DO NOT WASTE YOUR MONEY IN THIS OFFICE. I have been seeing Dr. Kelly for years, however, this past visit will be the last. I went in for an evaluation because I felt as if something was off. I was told that I would initially be charged the evaluation fee ($150) and if there were any extra tests completed that I would be in control of if they were to happen or not(due to additional fees). Office visit went well, MA was very professional as well as Dr. Kelly. Once I got back to the room, I was told to undress because the doctor was going to do an evaluation. ( okay, so I thought this was included in the fee, therefore I didn't say anything.) In the middle of the exam Dr. Kelly said he was going to do a swab and send some cultures out just to be sure. ( Again, okay, I thought this might be included in the evaluation. Cool, Dr. K really is very personable and caring of his patients.) Well, when I got to the front to get my prescription for some antibiotics, the lady said that it would be an additional $125. NEVER was I asked if I was okay with extra services being added. Dr. K did explain everything he was doing, but failure on my part to actually see that OH WAIT IM BEING CHARGED, even though HE SAID HE IS DOING IT...(so what exactly is considered an evaluation? just talking to the dr? an existing patient talking to a dr-not the actual exam- is $125 JUST A HEADS UP!) I feel so ignorant for not "reading in between the lines" BUT IT GETS BETTER..So I paid the extra $125- if you're following along, that's $275 total, got my antibiotics and was on my way. I took my antibiotics that evening and felt fine, when I woke up I had a weird feeling in my throat, but I didn't think twice, just went about my day. As the day passed, I realized that this feeling in my throat was getting progressively worse. So that night I took what I had on hand, Children's Benedryl, and went to sleep. When I woke up, It felt as if I had a lump in my throat. I could swallow drinks just fine, but when it came to saliva- just was a little more uncomfortable. I wasn't sure that I was having an allergic reaction because I have never had one before. So I called the office to ask if they could just switch the antibiotics. They ended up calling me back and said the dr thinks that I should go to the ER. Well for someone who just spent $275 and doesn't have insurance, I wanted see if taking allergy medicine would help before taking on that financial burden (I mean I could still breathe fine, it just was as though I had a lump in my throat that I couldn't get down- very uncomfortable) Anyways the benedryl worked greatly. So I called Dr. Kelly's office the following Monday morning to see if they could give me just another antibiotic ( NOT LIKE I'M ASKING FOR ANY CONTROLLED MEDICATIONS) just an antibiotic. The front desk girl told me that she would call me back after speaking with the doctor.
Now it's Tuesday, no call back yet. I called the office, and the same girl answered. She apologized and said that she forgot to call me back. ( In which I get, because I run a primary care office and it too can get very busy) So she put me on hold and another lady answered the phone to tell me that I would have to come in and PAY to be seen and EVALUATED because they don't know if it's their medication that made me have the allergic reaction. They said it could be my maintenance meds..yeah, that I've been taking for years. I'm just baffled how unethical this practice is. You're seriously going to charge me $275 which no consent for $125 of that, then prescribe me 2 antibiotics that I'M clearly allergic to, AND want to CHARGE ME AGAIN because you don't know if it was those antibiotics that caused my throat to swell and my neck to itch EVEN though THAT IS THE ONLY THING new to my body.. and clearly I started having symptoms within hours of taking the medication. OH OKAY, Heard that Dr. K. but who am I to you? no one, yeah you lost a patient, oh well you have plenty more, but now at least people can see how unethical YOUR practice is.NEVER would I treat ANY of my pts this way.
Dr. Joedrecka Shyree Brown, MDFamily Medicine, Obstetrics & Gynecology26 Years Exp | Tallahassee, FL
