Did you ever leave a doctor because of the rudeness/incompetence of his office staff?

Funny you should ask I have thought about doing this. My doctor is good but the people in his office have no manners or people skills but since I only go once a year I put up with it. I have thought about changing offices not because of the doctor but becaus of my overall clinical experience.

Negative. In fact most every hospital/dentist/optometrist staff I can recall was at least “good.”

I was actually kicked out of a dentist once, it was our family dentist for quite a few years. My parents found what he did to be extremely unprofessional, so we left his practice.

I had cavities in my front teeth, and I have a huge fear of needles. Doctors always flip out on me for this, because I have tattoos and piercings. Just because I have them, does not mean I am not terrified of needles.
So, he kept trying to jab me with a needle, and I was super scared and kept moving. He flipped out, threw the needle and told me to get out.
I think I was 19 lol. My boyfriend now husband, was in the waiting room, he was in shock. It was pretty ridiculous.

I’m also fighting with a dental office right now, they won’t give me my xrays for two weeks, but I really want to see my normal dentist…and I have to go soon. My husband has an appointment on monday..I’m cancelling it until they give me my xrays. My husband laughed at me for “blackmailing” them lol

I removed my ancient mother from a Dermatologist’s office. He was Iranian and wouldn’t make eye contact with either my mom or me (female). His female staff treated him as though he were a god. He also used archaic techniques; ie;, dipping a q-tip into a paper cup of liquid nitrogen rather than using an aerosol can.

We found a young, courteous, funny, kind and modern Doc.

I could never leave my doctor, no matter how terrible his office staff was. Luckily they’re usually pretty nice (except the one who does the financial stuff. She’s mean. But I guess it’s the nature of her job)... but either way, I couldn’t ever switch. I love LOVE love my doctor. It’s very hard for me to trust people with my body, mostly because I’m so self-conscious. That’s why I’m only tattooed by one person, only pierced by one person (and they co-own their shop), and only treated by one doctor.

OH! I forgot. My primary car physician, also my parents and brother’s doctor…the main receptionist is soo obnoxious. You’ll come in and she’ll be all “what’s wrong with ya?! Diarrhea?! I had diarrhea not too long ago, blah blah blah” I’m serious, she totally shouts everything she says too, she doesn’t know the concept of whispering or discretion. My mother has complained because of her talking about medical things before, she still hasn’t changed.

Yes, I switched to a different OBGYN early in my first pregnancy. I’d initially made an appointment with a doctor covered by my insurance and close to where I worked. At the time, I was engaged but not yet married. We were both a bit young by today’s standards for first-time parents (I was 23), and at my first visit I was really put-off by how the nurse practitioner talked down to me. I wanted to tell her that I was well-educated and not an idiot. She asked if I had any questions, but then when I did ask questions she got annoyed and told me to just read the information they’d given me. When I left, I knew I’d be looking for another doctor.

However, before I had a chance to choose another doctor I had some worrying symptoms and had to call the original place to find out what I should do. They put me on hold for several minutes, then disconnected. It took me three tries before I was able to talk to a nurse. By that time I was really upset and worried, and when the nurse just said, “How fast can you get here?” I panicked. My husband drove me for an ultrasound, and all I could do was cry. The receptionist was visibly annoyed with me and gave me a lecture on not having my insurance card with me (even though they had a copy of it on file). My husband got fed up and told her off. After the ultrasound, which I cried through, the nurse said, “Just what I thought—it’s nothing.” I was livid. They couldn’t have taken ten seconds on the phone to say, “This sounds normal, but we want to see you just in case,” and continued to treat me like a 12 year old. See, I still get all pissed off when I think about it. I did tell them on the way out that I would be going to a different doctor because the staff was so rude.

I also switched dentists for my kids once. We had a family emergency and I had to cancel an appointment at the last minute. They sent me a bill for $50, and when I called to explain why we’d cancelled, they wouldn’t take the charge of our account. With three kids and thousands of dollars spent there over the past few years—no missed appointments other than that one—I felt it was a reasonable request. I lost my temper, gave them a piece of my mind, and hung up the phone. By the way, I wish someone would invent a cordless phone that could be “slammed” for effect when you hang up on someone.

