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Friday, August 21, 2015

An open letter to my [Former] Primary Care Physician

Dear Dr. R,
I think you may notice very soon (if you haven't already) that I have stopped coming to your practice. Or maybe you will never notice and/or won't care (or maybe will even be relieved to not have to handle my objections anymore). Youbs

However, I feel compelled to tell you why I had to change doctors for the second time in three years. Somehow I think you won't really care, although nowadays you really should.  Let me tell you why you should care about your patients and what they think.  First, there are so many doctors in our neighborhood.  We don't have to put up with substandard care in Central Queens, because there are at least 1,000 doctors within a 3-mile radius, from which we can choose.  Secondly, in this era of social media, it's easy to let everyone know of our experiences.  As a matter of fact, recently on Facebook, a woman in our neighborhood contacted me and asked for a general practitioner recommendation.  I promptly told her to stay away from you, at which time she informed me that she had just made an appointment with your practice and when she heard my feedback, cancelled the appointment with you and booked one with another practitioner on your premises.

Let me tell you the reasons I have changed doctors.  I had a very nice general doctor at the other end of Queens Blvd but since she had moved from spacious quarters at 97-77 Queens Blvd, which she shared with another doctor, she was less able to provide me with quality care.  Her exam rooms in her new location were minuscule and there was no room for my wheelchair. She came up with a solution to give me the last appointment on Wednesday and I had to wait for all the other patients to leave so she could examine me in her waiting area in full view of her [female] office staff.  Despite this being a semi-private arrangement, it still wasn't ideal.  But at least this doctor listened to me.  However, she often rushed me; I sometimes smelled the scent of a pizza which had been dropped off earlier by a pharmaceutical rep, and I could understand her hunger.  As a matter of fact, I had to fast before every appointment for my bloodwork and I felt like going in the back to steal the pizza; thankfully, my wheelchair couldn't fit in the room where the pizza sat. You see, despite her giving me an 11:45 appointment, she was always behind-schedule and by the time she got to me, it was usually about 2:00pm.  I stuck with her until she got sloppy with callbacks and her staff member told me she would call right back one afternoon, and I learned later that she had already left for the day and didn't receive my message about a medicine refill until three days later when she returned from her weekend.  I hate liars, so decided it was time to switch.

I went from the frying pan into the fire.  Even though your office is right around the corner from my apartment, I was worse off with your practice.  First, I quickly learned of  your unavailability between appointments, even to pharmacists.  My pharmacist -- whom I have been using for 30 years -- complains that it is nearly impossible for him to call for a refill on a prescription.  Once, he was so frustrated that he told me he had given up.  So I sent my aide in person; she waited nearly an hour in your waiting area before she could even get the message to you.  And then you told her I had to make an appointment to come see you in order to get the refill. WHAT?? I had just seen you three weeks before so why did I have to see you again just to get a refill?  You never return phone calls, and this concerns me.  How could I have any kind of relationship with a doctor who doesn't return phone calls?

I happen to be a wheelchair user and can barely fit into your exam rooms.  Your "practice-within-a-practice" used to be a furniture store.  The practice owner took a large open space and built exam rooms barely big enough for a doctor and her patient, let alone a wheelchair.  For an establishment which opened post-ADA [American with Disabilities Act of 1990], this is unacceptable.

What is even more unacceptable is the fact that you insisted on GIVING ME A BREAST EXAM IN THE HALLWAY!!  You insisted that "nobody is looking" and was extremely annoyed when I expressed my displeasure.  And, speaking of breasts, why did it enrage you when I asked you for a prescription that I could use for a mammogram at Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center?  I have been going there for the last 20 years, and they are the only facility with a WHEELCHAIR-ACCESSIBLE MAMMOGRAPHY MACHINE !!  And yet, when you handed me a prescription for a local facility and I said I wanted to go to Columbia, you were positively exasperated.  Did I ruin a kickback that you receive from the local facility?  If so, I am sorry because I know doctors don't make as much money as they used to. Oh, and I did have that mammogram appointment in March but when I sent my aide to your office for the prescription, you refused to give it to her unless I came in.  Funny how you told me after my last appointment "see that you don't come back before having your mammogram." and now you won't give me the prescription until I come in.  What???!!!

But, my own exasperation reached a peak three months ago during my last visit.  I waited TWO AND A HALF HOURS in the waiting area until you called me.  Then, not one gesture of apology passed your lips, for having an 11:30 appointment and not seeing you until 2pm.  Might I remind you that I was fasting because I was having blood work?  By the time you examined me, I felt like I was going to faint, and you asked me why I couldn't breathe strongly enough when you examined my lungs.  How many times have I reminded you that fatigue is a hallmark of ALS, as well as weak breathing.? Once again, you told me I should be blowing up balloons for exercise.  Blow up balloons?  You must be dreaming.

Anyway, so after you make me wait two-and-a-half hours and I hand you two pages of carefully-typed information I need you to know -- like request for the mammogram prescription and explanation of why I need to go to Columbia, and full reports on every medical appointment I have had since I last saw you -- you rudely put it in my file without reading it and asked my aide to come into the room.  Next, you told the aide "I need you to talk to me because I don't have time for her [meaning me] to type out her answers on the machine".  I was floored;  I had just waited two-and-a-half hours and not once did you apologize for the delay.  And now you insist on speaking to my aide, who only repeated the questions you asked and I answered.  When my aide noticed that most of your questions were answered on the paper I gave you and pointed that out, once again you were exasperated. That was the last straw.  Such lack of respect for a patient is unacceptable.  I may be in a wheelchair and talk with an assistive device, but it is your job to deal directly with me.  Two-and-a-half hours is way too long for a patient to wait, and don't think I didn't notice that Russian-speaking patients who had appointments later than I did, were taken before me.

I gave you every benefit of every doubt, but you proved to be disrespectful, arrogant and a proponent of "my-way-or-the-highway" doctoring of 50 years ago.  You are not God and I don't have to put up with your bad behavior in this day and age of choice.  I have chosen another doctor who -- by the way -- apologized for making me wait 30 minutes in her waiting room.  I have an email which I can use to ask her questions between appointments, and request prescription refills.  I have already done so, and my prescription was at the pharmacy a few minutes later.  I am very happy with my new doctor and will not hesitate to recommend her;  I will continue to dissuade people from consulting with you.

Sincerely,
Fern Ellen Cohen

Will I mail this to the doctor?  Probably not.  Because she will probably just stick it in my file without reading it, like she does with everything else I have given her.  She'll probably just think I died, or went to a nursing home.  Or maybe never notice that I'm gone, or maybe even heave a sigh fo relief that she doesn't have to deal with "the lady who talks with the computer".  Either way, she and I are done.