Process for compaining on a doctor

[supermom101]

Hi everyone,

This is what happened to me yesterday. I called on of those home visit doctors yesterday morning at 8am. The receptionist told me that the doctor would be arriving between 5-11pm. I said fine, but then called back later (at 8:15am) to change the address because I decided to stay at my mothers house to wait it out for the day.
At around 8:30 pm I called the receptionist just to ensure that the doctor was still coming. She said yes, and even confirmed my mother address.

At 10:30 pm, I called back the receptionist and asked her to page the doctor to call me. She did that and I received no call from doctor.

10:50 pm - I call back receptionist and she tells me that she paged the doctor with my mothers address and my phone number, but she says that this doctor does not ususally return pages. I tell her that I've been at my mothers house all day waiting for the doctor and she tells me that he should be there soon.

11:15pm - I am frustrated and kids are tired, so I drive home and receive a call from the doctor asking me what was going on. I tell him that if he was going to be late or not show up at all, he could have at least have the decency to call me before to let me know. He tells me that he went to my house and nobody was home and hung up on me!

I am so upset and am wondering what I can do about this doctor. I mean, he had me waiting at my mother's house all day and then has the nerve to hang up on me! Has anyone else had an experience like this? What is the process for complaining on doctors, and what type of measures are actually take out against doctors?

Suggestions?

Thanks.

[AnnaBanana]

I have no idea (i would just google it maybe?), but that sounds horrible. it sounds like the doctor was not told properly, and thus HE was just as annoyed as you were with the outcome.
hopefully no one was too sick that it didn't make a big difference that he never came by. i had never hear of this 'service' before, i just always go to walk-ins!

[CenturySam]

visit the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario and file a complaint there

http://www.cpso.on.ca/policies/complaints/default.aspx?id=2092

[susan123]

Doctors that do this type of service are awesome! Most times you can get to your own dr. or at least a walk-in, but there have been 2 times that I have been so sick and not even able to stand up, let alone drive or take a taxi. (And with 2 kids its even harder when you are not feeling well to pack them up and take them with you.) The dr. I called was fantastic!!! The home visit/travel is not covered under OHIP, but the actual medical visit is. But it was the best $20 I ever spent!!!

Having said that, I can see why you were frustrated with your circumstance. However, I also see why the dr. was just as frustrated for not getting the right informaiton. I would simply follow up with a letter to the service you called outlining your experience. The dr. getting upset or hanging up has nothing to do with his medical care. A formal complaint will likely not serve any purpose. It is not mandated that dr.'s be nice, if you don't like them, then try another. Also, it seems you were just as frustrated that you waited around all day - when a quick walk-in visit would have freed up your entire day and left the dr. to do home visits on those who really needed them!

[mrsmagoo2001]

If you do file a formal complaint, be prepared to be blackballed by a lot of doctors afterward. Personally I would chose the route of complaining to the booking service as it seems they were the ones at fault.

[HBP]

I wouldn't expect anything to come of the complaint.

You can post your comment on ratemds though.

[dealerguy]

If you do file a formal complaint, be prepared to be blackballed by a lot of doctors afterward. Personally I would chose the route of complaining to the booking service as it seems they were the ones at fault.

How come the Dr. has no responsibility and it is totally the booking agent's fault. Booking agent's work is to page the Doctor once, which they did, and then it is the Dr's responsibility to update his calendar or whatever way he manages his schedule.

BTW, I have no link to either of them but really get frustrated when people write ir-responsibly

[supermom101]

Doctors that do this type of service are awesome! Most times you can get to your own dr. or at least a walk-in, but there have been 2 times that I have been so sick and not even able to stand up, let alone drive or take a taxi. (And with 2 kids its even harder when you are not feeling well to pack them up and take them with you.) The dr. I called was fantastic!!! The home visit/travel is not covered under OHIP, but the actual medical visit is. But it was the best $20 I ever spent!!!

Having said that, I can see why you were frustrated with your circumstance. However, I also see why the dr. was just as frustrated for not getting the right informaiton. I would simply follow up with a letter to the service you called outlining your experience. The dr. getting upset or hanging up has nothing to do with his medical care. A formal complaint will likely not serve any purpose. It is not mandated that dr.'s be nice, if you don't like them, then try another. Also, it seems you were just as frustrated that you waited around all day - when a quick walk-in visit would have freed up your entire day and left the dr. to do home visits on those who really needed them!

I am glad that you had a good experience, but a 'quick' walk in visit can take up to 2 hours in Brampton :twisted: I would much rather wait for a doctor at my house so that I don't have to drag all my children into the doctors office with me.

[supermom101]

How come the Dr. has no responsibility and it is totally the booking agent's fault. Booking agent's work is to page the Doctor once, which they did, and then it is the Dr's responsibility to update his calendar or whatever way he manages his schedule.

BTW, I have no link to either of them but really get frustrated when people write ir-responsibly

I agree! On both points!

