Grove Dental Group

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 19, 2016/06/22) */
RE: [redacted] CASE ID NO.: [redacted]
Dear Ms. [redacted],
Grove Dental Group and Orthodontics strives to provide each patient with treatment which exceeds expectations. In order to do so, a mutually trusting and...

beneficial relationship is required between the patient, patient guardian and the practice as a whole. Unfortunately, such a relationship no longer exists between Mrs. [redacted] and our office.
It is important to speak to the perception of events Mrs. [redacted] conveyed to the Revdex.com. Specifically, the belief that the office manager made a unilateral decision to dismiss the [redacted] family from the office is not accurate. The decision to discontinue the doctor-patient relationship is at the discretion of the dentist. In this case, the dentist requested to discontinue the relationship in 2015. At the dentist's request the office manager informed Mrs. [redacted] of this decision and was refunding for the orthodontic care her two children had received to date.
When Mrs. [redacted] scheduled orthodontic appointments in 2016 the office manager spoke with the owner of the office and, at the dentist's request, reminded Mrs. [redacted] that the doctor-patient relationship had been discontinued; and therefore, appointments could not be maintained.
With respect to Mrs. [redacted]'s request that the owner return her call, the owner and Mrs. [redacted] spoke via phone on April 23, 2016. Mrs. [redacted] conveyed her concerns to the dentist (owner) who informed her events which took place during appointments created a lack of trust and therefore she should seek care for herself and her family at another dental office where a mutually trusting relationship can be established. The dentist also discussed other offices in the area which might be available to Mrs. [redacted] and her family for care.
Finally, until filing her complaint with the Revdex.com neither Mrs. [redacted] nor her husband have expressed any concern with the clinical aspects of care. Although there are no warranties given, we welcome Mr. and Mrs. [redacted] to submit to us a complete copy of their clinical records from their subsequent dentist for review. Although there are several factors which can contribute to the need for additional care, we remain willing to review the subsequent dentist's clinical records to evaluate her request.
In summary, it is truly unfortunate a mutually trusting and beneficial relationship no longer exists between the [redacted] family and our office. However, given the break down in the doctor-patient relationship we believe it is best they seek care at an office where such a relationship can be established.
Respectfully,
Grove Dental Group and Orthodontics
Initial Consumer Rebuttal /* (3000, 21, 2016/06/25) */
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
Almost every claim made in Grove Dental's response is a complete fabrication contradicted by my family's medical records. I obtained copies of all our medical records so that I could provide exact dates and quotes from the charts demonstrating their copious false statements. I am happy to provide copies of these to the Revdex.com.
We were not satisfied with the orthodontic care our daughters received from the orthodontist who was on staff in 2015. Following one of her appointments, I called the office to tell them I no longer wished to continue my daughters' treatment with this orthodontist. The office worker said they would relay my request to the manager, and then called back to let me know that they understood my concerns and would give us a refund for the orthodontic services for three, not two, of my daughters.
If the dentist had "requested to discontinue the relationship in 2015" and "the doctor-patient relationship had been discontinued" in 2015, as stated in Grove Dental's reply, how did I, my husband and children have 22 dental visits with our Grove dentists after leaving the orthodontist? As shown in our medical records, we continued to see the same dentists we had always seen at Grove Dental without any complaints or issues. We had been patients of Grove Dental since April 2014, more than two years before Ms. [redacted] started working at the office, and always had a great relationship with our dentists.
It was our children's dentist, Dr. [redacted], who mentioned during their March 18th checkups that the old orthodontist had left and there were two new orthodontists at the office he thought we'd like better. He asked the receptionist to schedule appointments for two of my daughters on March 18, and I left with a reminder card for the appointments. Dr. [redacted]'s notes in our 13-yr-old daughter's chart clearly state "ortho suggested. Patient to see orthodontist for consult of spacing." In our 10-yr-old daughter's chart, his notes state, "next visit: ortho consult." Contrary to Grove Dental's Revdex.com reply, we did not request orthodontic appointments, but rather accepted the referral made by one of the Grove's dentists to one of their new orthodontists.
Therefore, I was surprised to receive a call from Ms. [redacted] on April 14, 25 minutes before my daughters' scheduled appointment time. In this call, Ms. [redacted] began by saying, "I see you have appointments set up for today, but remember you chose to leave our orthodontist before . . . perhaps we'd both be happier if you sought orthodontic consultations elsewhere." I informed her that their dentist had set up the appointments and expressed that he felt we would be happier with them. I also told her that I found her to be rude and unprofessional and this kind of treatment was likely why the office has dozens of bad yelp reviews. As soon as I said that, Ms. [redacted] became very heated, stating that she was cancelling my daughters' orthodontic appointments immediately and would "call the police if my daughters and I showed up for the appointments."
Not once during our conversation did Ms. [redacted] mention having ever spoken with the owner or any dentist. In fact, when I asked if there was an owner to whom I could speak she said there was no one over her and "the owner reported to her." She stated that if I wanted to be difficult, "she personally had dismissed families before and would not hesitate to do so." When I asked her on what basis she would try to do that, she stated that "she would have her legal team send me a letter," which was "their standard when families are dismissed." To date, I have never received a letter and the owner later informed me that they do not have a legal team that sends letters to patients.
Ms. [redacted] announced at the end of our phone conversation that she would be dismissing our family from the office. Of course she had not consulted with the owner or dentist before making this decision, as it was made in the course of our conversation. I had never met or spoken with the owner prior to this. When I called back the following day to request to speak to the owner, Ms. [redacted] told me, "I told you on the phone that I was going to allow you to continue in our dental practice before our conversation became heated." This statement, and the fact that the dismissal was not connected to any office visit or incident, clearly show that Ms. [redacted]'s dismissal of our family was a personal retaliation for my comments about her during our phone conversation.
The Grove Dental's statements regarding my April 23rd phone conversation with owner Lynda [redacted] are also completely false. Ms. [redacted] was polite and professional, apologizing for Ms. [redacted]'s conduct and telling me that "she was taking notes of everything I was saying" and "would definitely be talking with Ms. [redacted]." She said that "she wished that she had been aware of the problem" before I had written my negative yelp review, and that Ms. [redacted] and I "seemed to have just gotten off on the wrong foot." She also said that she "had not had the opportunity to speak with Dr. [redacted]" and would call me back in a couple days as soon as she did so. She never mentioned any "events which took place during appointments creating a lack of trust." How could she, when she admitted that she had never spoken with Dr. [redacted] regarding us? We very much liked and trusted Dr. [redacted]'s care and opinion and he liked our family a lot. This is why we accepted his referral to the new orthodontist. We had 58 dental office visits from April 2014 to March 2016 and, as shown in all of our charts, there were no issues or problems. Ms. [redacted]'s statements clearly show that neither she nor the dentists were involved in the decision to dismiss our family.
We do not wish to return to this office, as Dr. [redacted] left after my family's dismissal, and Grove Dental has demonstrated complete dishonesty in their reply. Evidently when drafting their reply they didn't realize that nearly every statement is disproven by their own records. I do hope that anyone reading Grove Dental's response will see the extent of deceit that it will go to to try to discredit a patient who publicly criticizes the business, as well as the dozens of dissatisfied customers who have written yelp reviews of this office.

