An expose of bad businesses and their unethical practices

I'm fed up with my Doctor's office even though the Doctor is quite good. Caring and compassionate, he always makes time to talk to me- as long as he gets the message that I'm trying to reach him.

The real problem I've had is with his staff. There never seems to be less than three people there and yet, there never seems to be anyone who can answer the phone. When they do, the greeting is always the same "Doctor's office, Please Hold." No, there's never even a "Hello" and if you were on fire you'd be put on hold before you could shout out "No, this really can't wait!"

Most recently the problem has been worse. The office called me - only to tell me that I need to see a specialist. The woman I spoke to gave little info on the matter. Just the imperative to see a specialist.

A bit upset about the matter, I called the specialist's office. A nice woman answered the phone on the second ring and then quickly made sure that I knew that she understood my aprehension and concern. She spoke with compassion and told me to quickly have the referring doctor's office fax over my records immediately. I would be given an appointment as soon as they received the records for the specialist to reveiw.

I called the first doctor's office back - and reached the answering service. I was told that when the phones are busy, calls roll over to the service until a line is clear. My first call was made on Tuesday. By Friday morning, I had tried to call the office over 50 times(yes 50!), with no success. The answering service swore they had given the doctor's office the message to fax the records over- but they still hadn't done so.

Frustrated, I spoke to a friend who's also a doctor. She felt the situation was unnacceptable and suggested I drive to the doctor's office and demand that the paperwork be faxed over immediately- while I watched. Sure enough, I arrived at the office to find three women chit-chatting leisurely with no phones ringing, no office full of patients. Just a phone that conveniently rolled over to an answering service while they all sat back in their chairs and discussed their weekend plans...

This is the second time in my life that I've left the practice of a doctor I thought highly of, because dealing with the office staff was intolerable.