And sorry for the novel. I tend to just blab away. :(

@MissAusten, yeah, I think dentists are quick to hold you to that “last minute cancellation” fee. My gum surgeon tried to but I reminded him of the day HIS office canceled my appointment at the last minute due to snow. My time is as important as THEIR time.

And DO tell the doctor when you quit on him and why.

Wait…

I did vow never to enter a certain emergency room ever again, even if I was having a stroke on their front doorstep. I’ve had terrible back problems since I was 16.. two herniated discs (possibly more now, been a long time since I had an MRI) right around the sciatic nerve… and if I fell on the ice, carried too many heavy laundry loads or grocery bags, or even slept wrong, I was damn near incapacitated. One time when I was out of work for a few days, I finally couldn’t take it anymore and took myself to the emergency room, because nobody was around to help me and I didn’t warrant an ambulance.

It took me about 10 minutes to get down my stairs (3 flights), and a nice man helped me out of my car when I got there and realized I couldn’t get out on my own. When I finally got through triage and all the waiting garbage, I told the doctor that I had a legal prescription for Vicodin that was given to me by another ER doctor for my back pain, but that I didn’t want to take it because I wanted to be able to work. He TOSSED MY CHART IN THE GARBAGE and accused me of drug seeking.

I looked him in his face, in the eye, and repeated: “I HAVE A FULL BOTTLE OF VICODIN IN MY MEDICINE CABINET. I WANT SOMETHING NON-NARCOTIC.” He said he didn’t believe me. I managed to get out of the exam room and out to my car before I literally had a breakdown in the parking lot. I called my dad… who works for another location in that hospital system. He made a few phone calls. Then all of a sudden, a security guard came outside to bring me inside, under the ruse I was going to be treated.

She took me back inside TO THE SAME DOCTOR so he could confront me! I threw a fit in the middle of the crowded emergency room… crying and quite literally screaming for them to keep him away from me. I loudly proclaimed to everyone waiting that I was in pain, but just because I was young, they tried to accuse me of drug seeking when I specifically asked for non-narcotics.

About that time, the nurse’s station phone rang and lo and behold, it was my father. He heard me screaming the second they picked up the phone, and told the person who answered that if they didn’t let me go immediately, the police would be there in minutes.

I ended up working for that hospital system a few years later… I still have never set foot in that location’s ER though.

It seems to me like Doctor’s staffs are getting worse and worse for some reason.

I had a doctor who’s office staff would NOT mail out prescriptions or call them into a Pharmacy. You HAD to go in person to pick them up. Since he was only open 8 AM to 4 PM, Mon – Fri., I would have to take time off of work just to get a prescription. I offered to give them stamps, pay extra money, give stamped, self-addressed envelopes and nothing. The office staff didn’t want to do it and the Doctor allowed it.

One day a new staff person started to work there. On the phone, she agreed to mail my prescriptions to me. Day after day, they never came. When I called the office, the regular staff member told me “The other girl is new. You KNOW we don’t mail prescriptions.”

I literally had to call ANOTHER doctor of mine and ask him to call the Pharmacy with the prescriptions of the OTHER doctor since I was running out.

I wrote a nasty letter and never went back.

@poofandmook , re your first answer—That’s how I feel about the doctors we use now. From my doctor to the kids’ pediatrician, I adore them. I think I have a bit of a low tolerance for doctors that don’t meet my expectations because the family doctor we had when I was a kid (my family in Indiana still goes to the same doctor) was so wonderful. He was also our next-door neighbor and close family friend. When you’re used to treatment like that, it can be hard to accept anything else from a doctor. He’s like the gold standard I compare others to.

Actually I have been thinking about switching to a new doctor now for several months and just haven’t attempted to find a new one. The area I live in seems to have a lot of ‘foreign’ doctors whose English is not very clear so they are real hard to understand. The office staff in the one I go to now is absolutely horrible most of the times, and the doctor is very very difficult to make appts. with so I end up holding out an only go when I need my meds refilled. She doesn’t ask for blood work done on a frequent basis, doesn’t like to give any kind of anxiety medication, which I am in need of…although she did give me a real small prescription but doesn’t want to keep me on them. That’s a hole other story though.

