Mat S

Review of LPCH

The care is great, WHEN YOU CAN GET IT!. My daugh...

The care is great, WHEN YOU CAN GET IT!. My daughter is a patient at the Pediatric Pain Management Clinic. She suffers from chronic pain and from time to time and the only thing that we have found that helps after 3 years are trigger point injections. The only place that does them is the Pediatric Pain Management Clinic.

Now, imagine that your daughter tells you that "The pain is paralyzing." and she has already missed 4 days of school from the pain, let alone her discomfort. Now, as a parent, further imagine how you feel when the clinic tells you that the earliest appointment is 6 days from now. NOT GOOD!

I drove an hour and showed up this morning to see if I could drop in and have the physician see my daughter to perform the injections. Now, keep in mind that they ask some questions to determine if you are a candidate for the Trigger Point Injections (10 min), administer the injections (5-10 min) and then wait 30-40 minutes to ensure you do not have any adverse reactions. We know the timing since we've done this before. The doctor only determines if you are a candidate for the injections and performs the injections. THE DOCTORS TOTAL TIME COMMITMENT IS 20 MINUTES for this procedure! It's the nurse practitioner or staff that come in and check to see if you are having any negative reaction.

I was unable to meet with the doctor on duty today, even before he started seeing patients. (My daughter's doctor is on maternity leave). I was only able to see the nurse practitioner and a Stanford Fellow that was shadowing her. I was told they don't take drop ins, how much this is an inconvenience for them and, get this, that the doctor was going to a conference later that day. Argh!

I did see the manager of the Pain Management Clinc. In what appears to be her limited power, she was not able to advocate for us effectively enough to convince the doctor and staff to work my daughter in.

We go into the weekend with no pain relief for my daughter. SHAME ON YOU!

Stanford, you need to be able to fulfill these type of requests for urgent care - on you patients schedule, not yours.