completely perturbed by this.
bah. im writing a well worded letter to my insurance company asking that they not recommend him as a doctor, also to the board of the doctors that he belongs too, as well as making a few calls tomorrow. i wont let them be asses to me!
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From: Shirley Vilca <shirleyvilca@gmail.com>
To: tcdiaz1005@aol.com
Sent: Tue, Jan 19, 2010 2:36 pmt
Subject: Regarding Interaction with your Employees Today (Jan 19, 2009)
Dear Dr. Diaz,
I called your office today, in hopes of speaking with yourself or someone who could let me know how my test result came back. When I had spoken with you during out appointment you had said you would call me when the result come in, so that we could see how my insulin levels were doing, and if I needed to go back on a medication such as Metformin. This issue is something of importance too myself and I take my health as a priority in my life; so I was glad to hear that you cared as much as I did about it.
Unfortunately, when I called your office today I was left devastated with your customer service and felt insulted as a patient in calling and asking why I had not heard back from either yourself, or even one of your nurses. Other Endocrinologist I have been to in the past had always been prevalent about calling back when they said they would, if not themselves then their nurses. I was told by the man who answered your phone that it is not in your office’s common practice to do so. He told me that if I did not hear back from your office then my test results were normal. He said this without even asking my name when responding, or even knowing the specific situation, or test I had taken. Then after trying to explain myself he seemed aggravated and bluntly interrupted me, stating that “the doctor does not call his patients. he has too many to be calling all of them back”. I understand this, having a large number of people to respond too myself in my line of work, but if a person specifically seeks me out with concern, I would do my best to find 5 minutes out of my day to answer their questions. After attempting to explain this to your receptionist, he said he will relay the message and will see if you could return my call. This would have been perfectly fine and exactly what I had wanted if not for the fact that still, through this whole conversation, your receptionist had not asked my name. When I incurred that, he replied, “well we have caller ID so I know who you are”. I told him that I was finding him to be very rude and he hung up on me. Even so, the name on the caller ID is not my own and for all you know the number that showed up could possibly not been the best number to reach me at. Overall I was left feeling completely upset and flustered by the whole occurrence and find myself at arms at what to do about it.
I know this letter comes to you very long and possibly as an overkill to a complaint, but as a patient I find myself with nothing else to do, to have myself heard by you. I am extremely disappointed and I wish to tell you that you have lost a patient, one of many according to your receptionist, which I guess would not affect you that much. I will also let others know about the customer service at your office and discourage them from visiting there. I wish you the best at your practice, and hope that you find a way to improve your customer service if you do not wish too lose more patients.
Sincerely,
Shirley Vilca
PS: I would appreciate some acknowledgment of having received my letter and find it to be common courteous practice. Thank You
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On Jan 19, 2010, at 10:47 PM, tcdiaz1005@aol.com wrote:
My practice is to discuss patient’s lab results face to face because of Privacy concerns, if I cannot confirm the identity of the caller, then I am violating privacy laws by discussing results with strangers. This policy is implemented upon recommendation of my malpractice insurance carrier.
I’m sorry that you feel that way. How would you feel if I were seeing to face and a patient interrupted our conversation to discuss lab results?
Dr. Diaz
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Thank you for your reply. I appreciate it greatly and thank you again for it.
In regards to your policy, I completely agree with it and know that discussing things such as these over the phone can lead to a malpractice lawsuit. What I am trying to say is that the doctor (yourself) did not call his patient with the results of a lab when he had agreed to prior, in a consultation.
When I called this morning I wanted to inquire about my test, and your receptionist did not even look up my chart. He could have easily proven my identity by cross referencing questions (if I remember correctly you need three correct cross-references according to my FERPA training in the past) or even by calling the number I have on file for your office too ultimately prove my identity. But he did not even ask my name through our whole conversation and chose to only take my number as “the one on the caller ID”. That there in itself is a violation of the malpractice act, by using that number and not the one on file.
Also, I was not asking to speak directly with you at the time that I called. I understand you are a busy man and must be seeing patients all day but I was requesting that your receptionist relay a message to you that I wanted to speak with you about my test results whenever was convenient, but he seemed aggravated by the request. As though it was outlandish and wrong to ask to speak to my own doctor at whatever time would be convenient for them. I do not find it common practice of any office to be rude to a patient and too hung up on them during a phone conversation. I just feel that this matter was not handled as professionally as it could have.
I am still upset and feel that your response was written in more of a defensive manner than an understanding one. I would suggest thinking through any further response and also suggest some proof reading as well. Thank you for your time.
Sincerely,
Shirley Vilca
