it would only take about 5 minutes. I called and made an appointment for the next day at 4:30. As I started to leave the house, given what had happened on the first visit, I thought it might be smart to call to make sure they had my appointment time down right. They didn't! One time might be a mistake. Twice is an indication of incompetence and poor office practices. Well, the girl said they could still see me at 4:30, so I said ok and left the house.
3. When I got to the office, I put in the correct contact and waited. About 20-25 minutes past my appointment time, I was sent back to an exam room. In the exam room, I waited, and waited, and waited. I finally decided if the doctor didn't come in by 5:30--which would be one full hour past my appointment time--I was going to go outside and say something. Now, I hate confrontation. I really do. I tend to be passive aggressive, bottling things up inside and just grumbling under my breath. When I do confront strangers in public, because it is so hard for me, I also tend to go overboard. But this time I really felt I handled it correctly. I did not scream or raise my voice. I did not cuss. I did, however, use a firm, stern tone. As close as I can recall, this is what I said: "I'd like to know how much longer it is going to be?" They looked at me funny, and just asked if I was in an exam room yet. As if they hadn't noticed I wasn't sitting two feet in front of them in the small waiting room?! I told them I was. They said I was "next." Angry that they had evaded my question, I simply asked again, "How long?!" They shrugged their shoulders and gave me some lame spiel that "the doctor takes different times with different patients, according to what they need." I said, "Fine. You've got 15 minutes and then I'm leaving. But I expect my prescription to be valid and honored." After all the frustrations I'd had with this office, the last thing I wanted was to walk out and have them deny my prescription.
Well, less than 5 minutes later, the doctor did come into my room. I am 99% positive the timing was just a coincidence; I do *not* believe the staff bothered to go get him, as they should have done long ago. And I got a feeling they must've complained to him about the 'grumpy patient' he was about to encounter, because he wasn't very friendly. He checked my eyes and started writing in his charts. I felt I really needed to say something. After all, you would think the doctor would be concerned his staff had messed up when making my appointment not once but twice, right? I don't recall how I broached the subject, but I told him about the mistakes his staff had made. He seemed *totally, completely unconcerned.* At this point, I said something like "well, maybe I need to think about seeing a different eye doctor from now on." What did he say back? Something to the effect of "there's lots of other doctors out there." Are you kidding me?!?! Again, I had lodged valid complaints, both about the appointment mistakes and the long wait time, which I think were connected. If the doctor was running a full hour behind, they probably knew that half an hour ago when I called, right? They should have told me the doctor couldn't see me until 5:30! He did apologize, but with a tone which suggested he was doing so just to shut me up. There was *ZERO* sincerity in his voice.
I strongly advise you find a different eye doctor if you can. This guy is a joke! He may be a good doctor, but he needs serious work when it comes to how he runs his office. If a patient only needs a 5 minute checkup, and I think my time with him yesterday was literally more like 3 minutes, then his office staff should be instructed to interrupt him if he is taking too long with another patient. I know if I needed to see the doctor for 30 minutes, I wouldn't mind if he popped out to take care of another patient for only 3 minutes and came right back. But the thing that really made me mad was his nonchalant response. There's a reason this guy is in a mall and takes walk ins, and probably treats all *appointments* like walk-ins, which is part of the problem. You've been warned! read more
