Reliant Medical Group Worcester MA Urgent Care Horrible mistreatment at an urgent care; no one to whom it is reported cares Worcester MA

In my original report I stated that I was not told what was wrong.  I now recall that they did mention that something was wrong with my heart rate.  However I was not given any other information and I was still ignored.  I still feel that the treatment I received was wrong.

Another thing I must mention is that I have since realized that if the staff of the Urgent Care who treated me (a nurse and a doctor) believed I was in an immediate emergancy, that would partialy explain why theyquickly shoved me into an ambulence without discussing anything.

However once I reached the ER of the hospital, although I was treated, we watited hours just to be first seen and more than 7 hours to get a bed.  If they really thought it was such an immediate emergancy I believe the ER would have attended to me sooner. 

I must also add that the staff at this Urgent Care were not necessarily intentionally being cruel or unprofessional.  I do not know their inner intentions.  I do not even know the names of those who treated me, although I could find out.  However it is my assessment that how I was treated was not up to a normal or expected professional standard you would expect at any Urgent Care.  They could have answered my basic and quick questions, and could have asked either myself or my husband to sign for the ambulence. We would have willingly done so out of caution.  There was no reason for the staff to sign for us and then to state that no one competent was there to sign when my husband was right there.  Also they could have asked which of the two hospitals in our area (roughly equal distance) we wanted to go to.  Our insruance covered the other hospital but not the one the sent me to. The hospital they sent me to is affiliated with the Urgent Care.  This presents some problems.  Even if they felt I was in an emergancy, they could have spoken normally with my husband, who was not sick and who was not allowed into the ambulence with me, as I recall.  I cannot say for sure that the questions I was repeatedly asked at the Urgent Care and again at the ER were prompted by my being on psychiatric medications, or whether this is a standard medical practice under this type of situation.  The hospital went on to make more errors including: although we gave them our insurance card with full information on it, the person who worked at the hospital did not bother to correctly read the information and my account was wrongly billed to a different insurance company thtat had the same name but a different address.  I had to repeatedly correct this information when billed by different providers.  This was an error that indicates being too quick or sloppy to look at all the insurance information which is clearly in front of the worker.  One of the doctors at the hospital was supposed to call my pharmacy.  He came back and told me that he had called and they had no information on the medication.  He had obviously either misdialed or just called the wrong office since the pharmacy has numerous offices in the city.  I went into the pharmacy after the hospitalization to check and they still had all my information even though I no longer use this pharmacy.  The doctor did not even bother to recheck when I told him that this was wrong.  He did not bother to recheck the number he called or make sure it was correct.  This is somewhat sloppy medicine in my opinion. I told the hospital I needed to titrate off a certain drug (antidepressant).  There is good medical evidence for this concern.  The hospital called in an  "expert" who told me he was a consulting psychiatrist and  he told me, wrongly, that this medication does not last long in your system and since they had me under observation that made it OK to just suddenly stop the antidepressant, which they did, over my objections. They did not listen at all.  It turns out the information given by this consultant was wrong.  I researched it but at the time there was nothing I could do.  They could have seriously endangered my health by suddenly stopping this drug.  After I got out of the hospital my legs were all swollen.  We had to return to the emergancy  room.  I was also seen at the Reliant local office and the person who saw me (not my regular doctor) tole me he thought it was most likely an infection.  So apparently I got an infection from my stay at the hospital, which thank God resolved but could have endangered my health.  Many infections at hospitals are caused by lack of sanitary procedures and other problems at the hospital. I cannot say for sure what caused it or even that it definitely came from the hospital, but it sure looks as if it did come from that hospital. 

The hospital works with the Urgent Care and has some type of relationship with them but is a different entity.  The Urgent Care has recently been moved to a new location. 

I will also add that we have used this Urgent Care over years.  It used to be called Fallon and is now called Reliant.  Although they are not the same company, Reliant basically took over the Fallon.  Years ago I never had any problem with this Urgent Care. They were polite, compassionate and fine.  Now they titrate allcalls and some of the nurses are still helpful but some are very abrupt and brusk.  It is understandable that they are very busy but I feel people should still be treated politely and within normal boundaries.

I would never go into this Urgent Care again.  Fortunately there are other options now available in the area.

I do not know what the professional protocol or standards are for the professionals either at the Urgent care or hospital.  I asked several times for the Patient Representative in the hospital because I simply wanted to know what the rules and what my rights were.  The person was pleasant but inept and did not give me any information.  The staff at the hospital was more pleasant but similar to the Urgent Care they did not really listen.  They also put me on a medication that may have seemed appropriate but is known to be extremely addictive.  They did not discuss my medications with me or my options or the risks or benefits. 

I cannot speak for everyone who worked at the Urgent Care but only the staff that treated me at the time. I still feel that my visit there should have been handled better and communication was definitely lacking. I do not know why they insisted I was confused when to my memory, I was not.  I feel they should have been available for basic questions even if they felt they had to hurry.  I do not see the benefit of the nurse repeating "you are so confused" over and over instead of addressing my medical situation clearly with me.

I do not know how much of an emergancy the staff at the Urgent Care felt it might have been.  Of course they have to be careful about this, but if it had been a severe emergancy the hospital would have treated me sooner and we would not have waited for hours just to be seen, as we came by ambulence into the ER.

I am not saying everything about these companies or health facilities is bad.  These were however concerns and the lack of communication and listening made the experience unnececessarily traumatic for me as a patient.  I cannot say this was done on purpose, of course, but it was still not handled very well in my opinion. 

I obtained the ambulence report afterwards and it says  I was "combative".  That is not true. I was cooperative out of caution, and I chatted politely with the ambulence staff.  This would not have been seen by a normal person as combative.  I called them to challenge this and they got angry and started to yell at me. Otherwise my contact with the ambulence company was OK.  I don't know if the Urgent Care staff told the ambulence I was "combative" or if this was the assessment made by the ambulence staff.

This shows how a lack of communication and lots of assumption can turn a medical visit into a greater problem.  Calling a cooperative patient combative simply because I asked normal questions of the Urgent Care staff, who should professionally have been happy to answer my questions as supposedly they are encouraged.

I noted that the posted Patients Rights in the hospital were for show only.  They were not lived out but only posted, apparently, to make the hospital appear as if it were keeping up with  professional expectations.

I have always heard all my life a patient should ask a doctor or other health provider necessary and normal questions.  Doing so is not normally totally ignored or punished.

Something is wrong when a patient is punished for asking questions.  It's too bad if a health facility or staff is overworked, rushed, pressured or whatever but this ideally should not be taken out on a patient who is not doing anything wrong and who means no harm to anyone. 

This company has refunded some of my money and sent me an email showinng I am not going to be sent product or charged automatically.

I am satisfied with this and wish to point out that the company has corrected the problem.