I left my apponitment with Dr. Brittany Harvey (NPI 1023678893) surprisingly pleased. She seemed to be listening, she listened for a while. Although I did realize a few days later that I'd gone for a physical, and she literally didn't touch me... Pretty sure my old doctor had to physically touch me to perform my last physical... She at least said she'd schedule an appointment at another clinic in Ochsner, for a certain issue I was having.
A week or so later, the clinic called, confused, asking why I was coming there for my issue. We deduced that my doctor's office had made a mistake, booking the appointment at the wrong type of clinic.
Fine. I'm used to being either blown off or getting crappy service from medical providers, so I give up (again... I tried and gave up on solving this same issue twice, starting about 10 years ago).
Over 6 weeks later, Dr. Bittany Harvey's office calls, saying that they made a mistake and booked my last appointment at the wrong type of clinic. Yep. Thanks for that information. We talked about making sure it was at the right clinic this time (actually *she* did, then assured me of it), and scheduled me for the following morning.
The next morning the clinic she booked called, confused, asking why I was coming there for my issue... Again.
I wanted to call my doctor's office since this clearly needed to be escalated. But of course things are designed so a patient cannot call their doctor. So I send a message to "Dr. Brittany Harvey" explaining that they booked the appointment incorrectly again. I was a bit sassy, here. They asked what appointment I was talking about.... Well, this kinda blew my mind since Ochsner is the only hospital I iteract with, this was my only PCP's office, and *that office* is the one that booked the appointment, *the day before*. "Are you really asking me that? You booked the appointment *yesterday* and it's my *only* appointment!" Yes, when I (or my insurance) is paying undisclosed prices for this level of incompetence, I tend to get a little pissed. They got back to me about 2 minutes later saying that they found the appointment in the system. But then they stopped responding immediately. So I went on a bit of a rant about the medical industry that probably had a single F word in there somehwere. As this is the kind of service I'm used to receiving from this esteemed industry.
A couple hours later, still with no response in the messages, the doctor, Brittany Harvey, MD, *herself* literally *calls* me! Like ring ring, there's a voice on the other end of this line! Amazing! Surely she was personally calling to apologize for the rampant stupidity in her office. (You know...booking me an appointment at the wrong clinic *within their same hospital* twice in a row, causing me to miss work and lose money, and circling back only 1.5 months after the first mistake to correct it *incorrectly*...)
Nope. She was calling to give me her opinion on my behavior. Yeah. I was mad, but I didn't like insult her mother, or say anything racist or sexist or un-PC. I was simply an emotional human making a series of pointed statements about the medical industry, and the repeatedly poor performance of her office... Do doctors not serve humans? Do humans not have emotions? EMOTIONS ARE UNACCEPTABLE IN 'MURRICA DANGIT.
Anyway, literally all she had to do was say "I'm sorry" and I would have been so stunned by the fact that she called me personally that I would have dropped the whole thing! But no, she wanted to be defensive. In our call, I spoke about the incidents as if she knew about them (since it was all documented in the messages ***that she was calling in response to***), and it was obvious that she didn't even know about it. It was obvious because she said "I had no idea that happened." Surprised, I said "how do you not know that?!" Somehow she was quite offensive. Like I was accusing her of knowing nothing about medicine! She went off. I lost any remaining respect I had for her.
At this point, feeling as tho I was speaking to a child, I called her "honey" (which I reserve only for the worst of women, because I know how much they love it), which she "would *not* tolera--", then I hung up. I responded in our messages saying "I don't tolerate such gross incompetence from such a well-funded industy," essentially. No cursing. Nothing intentionally personal. Just that they are paid way too much and their jobs too critical to repeatedly screw over their patients with silly mistakes. I lost some work dollars and lost some time, but what if that first appointment was necessary for me to continue living? Your gross negligence could have ended a life! (Hey, it's possible!)
So, instead of finding out *why* her patient was so upset--what she or her office could have done to upset him--she decided to call to tell him all the ways he was wrong. Really? I'm pretty sure this is *exactly the opposite* of how we're taught to behave in a human relationship... No? When my lady comes to me upset, I am expected to first figure out what I did to make her upset--not start screaming at her! "I messed up? You will pay!" This is essentially what Dr Brittany Harvey said (and did, but more on that below).
2 weeks later, I get a letter of dismissal from Dr. Brittany Harvey's Clearview Ochsner location, stating that they refuse to continue to serve me because of my "behavior." Are you forking kidding me?!
The letter came from the "Patient and Provider Advocacy Department", which I'm just realizing sounds like an inherent conflict of interest... How can one party advocate for two people on opposite sides of a dispute? It's like having one lawyer for both sides of a courtroom battle.
Anyway, Since they are supposedly patient advocates, I called to advocate for myself. The woman who answered the phone, I'm telling you, from the very moment she picked up, hated me. Had no idea why I was calling, but was ready to say "sorry holmes, you're SOL." It is apparently their *policy* to not reverse dismissals. So much so that they won't take a second look at the situation to make sure the right decision was made. So much so that this "Patient Advocacy" department literally refuses to act on the patient's side of the story. She kept telling me in a fake-cheerful voice, "You can certainly voice your concerns to me!" but would repeatedly state that nothing could be done about them... So... What's the point of hearing them? They literally have no intention of advocating for any patient, if they've been dismissed, by policy. Again, this is a department for "patient advocacy."
So I asked to speak to the manager. I was transfered so quickly, that nothing of substance could have been verbally communicated to the manager during the transfer. I explicitly state this because the manager *also* immediately had no interest in helping. Another fake cheerful voice, but there was that same tone behind her speech that the first woman had. She repeatedly refused to read the messages between Dr. Brittany Harvey and myself "outloud." I never found out why she kept saying "...outloud. I will not read them "outloud!" What? Who asked you to do that?! I just want a 2nd opinion, which cannot be had without reading those messages. Both her and the other lady kept saying "they would look into it, but [wouldn't] read the messages." I finally got it our clearly that "This conversation is pointless if you don't read those messages, because thats the only thing you have to go by to make this decision!" But *they know this*. It's obvious. They simply had no interest in trying. Which I find something very wrong with.
If I was the business owner (don't act like it's not a business!), I would definitley think before banning a customer who was upset by repeated stupid mistakes on my part. Because mistakes can cost lives in this field, it would make sense to me that a customer was PO'd. I would definitely want to know their side of the story. The Patient Advocacy Department at Ochsner Hospital is a total farce.
by Anonymous
xxx.xxx.181.212
March 02, 2023