But I must say I have to be on the ‘state’ medical and you are very limited in the choices you have to go to a doctor and the treatment you get is ‘less’ than if you are a paying patient, I have been able to pay in the past and no the difference personally! I also have difficult times getting to see specialist anymore, you can’t just request it yourself anymore you have to go through so much red tape by the time the ‘approval’ comes it is ‘almost too late’ or you don’t want to bother anymore.

As you can tell I am not happy with the medical community in general at all!

My mother scheduled an appt. by phone for a optometrist’s visit but the receptionist forgot to mention the visit would include blinding drops and that my mother would need someone else to drive her home. My mother shows up, sees the Dr., he puts the drops in her eyes, she goes painfully blurred blind and then the Dr. asks if her “ride” is waiting downstairs? She had a panic attack, was angry no one prepared her, was embarrassed at having no one available to come get her and all the while, the Dr. chastised his receptionist and offered my mother to sit in his office for the afternoon until she could find a way home when he could have (I think should have) offered on the spot to call a cab, pay for the cab and get my mother home with an apology for the miscommunication when setting up the phone appt. I told him as much in a phone call and e-mail, he agreed and apologized again but we won’t be using his services again.

Truth is, you can NOT completely put yourself in the hands of the healthcare providers. You have to play an active roll.

yeah just recently. i had to go see my general physician cause i needed a referal to get a mole removed. the doctor was talking about how you get a scar when you have something removed. he asked me if i had ever had surgery before and i told him that i once had a hernia removed when i was 2 years old. before i knew it he was wheeling his chair over to me very closely and asked me to drop my pants so he could take a look at my crochular area. i immediately stood up and told him to back off or he was going to have bigger problems here in the next few minutes. he was very creepy.

My daughters mother in law saw a doctor 20+ years ago who made her feel so bad about her weight that she never went to a doctor again, Until….. She is in a hospital bed right now, dieing of Colon Cancer. She asked my son in law to stay the night lat night because she didn’t think she was going to survive.
This was perfectly preventable had she had a colonoscopy. Now she has 2 grandchildren that will probably not remember her and a third who is due to be born in October who will never know her.
If you don’t like your doctor find another one, but rude medical staff is no excuse for neglecting your health.

We currently use a psychiatrist that has a terrible office staff. They lock the door without notice and then insist that you never showed up, they hang up on patients, and they are simply rude. However, this doctor knows my son and my son is willing to work with him. The doctor is brilliant and efficient and everything you want in a doctor, so we put up with it. There also aren’t a huge number of psychiatrists in our town who are covered by our insurance.

He is not an American so I suspect he may not realize how awful his staff is in the eyes of his patients.

I have also had run-ins with a couple of OB/GYNs rather than their staff. One started screaming at me when I admitted to occasional stress incontinence and blamed my weight for it in a very unpleasant manner (it didn’t matter to him that this has been going on most of my life, even when I was thin or that he had a waiting room full of fat ladies). The other insisted I was a diabetic no matter what I said and that I suffered from polycystic ovary syndrome even though she hadn’t run a single test on me. She was nuts.

@Mr_M I can understand why dentists have a cancellation fee, and if I’d forgotten the appointment or had a history of last-minute reschedules, I wouldn’t have argued with them. Probably the fact that two weeks before that visit I’d written them a check for almost $2000 (for ONE kid! Argh!) and they couldn’t forgive a $50 fee when we’d just had a death in the family put me over the edge. I’m a pretty understanding person, so it really pisses me off when other people can’t be understanding also. ;)

