This doctor was rude and dishonest. After seeing him for nearly a year for our daughter's scoliosis, he abruptly ended treatment, claiming that we didnt comply with his recommendations. We did everything he requested from the start, including our daughter wearing a back brace 23 hours of every day. Prior to last 2 visits we called to confirm how he wanted x-rays (in or out-of-brace). The first time we called week in advance. The last time we called day in advance. He didn't respond either time, so his office told us to do what we wanted. We decided to x-ray out of brace (after 2 previous in-brace) to see how actual curve of her spine had progressed. This apparently wasn't his desire. Oddly enough, he didn't seem to realize until I told him that the picture was without a brace, though the brace has metal rivets and brackets down each side that clearly show on an x-ray. When he realized this, he abruptly turned and said, "If you want me to treat this you do it my way. If you want your way, see someone else." In fact, we had done everything his way and asked for direction before the last 2 appointments. During second to last visit he spent virtually no time with us, and his records show no specific direction regarding the x-rays. He rudely accused us of asking a lot of questions but not listening. First of all, we have a right to ask as many questions as we want regarding our daughters treatment. Second, weve listened to and strictly followed all of his directives. Third, we cannot follow directions that were never given in response to repeated calls.Since terminating the patient/doctor relationship, he refused contact. We've been passed through 5 different office people to whom we' openly vented frustration with the doctor. This did little to help and only allowed more people to use our frustration against us. When we got official records from his office, we noticed that in his notes from the final appointment, the doctor did a little "history revision," claiming that that I (the father) have been rude and difficult with the office ever since we started as patients. That assertion is blatantly false and we can only speculate that the doctor is trying to justify his unprofessional reaction by casting me in an unfavorable light. But I had no such interaction with anyone prior to that. My wife handled everythingappointments, calls, check-in, billing, etc. In fact, most of the doctors notes describe appointments as if Im not there, yet I was at every one. Yet in last note, everything was aimed the father, since I made the immediate complaints about this situation. In addition, doctors notes from the last appointment distort the sequence of events by describing them in reverse order from how they actually happened. This makes it seem as if he terminated treatment because of our conduct, but he cut us off first and has since turned our frustration against us. Since the incident weve repeatedly requested the opportunity to meet with the doctor and or administration to try to clear things up, but to no avail. Recently, we discovered that this doctor is the president of the facility, which may explain why no one dares to expose or contradict the doctors false assertions. This situation boils down to the fact that we complied with everything the doctor ever recommended except in the case of the last two x-rays. In both cases, we called for direction prior to the appointments and got no reply from the doctor. Rather, his office said we could do what we thought best. But when we did, he took offense and terminated our treatment. But we arent responsible for the fact that he twice failed to return our calls for direction. Its unfair to put off that lack of communication on us. If this was important enough to terminate our doctor/patient relationship, then proper documentation should have been made in his office regarding our calls. This doctors refusal to own up to his lack of communication without getting personal and resorting to a revision of history shows total lack of professionalism. After getting us into a strict treatment regimen that will cost thousands a year, he left us hanging with few immediate options. The staff claims that they are concerned with my daughters welfare (they make it seem like we are forgetting that in all of this). But if they cared, they would be more proactive in addressing the inaccurate and highly subjective statements scattered throughout our daughters medical notesthings that are not only irrelevant to her case, but are falsehoods aimed at turning our frustration against us and defending the doctor. If this doctor really cared about our daughter he would not have terminated her treatment so abruptly after his staff failed to communicate. Neither would he have used her medical record to pursue a personal vendetta against her father. Even our daughter said, Dad, thats not what happenedthose are lies. All this gives her a foul impression of a doctors integrity.I realize that doctors don't like wedsites like this, but what can a person do when they are shut down at every turn and have been given no options to resolve an issue, remove misleading statements from records or debate false assertions about past occurances that have no basis in fact. We tried everything else, but our persistent complaints have only been used against us.
Dr. Yvonne Marion Murtha, MDOrthopedic Surgery, Trauma Surgery, Orthopaedic Trauma23 Years Exp | Springfield, MO
