I made an appointment six months ago as a first-time patient. I called today to see when my appointment was since I was not able to locate my date/time. I was told that my appointment was this morning. I missed it. I asked if the office made confirmation calls/reminders since the doctor doesn't take new patients until six months later. She said the office does and that either she, or another girl, makes the calls. She read back my phone number and it was correct. She then told me that I'd need to pay a $30 penalty before rescheduling. I asked to ""take this further"" because I felt this was unfair. The fact that this doctor does not take a new patient before six months later combined with an office policy that was not executed leads me to understand some of the other complaints on this platform. Some may say, look - you missed the appointment, therefore it's your fault and agree. However, it is standard practice that drs confirm appointments with their patients. I see a lot of dr's for my diabetes (including eye and foot drs) and ALL of the call me a day or two before to confirm. I've been trained by the industry to depend on these calls. Dr Duke even employs the same policy in her office. Now I'm being penalized because I did not receive the confirmation call, which I was trained to depend on. I am supposed to receive an call back from the office manager tomorrow and I hope that this situation is rectified fairly. By fairly, I mean that I am excused from paying this penalty in lieu of the office failing to follow their own policy. This should be awash. I will report back what the office manager says - good or bad. Thanks for offering this platform so the ""playing field"" becomes a little more level between the class structure created where a dr has a disproportionate amount of power.
more