Posted by Lonely on September 27, 2004, at 21:19:35
In reply to Re: How To Check On New Psychiatrist Before Visit » Lonely, posted by gardenergirl on September 25, 2004, at 17:16:29
My thanks to you and Annierose! Here's how it turned out.
This afternoon we went to see this middle aged psychiatrist (for my husband) and it started off with the same nightmare I had experienced at this clinic a couple years ago when I myself saw a different therapist there. The insurance gave the wrong info and the clinic tried to over-bill me to which I became highly ascertive and was ready to take it to the wall. Some poor woman with two wild and out-of-control little boys came in and the kids literally screamed, threw toys across the room, jumped up and down and were bouncing all over the place.
The psychiatrist came out to get my husband about 20 minutes after his appt. time. I trailed along behind and followed him as he followed her. She was brusque and even abrupt. She had a speech made up and went through it quickly. She said she was a medical doctor, shoved a card at him, and said they had 4 therapists there. With a fairly strong accent she was a bit hard to understand. There was no time for questions or explanations from us.
NO MANNERS! She never acknowledged me, never introduced herself to me, never asked who I was, never smiled. Totally rude. I felt like drop-kicking her rear right out the window.
I started chiming in with comments when my hubby left out info so then she noticed me but it still was not nice. She told me I should ask the neurologist for a neuropsych exam. I said I already had and he had already had one. She demanded to know where it was. I said "It's right here" pointing to the folder of medical tests I brought with us just in case she wanted them. She never gave me a chance to say we had them. I pulled it out and handed it to her. She was impatient.
She didn't bothor my hubby as much as she did me. If I had been alone with her I would have told her she needed some training on customer service and interpersonal skills. And, yes, I have provided training to MDs and nurses on the above. They need it quite often. She was a classical case of what a doctor should not be.
She did diagnose him as bipolar which I tend to agree with. She indicated that bipolars tend to have trouble sleeping - he just jumps all over the place in his sleep and tries to move around. We fought over ADHD meds because of his high blood pressure. She did mention that his difficulty with word finding and memory are factors of his stroke and brain damage (I already had that pretty well figured out). She gave him a prescription for some sort of mood stabilizer but I can't quite make it out. It's Teleftal 150 or Trileptal 150 or something like that. Anyway, I don't want him to go back but he thought she was knowledgeable and probably didn't realize how rudely she comes across.
Whew! I'm not sure what I will do now! Anyway, really and truly I appreciate both of you for giving suggestions and insights. I didn't feel quite so alone.
> Hi,
> It's such a crapshoot, isn't it? Unless you have or someone tells you of personal experience with a provider, it's really hard to tell. I use things like how easy is it to talk to reception, etc. If I don't get a call back or can't get a question answered, I figure the place isn't "user-friendly" which is important to me.
>
> Also, you can check her credentials with the state board. Usually you can do this online. You might check that out, just to make sure that she is ethically and legally okay.
>
> Good luck! And keep in mind, I really disliked my new pdoc after the first visit. But I had to call her twice in the month between that and the next visit due to side effect problems. On the second visit, I liked her much better. I think she either takes a bit to warm up, or she was just having a bad day the first time. But don't stick with what you KNOW isn't helpful, either.
>
> Sigh, such a process.
>
> gg
poster:Lonely
thread:394614
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/psycho/20040925/msgs/396057.html