Although Stanford Hospital has many topnotch physi...

Although Stanford Hospital has many topnotch physicians, dealing with the bureaucracy there has become a nightmare. To begin with, it is no longer possible to call any clinic or doctor directly. All calls go to a central phone bank where operators take messages which they forward to the doctor or clinic in question who, they say, will get back to you within 24 hours. Often they do not. When you do manage to get an appointment, the follow-up is sub-par. On one occasion, I had a procedure after which it took five weeks for them to communicate to me the results. Since the tests came back within the week, I am at a loss to explain the delay after delay after delay until I was finally able to talk to the physician. On a Monday, I phoned in a formal complaint and the administrator said that he would have the doctor call me that afternoon. He did not. Instead, the administrator called back on Tuesday morning to tell me that the doctor had called him and said that either he or his nurse would call me on Wednesday. I asked why, if the doctor could pick up the phone and call the complaints office, he couldn't have called me as well. The administrator had no idea. On Wednesday, the nurse did call me and told me that the doctor would be calling me on Thursday between 9:30 and 11:00 AM. I asked her why he couldn't call me that day, but she had no idea either. Finally, at 11:15 on Thursday, the doctor did call, saying that he had tried calling me twice before--which is true--but I never called back. I explained that he did not leave his number and that the call center would not give it to me. He said, "Oh". So, in effect, it took four days of consistent pressure to get the news that the tests were all negative and that he would have to repeat the procedure. I said fine, but asked whether it would take another four to five weeks to get the results again. He said that hopefully things would go more swiftly this time.

I find this kind of treatment unacceptable. Since I also use medical care in New York and Berlin, where I have always been able to reach my physician and gotten test results in a timely manner, I have some point of comparison. Fifteen years ago, Stanford Hospital was user-friendly. Today it is a labyrinthine institution which does not serve the interests of its patients well.