NYC Mt. Sinai Hospital Issues - Need help!

[taylorali]

Hi All -

So I've been very sick for about 3 months. I was seeing one specific doctor at Mt. Sinai Faculty Practices. With this doctor, I had serious issues with the her secretary returning phone calls, filling prescriptions, lying to my doctor, etc.

Now due to the fact that things got very negative between me and this doctor, I switched to another doctor in the practice. After seeing him yesterday, I felt so comfortable and hopeful that I was going to figure out what has been wrong with me.

However, I just realized that he has the exact same Medical Secretary as my old doctor. This secretary does not return phone calls. She does not call in my Humira prescription to my pharmacy. She is plain mean to me when ever I call.

So I called my doctor's office 3 times to get in touch with her - as my doctor had told me to do so. I did not receive one phone call back from her. I was not expecting my doctor to call me, as I am sure he was very busy, but he did tell me to call to get information about blood work, testing, & my Humira.

Has anyone else experienced issues like this? It is so hard with this disease already that you don't need to obstacle of just trying to get your medication!

What did you do in this situation?

Thanks!

 

[mbishop]

I have had to drop a practice with a decent doctor because of their staff. You should try talking to the doctor (or the senior doctor in the practice, if your doctor is junior to the staff). They may also have an office manager who can help. Approaching the secretary herself is an option also. You can explain that you want to work with her better and ask her for suggestions.

Be prepared for the doctors to have their own hands tied - they may not be able to discipline or even address the issues effectively based on one patient's issues. If you know others in the practice, you may want to see if there is a common problem with the individual and go in together.

Ultimately, you may have to switch practices. In Yonkers, you should have many options available in the area. If you do switch, explain to your doctors, preferably in writing, your reason for switching and ask them for a referral if you trust them. That will get the message across in a positive way.

 

[taylorali]

Thanks so much for responding. Apparently it is a common problem because my surgeon's secretary mentioned that a lot of their patients complain about this all the time! :/ I'm thinking I'm going to have to switch. It's just so hard because I really love my surgeon.