Urology Group of Athens

I’ve been a patient with Dr. Schwender at Urology Group of Athens since May 2013. Dr. Schwender and her N.P. are great to work with. I have had a recent terrible experience that I would have gladly resolved with the office manager, but she refused to get on the phone to speak to me to resolve the issue. Basically, the office does not allow for making follow up appointments in advance. They say they will call you a month in advance through their automated system. Well, turns out that if you go in for an emergency and get a urine test, and just see some nurse, they cancel your follow up visit. I spent 10 minutes on the phone with the lady, whose name I won’t mention because I am a nice person who is not catty, and we were arguing about the stupidest thing. They somehow «erased» my last doctor visit in May from my chart and even though I have it in my calendar AND a credit card receipt for the visit, I was basically called a liar and that no, I was not there and was not due for a follow up. I did see a nurse for EMERGENCIES in June AND July and just got a urine test, nothing else. But instead of keeping me on the list for my follow up in November, I was removed, and you’d think my doctor would want to see me since I had problems. They won’t contact the doctor and try to help me because «they have thousands of patients and they can’t just call people.» I have tried to work with them and be patient, and so I asked for the manager and the doctor because I realize the ladies cannot just schedule me when the doctor is booked, even though it is the office’s fault for erasing information from my chart and refusing to schedule me a few months ahead. Now I can’t get in to see my doctor when I have coverage until next year when the deductibles start so I will have to pay in full when I was supposed to be seen in November. My gripe is that it is not feasible to work with anyone and they took NO responsibility for THEIR error and NO compassion for my distress at being BUMPED off the doctor’s schedule. What makes me mad is that they claim they want to improve their service and yet an office manager in charge won’t even get on the phone to go over my concerns. I had no intentions of being rude or uncivil. I just wanted to resolve the problem about what happened, and being accused of lying about when I was there and when I was supposed to come back just made it worse. They are the only urologists in Athens and Dr. Schwender is a good doctor. But their staff needs to stop deciding when I should have my visits and they should be willing to schedule people 2 – 3 months in advance. WIth «thousands of patients» and the doctor only available one day a week, how are people supposed to get into see the doctor if they can’t schedule more than 30 days in advance? Plus, they erased an entire office visit… they need to admit they messed up my chart. I was there twice with the doctor and twice on emergencies. With thousands of patients, their words, I’m sure I have knowledge and know very well when I was there…