Complaints

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• Initial Complaint

  Date:04/25/2023

  Type:Product Issues
  Status:

  AnsweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  This incident occurred on 04/13/23 11:50 am. I left a review prior to this incident explaining how I felt about the service at this doctors office. The review and an edit I made has been attached to this as well as text messages from my mom who experienced the following. They contacted her to threaten to *** me for defamation. The woman did not give a name, simply stated she worked for the office. She was extremely rude and my mom who has high blood pressure started to experience symptoms that it was starting to go up. The conversation continued with the woman being rude and not listening to my mom until my mom felt her heart hurting and she couldnt speak correctly and started coughing and hung up because of the distress it caused her. I am concerned that they are also doing this to others who have left one star reviews but are too scared to say something. For a refund it would be from my mothers account since she was the patient.

  

  Business Response

  Date: 04/26/2023

  To whom it may concern

  My name is Daniel Esteves, MD and I am a physician and owner of Women's Specialists of North ******** **** I am writing in response to the above complaint against our organization. I have had the opportunity to review the patient's medical record and also had the opportunity to listen to the recorded phone conversation that took place between the patient and my office manager. This telephone conversation was 16 minutes in length and the patient had ample opportunity to express her concerns. Before entering in depth of my rebuttal, I would like to express that I have been serving the ********* of ************* since 2011 with the dedication, compassion and love that this ********* deserves. My entire team is very proud of the overall excellent reviews that we receive from the great majority of our patients. Unfortunately, however, it is sometimes impossible to completely satisfy every individual's needs in particular those clients with unreasonable expectations. 

  The patient in question presented to our office with a medical problem that could have arisen from different organ systems. ************, my Junior partner, evaluated the patient and performed diagnostic testing. The patient subsequently presented to our office to receive her results and it was determined that her problem was not gynecologic in nature. As appropriate and customary the patient was provided with the appropriate referrals to other specialists to rule out other possible causes to the problem for which she had presented initially. The patient however had expectations for treatments or procedures at our location that were not indicated at the time. In other words, the procedure that she was seeking was not needed based on her clinical findings and therefore not offered. However, ************ setup an appointment to follow with us in a short period of time and once the other specialists ruled out other possible causes that they would have treated.

  My best interpretation of this patient's dissatisfaction lies on the fact that she wished to have a treatment or procedure that we could not offer because it was not indicated and the fact that she was being referred to other physicians for continuation of her care.  This expectation is unreasonable because medical procedures are usually performed based on medical indications not patient wishes.  Certain medical conditions may require a multi specialty evaluation and approach. These issues were discussed with the patient.

  The patient then voiced her dissatisfaction with our visit to her daughter who in turn took the liberty to go on social media and write an unfair and inaccurate review of the services and the care that we provided to her mother.

  It is customary for our practice to reach out to those patients whom have left less than perfect reviews, with the intent of learning how we may improve our services.  Therefore, our office manager reached out to the patient to investigate the origin of her dissatisfaction and to possibly come to a resolution. The patient, however, continued dissatisfied because she did not agree with her need for referrals to other specialists and continued wishing to have received a procedure that was not indicated. 

  No one in our staff was ever disrespectful or rude to the patient, that type of behavior is not tolerated at our office.  No one has threatened to sue ****** over defamation, however,  ****** who defames frivolously may be at risk of a lawsuit.

  After reviewing her records, our office staff and myself hold that her evaluation, diagnostic testing, referrals and short-term follow up are the best management scheme for her presenting symptoms.

  The patient referrals are still available and her follow up appointment with us is still scheduled in our books in the event that she wishes to return for proper follow up and management.

  It is my hope that this response may provide sufficient information in describing the events that took place.

  If I or any of my staff members can provide additional information please do not hesitate to reach out to us.

  Respectfully,

  Daniel Esteves, MD FACOG