Not only did I get up out of the dentist chair and leave, I sent him a bill for my time! I arrived for a scheduled appointment and waited an hour. At that point, I asked the receptionist how much longer. She replied that “something came up” and that was why I had to wait. THinking that it might be an emergency, and understanding that emvergencies would come first, I didn’t mind waiting and waited another hour. I then told the receptionist that I had to get back to work. I hadn’t expected to be away from the office this long and I had something I had to do. So, I rescheduled. I show up for my rescheduled appointment and wait an hour. I ask the receptionist and I can see she is exasperated as she has had many people bothering her about how long it is taking. She realizes that I am the person from the other day who didn’t get in to see the dentist and assures me she will get me in quickly. I wait another half hour and then someone shows me to the work area and places me in a chair and someone numbs my mouth. While I am sitting there, I can hear other patients from ajacent rooms complaining about the wait. One said he had waited in the wait room two hours and since being seated in the dentist chair has waited another hour. I felt my mouth get numb…....waited….....waited…....waited and then the numbness was beginning to wear off. None of my neighbors had even been seen yet! I got up and left. Told the receptionist to send me my records and that I was going to bill the dentist for my time. She admitted to me that they routinly overbook and always operate like that. I found a decent dentist and have never had to wait more then ten minutes since then.
(by the way, he never paid my bill. But, I didn’t expect he would, it just felt good to send it)

I once had a dentist who was so greedy, he took his dental technicians from a school as part of their training so he didn’t have to pay anything. One girl was chewing gum as she worked on me, another made the lead apron so tight around my neck I was choking, even the hygenist had me fill out the address in my OWN appointment cards. I never went back.

I won’t tell my story but I will say Oh Goodness Yes I have. And It was one of the best choices I ever made

My OB-GYN office called me after my last visit and said my Dr. was very concerned about my blood pressure and wanted to take it again, could I just run in on my lunch hour. So I did. I sat and waited and waited, while the office staff were in a back room having a party of some sort. Cake, baloons, the works.
I asked 2 different people when they came through if they could just take my blood pressure, it wouldn’t take long. I kept getting the “in just a minute”. After 1 hour and 15 minutes I walked out. When I got back to my desk, the Dr. herself was calling to appologize all over herself and told me to come in at my convienience and they would get me in. When I went back, I was wisked in.

A long time ago, at OB-GYN, I took a routine pregnancy test. However, there were two lines on that stick, and apparently that meant I was pregnant. My Dr. just told me that those sticks are almost never wrong.. and just kept talking to the nurses and looking at me with a judgmental look.. the look they give you when they feel sorry for you. I was very young at that time and she wasn’t supportive at all. She was just really, really mean. She did nothing to calm me down or just “assure” me that everything was going to be alright. It was very stressful. Then she told me to go down to the lab and get a blood test. The test came out negative, thankfully. I informed her about the results, and never came back.

My former doctor was horrible. He had an attitude that is best summed up as “Because I’m the doctor and I said so,” which doesn’t sit well with me at all. I want to know why he wants me to take this medicine or that, or why he wants to inspect the back of my throat, or why he’s holding his stethoscope to my carotid. This doctor did not like being questioned at all.

And then I had an issue with his staff where I had to get a prescription filled; the pharmacist handed it back to me and said, “I can’t fill this; it has two things listed on the same slip. I need to have each thing listed on a separate slip, and for this one in particular, I need to know A, B, and C.” So I got in touch with the doctor, and told him that, and picked up the new prescription forms. And saw that he had put them on two separate slips, but that the one the pharmacist mentioned specifically did not have A, B, or C on it. So I went back to him. In the end, it took about two weeks to get that @#$% prescription filled.

And the last straw was when I had my three-month checkup. I showed up and the office was closed. I had said, specifically, “it’s the day before the 4th of July – will anyone be in the office?” and they said “Yes, of course!” Well, they weren’t, and that was that.

It’s good to see the response to this question. If more people speak up, then maybe we can change the attitude at the doctor’s office. Don’t forget the people that work in the office are just kids, medical assistants (MAs). They're not nurses. Doctors won’t pay the high salary that a nurse receives, so for the most part nurses work in hospitals. MAs will try to pass themselves off as nurses, but what they don’t know is it’s against the law. MAs perform clerical work and take vital signs, not invasive procedures. If something goes wrong, it could cost the doctor his license.