ComplaintsforNeurosurgery & Spine Specialist, LLC

• Initial Complaint

  10/27/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Sales and Advertising Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  I made an appointment to see Dr. ********************* weeks ago and have had multiple conversations with his staff regarding the appointment, getting my medical records over to them, and so forth. I arrived at my appointment approximately 20 mins early on 10/26/2022 at 2:30pm. I checked and and filled out the appropriate paperwork where I was advised to sit and wait for my appointment. After waiting I was then told while I was being called back that the doctor only sees patients who are fully Covid vaccinated but I did not tell me when I called to make the appointment or any of the other times that I had spoken to the staff and the doctor refused to see me for service they then told me there is no one else available to see me for that day after I had already taken a half a day off of work drove 45 minutes each way to make it there to then we refuse service due to not having the ******19 vaccine which is in no way a mandatory requirement in our country or stated by any staff prior to the appointment or posted on any literature or notices advising this requirement around the office.

  Business response

  10/31/2022

  Due to privacy laws we cannot confirm or deny that a particular individual is our patient.  However, based on clinical experience, the requirements of OSHA that we provide a safe environment for employees and the need to protect patients and employees, ************* has a policy that requires COVID vaccinations of his patients.  I am sure that you understand the need for us to act with medical judgment in protecting our staff and patients. 

  Customer response

  11/01/2022

   
  Complaint: 18318572
  
  I am rejecting this response because:

  Although each medical professional is entitled to their own choice regarding the vaccination so do the patients and to feel like I am being discriminated against and refused to have service provided due to not having a non-mandatory vaccine immediately gives you a bad impression right off the bat. With that being said it is extremely unprofessional to not have the requirement of being ***** vaccinated either told to patients when they make appointments for that doctor ahead of time or posted somewhere that this is a requirement. The office manager called me and I was given another appointment with a different doctor after the staff tried multiple times to push me off to a PA instead of a real doctor they finally understood that I wanted to see a real doctor at this practice in hope of getting answers to my medical issues. I then get a call from the office cancelling my new appointment due to a schedule conflict on their end. I have decided to seek medical attention elsewhere so my time and finances arent impacted even further by dealing this practice as they clearly have poor communication and terrible customer service. Almost all of the reviews about the office state that this is a huge issue for the practice and that the communication, being pushed off on PAs instead of regular doctors, and terrible customer service from the office staff and scheduling staff is a continuous issue. I hope for the sake of future patients they get it together. 
  
  Sincerely,
  
  *****************************

  Business response

  11/07/2022

  As I have previously stated due to privacy laws we cannot confirm or deny that a particular individual is our patient. https://www.hhs.gov/hipaa/for-professionals/compliance-enforcement/agreements/elite/index.html  . I also noted that the requirements of OSHA that we provide a safe environment for employees and the need to protect patients and employees. https://www.osha.gov/ . The complainant did not deny that this is the law, and as this controlling federal law she cannot deny its application.  
  
  Most people do not understand that there is currently a shortage of physicians in our country. As a general matter, we do utilize Physician Assistants within his/her scope of practice.Physician Assistants have a substantial scope of activities that are authorized by the ********** of ******* The use of Physician Assistants provides more availability of appointments to patients. This is also an accepted standard of care in the specialty and in the medical profession. It is also a way to assist in keeping the cost of medical care down. Most patients are extremely happy with this care.
  
  We take patient service very seriously. We work to arrange patient visits to the degree possible.
  
  The statements about social media are not on point. Any complaints are generally older. If you review Healthgrades, Yelp and other sites do not support the statements that the Practice has customer service issues.
  
  ************** has a policy that requires COVID vaccinations of patients. I am sure that you understand the need for us to act with medical judgment in protecting our staff and patients. It appears that the complainant has made a decision about vaccines and does not appreciate that others have a right to disagree.
  
  We do take customer service seriously.

*Some consumers may elect to not publish the details of their complaints, some complaints may not meet BBB's standards for publication, or BBB may display a portion of complaints when a high volume is received for a particular business. ↩