The entire Village Family Practice is uncoordinated, unprofessional, and frustratingly difficult to deal with. If I hadn't been able to set the appointment for the very next day, I wouldn't have chosen the practice, but I needed someone quick. On the day of my appointment, it took almost an hour to be sent to the doctor's office, only 15 minutes of which I was filling out the initial forms. The front desk staff was talking about going out that night and partying, loud enough that I could hear them around the corner in the waiting room. I waited another 15 minutes in the doctor's office, for a 5 minute visit with Dr. Fields. He was professional and courteous, but the way he handled my condition made it feel like he is not versed in dealing with it, or didn't care, which is an extra blow to a depressive patient. His nurse was nice and knowledgeable. They have a separate department for work-related forms, and the lady in charge of that seemed absolutely clueless. I explained to her 3 times in person, and then when she finally called back a week later, she asked me what to do again! She still hadn't filed the paperwork! On top of that, they charge to fax information, and not just some nominal $5 fee - $25, separate from insurance! I asked them to call me with the results of my lab work, and they agreed, but 2 weeks later, I still had not heard from them and had to leave a message for them to call me. They have no way of contacting a nurse or doctor immediately, only some kind of answering service that takes messages. I think their medical records department is outsourced, and is wholly incompetent. I talked to a lady who said she received my fax to release my medical records to my employer, and said she would send them right away. The next day I was informed that the information had not yet been received, so I called the department again, and the first lady transferred me to an answering machine for the original work-related forms woman. There was no way I wanted to leave a message for her, knowing it took her a week to do anything the first time, so I called back and got someone else who said they never even received the release fax that I'd sent a week ago... Twilight zone!!! I drove to the office and explained that I needed the medical records faxed today, and the lady just made copies of them and handed them to me. WHAT!??!?!? Probably best since I'm sure they would have wanted to charge me another $25 to fax 1 page, and I got it done personally at FedEx for less than $5. There was some additional stuff regarding the referral to a specialist, but I'll spare you the details since this feels like a novel already. Seriously stay away from Village Family Practice if you want to keep your sanity!!
by Extremely Upset
February 23, 2012