Dr. Patel is possibly the most renowned surgeon for Prostate Cancer; However, shrouded by incompetence in processes and staff.
This is MY personal experience in dealing with Dr Patel's office to schedule prostate surgery. Hopefully, changes will be made, and your experience will be much different. Just take note of how I was treated with this deadly disease.
Diagnosed with Prostate cancer in February, with 4-3 Gleason. After multiple calls to Patel's office, it took two weeks for Patel's staff to return the call. After the initial general call, it was another 2 weeks to get someone to set up the "online portal " this needed to be established in their "Advent Health" system. Two weeks after that I was notified that an Dr. Palmer would call me on a date 2 weeks out, between 4-hour span ( no set appointment time, just whenever Dr Palmer was ready ) this was for my "initial consultation". Dr Palmer stated it would be 4-6 weeks, possibly sooner, for surgery. Immediately committed. Dr Palmer ordered a litany of tests (X-rays, work-ups, and clearances) all were completed and returned within 1 week.
After another 2 weeks "scheduling" emailed, this is where sheer incompetence began.. Ms.Dieaze, seemingly not knowledgeable about the process or how to effectively communicate anything at any point in time, this was excruciatingly disheartening. Ms Dieaze was not able to answer simple process questions or ask for help to get answers. Management stepped in to help move the process forward.
At one point, I needed to respeak to Dr Palmer for clarification on clearances that he requested. It was almost 3 weeks and 15 attempts to get a call from Dr Palmer. I had to constantly follow up with their office to ask if they had all the paperwork they requested, so they could move forward and assign the highly sought-after "surgery date". I had documents that were needed to be resent to them from 3 different local doctors' offices twice because of excuses from Dr. Patel's staff. After 2+ months of dealing with Dr. Patel's staff, and request the surgery scheduled date was OVER 2.5 months out(because of vacations and meetings).
With Cancer growing inside of me, another 2.5 months is not an option, they seemed to never care, I was just a number, lacking any patient care. Simply a waste of my time and money, and their "staff" time.
There are hundreds, if not thousands, of Doctors in the US who operate robotically and have vast experience. I decided to have this surgery elsewhere, where communication is easy, free-flowing, and where I am respected as an individual. read more