[Easto]

You don't know that the problem was, so you don't know what to complain about. Wait time? Well, go to any doctors office, walk-in clininc, emerge - You wait a long time.

The problem could have been with reception, the doctor, the paging system, the amount of calls for service, etc. You don't know.

If you are angry that he didn't call you? I have never gotten a call from my doctor. All I get to talk to is receptionists. To talk to my doctor I need to go into the office.

If you are angry that he hung up, what would his reason be for staying on the phone? He's an on-call doctor. He has work to do and I'm sure you were not happy with him when you spoke and he probably didn't want an argument on the phone.

Make this a learning experience. Wait to see your family doctor, or do what the rest of us do and go to emerge or a walk-in clinic

[taylyn]

So you called the office at 8am, then called back at 8:15 to change the address. They told you a doctor would be there between 5pm and 8pm. Why would you have to wait the whole day at your mother's house? Not to mention you waited only 15 minutes after the time he was supposed to have arrived by, got frustrated and left, AND you demanded a doctor page you at 10:30 pm, not realizing he was with another patient and likely did not have time to do so immediately just because YOU wanted him to. THEN you waited only 20 minutes before calling the receptionist AGAIN, and the doctor in fact called you less than 50 minutes after your firsdt demand for a page (the receptionist of course had to answer your call, then communicate to the doctor, then the doctor had to finish with his current patient to call YOU back, even though he was seeing you within the hour). Unrealistic and demanding much?

You then proceed to blame the doctor, who has been busy on call, for not calling you to tell you he would be late, and feel it is appropriate to issue a complaint against him because he was behind schedule? I am thinking you were frustrated and rude when you spoke to him and that was the reason he hung up on you. You have to wait your turn in situations like this and develop some patience. And you can blame yourself for having tired kids because it was YOUR choice to not stay in your own home for the duration - he did not "make" you do anything.

I have waited past stated delivery times for furniture delivery and repair persons, it is what it is and getting angry or upset will not make these people deal with their previous customers any faster. Next time go to a walk-in clinic and wait your turn there, or accept that a doctor on call will sometimes not be able to adhere to a specific schedule because other patients have more pressing needs, or honest mistakes regarding location happen. Had you been more polite perhaps the doctor would have returned to see you, but all you succeeded in doing was not seeing anyone and wasting a day. Hope you learned a lesson for the next time.

[stars78]

IMO, the person taking the call shouldn't have given you a time to expect the dr. i mean, are they with the dr, do they know if there's traffic, a complicated patient, other emergencies that can come up. dr that do house calls don't get adequately reimbursed as they can only charge what ohip pays, and so not many house calls are made. the more complaints there are, the less incentive for drs to do this kind of work. and in the ER/walkin clinic, you'll have to wait anyway, so if you're not happy with the service, go find someone else. sorry, but that's just the way it is with the dr shortage and no great incentive for drs to do house calls. (ps, cuz the dr didn't see anyone at the house, they basically made a trip out and didn't get paid and they don't get to bill ohip without seeing the patient).

[Munchos]

So you called the office at 8am, then called back at 8:15 to change the address. They told you a doctor would be there between 5pm and 8pm. Why would you have to wait the whole day at your mother's house? Not to mention you waited only 15 minutes after the time he was supposed to have arrived by, got frustrated and left, AND you demanded a doctor page you at 10:30 pm, not realizing he was with another patient and likely did not have time to do so immediately just because YOU wanted him to. THEN you waited only 20 minutes before calling the receptionist AGAIN, and the doctor in fact called you less than 50 minutes after your firsdt demand for a page (the receptionist of course had to answer your call, then communicate to the doctor, then the doctor had to finish with his current patient to call YOU back, even though he was seeing you within the hour). Unrealistic and demanding much?

You then proceed to blame the doctor, who has been busy on call, for not calling you to tell you he would be late, and feel it is appropriate to issue a complaint against him because he was behind schedule? I am thinking you were frustrated and rude when you spoke to him and that was the reason he hung up on you. You have to wait your turn in situations like this and develop some patience. And you can blame yourself for having tired kids because it was YOUR choice to not stay in your own home for the duration - he did not "make" you do anything.

I have waited past stated delivery times for furniture delivery and repair persons, it is what it is and getting angry or upset will not make these people deal with their previous customers any faster. Next time go to a walk-in clinic and wait your turn there, or accept that a doctor on call will sometimes not be able to adhere to a specific schedule because other patients have more pressing needs, or honest mistakes regarding location happen. Had you been more polite perhaps the doctor would have returned to see you, but all you succeeded in doing was not seeing anyone and wasting a day. Hope you learned a lesson for the next time.

I agree 100%. In a perfect world, times given for anybody to show up to your home, would be exactly right. As someone who does regular service calls to peoples homes, you try your hardest but sometimes issues arise and it snowballs the rest of your calls. I would bet you were VERY ignorant with him and judging by your hastiness in calling back the secretary, an impatient person.