For two days I spent well over two hours in call center/ voicemail hell at Sutter Health here in Santa Barbara. I still haven’t spoken with my primary care doctor or nurse.
To call and then be put on hold for 90 minutes, finally give up without being able to leave a simple message, is not patient care. To try again, hold for over 10 minutes just to get the call center, then another 25 minutes to speak with a receptionist at my doctor’s office who then forwards me to the nurse who is not available is frustrating. I could feel my blood pressure rising with every minute. I asked to speak to the patient “care” (I use that term loosely) liaison, only to find myself forwarded to a circular hall-of-mirrors rerouting / voicemail hell that gives me no way to talk or even leave a message to that person. This is crazy.
I would leave a message on MyChart but they have another system.
I’m getting a headache.
Sansum was certainly not the paragon of healthcare but Sutter health is, in my experience, awful. I checked out UCLA health, but they also have call centers. I don’t want a call center. I want to talk with my doctor. (UCLA may also cost you a lot of money and/or headache unnecessarily because of insurance coding issues. Check it out.)
Corporate health “care” is an oxymoron. I will be looking for an independent primary care physician whom I can call directly.
