Heather's Doggie D'tails

May 22, 2016The statements made in my initial response were accurate to the best of my knowledge. Obviously, do not have any first-hand knowledge regarding the events reported by [redacted]. It was my intention to speak with her when she came to the office on May 4 in order to hear her side of the story. She was no longer at the office when came out of a patient exam room and I did not have the opportunity to speak to her.It is certainly not the manner intend to have my practice run. This situation will be addressed with both employees. I will instruct Ruth to contact the collection agency on Monday morning to reverse the charge.Sincerely,Emily W. Matin

May 10, 2016This letter is in response to the complaint issued by [redacted]. On November 11, 2015 this patient was referred to my office by Dr. [redacted], We were able to contact her by phone on November 30, 2015 and schedule her new patient consultation for January 11, 2016. She was...

advised at the time of the initial phone call about our no-show policy requiring one business days notification or a $100 fee would be incurred. A letter was sent to the patient on November 30, 2015 which also included this information.On January 4, 2016 a reminder phone was made to the patient's cell phone number at 11:12 AM. The message at that time again reminded the patient of our no-show policy, requesting 1 business days notice, if you are unable to make the appointment. [redacted] did not call back and state she was unable to make the appointment. On January 11, 2016 when she did not show for her appointment a message was left on both her cellphone and work phone number requesting she call back about her missed appointment. She did not cat back regarding her missed appointment. As per the office policy, she was billed on 3 occasions for her no-show fee, the third bill (sent on March 18, 2016 advised the patient her account would be sent to collection if we did not hear from her in 10 days. [redacted] never called after receiving these bills. in early April [redacted] called (for the first time), claiming she had canceled the appointment 1 week prior to the appointment. She called again on May 4 and again was raising her voice and was told my employee would not continue to argue with her, This is a very small office and there are only 2 employees and either employee spoke to this patient January. When she did calf and the conversation seemed to be going nowhere ([redacted] was raising her voice and being repetitive she was advised the conversation was over and Ruth would not continue to argue with her. She then left a message or our answering machine stating she was coming in to solve this issue. On May 4, at about 3 PM she arrived in the office and stood at the intake window and began videotaping my employees. She was asked to have a seat and advised that I was seeing patients. She would not sit down and my staff could not wait on the patients that did have appointments and had showed up or time. The police were contacted and they escorted her from the property. The following day a gentleman called identifying himself as her husband, He repetitively told Ruth she was not asked to leave and that she is pregnant. He began to request personal identifying information about my employees. He was told his phone call was felt to be threatening and that the police would be notified.My position at this point is if [redacted] asserts she did cancel her appointment, why did she not call when she received a confirmation call, when she received 2 phone messages regarding her missed appointment or when she received 3 consecutive bills, I would find her story more credible if she had called when she received the confirmation call or certainly after she received a phone call stating she missed the appointment It took her 3 months to call. Now, in addition to losing the one-hour allotted to her for her appointment, she has taken up a tremendous amount of time and created a tremendous amount of stress for my office staff.Enclosed please find a copy of her welcome to the practice letter, which again advised the patient of our no-show policy.Sincerely,Emily W. Matin