The Experience That Has Me Searching For A New Doctor

Last month I saw a doctor that I haven’t visited in person since before Covid. They continued virtual appointments through July this year, but this was my first 'in-person' visit for over 3 years.  I have a lot of confidence in this doctor that I've seen for over a decade, but my recent experience has left me searching for a new provider.

So let’s start from the beginning.

I received the following text on Monday the week of my appointment -  ' You are scheduled for an appointment with Dr. Tran at 9:00 am on Thursday, August 17th.  Text '1' to confirm 48 hours prior to your appointment or it will be cancelled'.  Nice. 

The day before I received this text -   'Please arrive 15 minutes prior to your appointment to update paperwork.  Note that late arrival may result in rescheduling your appointment and a $75 fee' .

Now I'm not always the 'best' patient when it comes to showing up early for paperwork, but on this particular day I arrived at 8:40 for my 9:00 am.  The door was locked. I was parked right in front of the door to the building, so returned to my car and checked the door again at 8:45, 8:50, 8:55, 9:00...  The door remained locked.  I called the office number at 9:05, only to reach the out of office message (which was even more policy-driven than the text correspondence I'd received).

At 9:07 the door opened.  That was my cue... I guess.   Remember, my car was right in front of the building- about 8-10 feet from the door. The gal that opened the door jiggled the handle, grabbed some items out of a dropbox, looked at me and shut the door. She clearly saw me get out of my car and walk toward the door, but quickly shut it as if she never saw me. 

I walked to the front desk where I was greeted by this sign taped to a sliding glass window... a closed window...

I guess they felt as if 'Hello Kitty' would make it all okay!! Behind the window was the same gal that unlocked the door - I'll refer to her as 'Bri'.

Bri had her back to the window, shuffling through a stack of papers.  I stood there for 30 to 40 seconds before I finally knocked on the window. Bri whipped her head around in response to the knock, clearly agitated.  She opened the window and as she was turning back around to her stack of papers, Bri loudly said, 'NAME?'  I guess I was taken aback and couldn’t believe somebody could be so rude.  I even thought for a moment that I was being punk'd!  For a brief second I even found myself looking for hidden cameras.   I didn't respond quickly enough, so she repeated herself, but even louder this time.  'NAME??'   

The crazy thing is that nobody was in the waiting room! I was it.  Surely it couldn't have been that difficult to know who I was.  But I digress... 

The next thing to come out of Bri's mouth was 'CASH OR CARD'? I knew exactly what she meant, but I decided to be a little ornery. 'I beg your pardon?'  'ARE YOU PAYING WITH CASH OR CARD TODAY? YOU HAVE TO PAY BEFORE YOU SEE THE DOCTOR - OH AND I ALSO NEED YOUR INSURANCE CARD'

I proceeded to hand over my debit card and insurance card, which she exchange for a clipboard. Bri told me to go sit down and fill out the stack of forms.  Refusing to comply with her demands, I decided to stand at the window with the clipboard laying on the track of the sliding glass door.  Oh yeah I did. As I took my time to fill out the paperwork, she let out some really heavy sighs and handed my debit card back to me without saying a word. Bri then disappeared for a while as I continued to fill out the poorly formatted, repetitive paperwork.  I'm sure she felt as if I was intruding on her space.  

After I completed the 7 pages of paperwork, I decided to use the restroom.  The door from the waiting room to the patient area where the restroom is located was locked.  I went back to the sliding glass window - my paperwork had been retrieved and the door was closed.   So… Wait for it… I opened the window!  Bri whipped her head around again without saying a word.  I asked her if I could use the restroom. She stood up and closed the window without saying a word and disappeared once again. Based on context clues, I assumed she was going to unlock the door- my assumption was correct. 

Fortunately this was my last interaction with Bri. I don’t have to see this doctor. And yes, I shared my feedback with him. There are several other providers that can meet my needs. I have a history with this doctor, and I’m going to give him the benefit of the doubt, but if I don’t receive a response to my feedback, and even worse, if she’s there, when I go back next time, I WILL make a change.

I get it.  People are hard to find. But I am totally amazed that somebody can lack so much social awareness. I can't believe she made it past an interview!  But you know what? Some of Bri's 'offenses' are actually pretty common in the dental world... 

1. Threats to cancel appointments that aren't 'confirmed' -  If you have a chronic problem with no shows, it's likely a systems issue.   Check out How to Eliminate Now shows and last minute Cancellations and What about new patients that no show? for more. 
2. Demanding that patients honor your time without honoring their time - You won't earn any loyalty with double standards.  If you're going to ask your patients to show up on time, you'd better be on time! I was clearly the first appointment of the day, so it was evident that the office as a whole was not organized enough to start the day on time.  I'm sure that put them behind for the day. If you run on time and still have issues, check this out -How to effectively manage late patients
3. Greeting patients with a clipboard full of repetitive, outdated paperwork - Whether it's a new patient, or existing HH updates,  Ditch the Clipboard will simplify your job and keep patients happier.