This is in response to the notice which we received from your agency in regards to the complaint which was filed against our office and the staff involved as well as responding to the allegations of violations of privacy laws. First off in addressing the patients complaints regarding not being given...

her treatment plan (aka:breakdown) when she was in the office: it is the office managers job to compile that information and this was communicated to the patient.The patient was informed that due to the fact that the manager was not in the office at that time and was working from home on that day, this would not be able to be done.At no time was the patient told that her file was not in the office this was an assumption on the part of the patient as we do not take charts home.The manager does receive calls and make appointment changes as well as schedule adjustments remotely but charts are not removed from the office at any time as this is not only a violation of our company policy but a violation of HIPPA as well as other privacy laws.Secondly it is not the job of the receptionist to release any part of the file and is only permissible by state law to be copied as it is required by law for the office to retain the patient files for a state mandated amount of years. Furthermore copying of files per corporate policy, is only allowed to be done by the management and the receptionist is not allowed to do so.The receptionist was fully in her rights and following company policy when she denied the patients requests as the manager was not there at the time.Lastly our staff is highly trained in all of the legal requirements for their assigned positions and follow all state and federal laws as well as maintaining a professional and respectful demeanor while doing so it is this office position on this matter that though we would continue to give our best to the patient if the patient decides not to continue with us the patient may feel free to go else where but, we will not be terminating our receptionist as she did nothing wrong.Thank you for your attention in this matter.Respectfully,[redacted]Office Manager

Review: I called for 2 weeks to get a document stating the cost of my crown. I was told that I had to pay out of pocket so I asked to have the breakdown of the cost emailed to me I spoke with the Indian girl [redacted] at the front desk and she told me she would fax it over by the end of the same business day. I didn't receive the email so I waited and called back a few days later same thing spoke with the same girl at the front desk she said she will have it emailed to me I didn't receive a email so I decided to go into the location March 2nd at 8am I came to the desk and spoke with the same Indian girl named [redacted] and she told me that [redacted] the office manager took my chart home and that she will email me the letter by the end of the business day I told her that I'm here now can I just have you print out the document she said your chart isn't here our office manager took it home she works from home sometimes and that she will relay the message to have [redacted] the office manager to email me the document by the end of the business day I don't feel comfortable that my information is being brought home that is a violation of my privacy laws I don't know who lives with [redacted] and I don't want my information bein compromised I need this business to be looked into because I feel my privacy law was broken and the customer service for this business with the little girl at the front desk was horrible and very unprofessionalDesired Settlement: I would like them to have a better staff member at the front desk someone who is more professional with a better attitude and I want to make sure my chart or any of my information doesn't leave that dental office ever again I plan to take legal action if I need to. Consumer states that she has yet to receive the records requested and would like them provided as soon as possible.

Business

Response:

This is in response to the notice which we received from your agency in regards to the complaint which was filed against our office and the staff involved as well as responding to the allegations of violations of privacy laws. First off in addressing the patients complaints regarding not being given her treatment plan (aka:breakdown) when she was in the office: it is the office managers job to compile that information and this was communicated to the patient.