Owen Clinic Ucsd Medical Center

This clinic doesn’t allow they’re doctors to write medical marihuana recommendations even if your sick and have a terminal illness:(WTF

I love my Doctor at owen, but the staff treat me horribly. They make assumptions about you without knowing you. To them everyone is a IV drug user or overly sexual. It never enters there minds that you may have been infected through blood transfusion or born with it. Not that it should matter how you got it, but we all know it does. It takes me days to psyc myself up for a visit an more to get over it. They make me feel like dirt every time. The staff are condescending an treat you like your uniformed on every aspect of care. I can see why many don’t stay in treatment, an its sad. I finally got my Doc to let me make 1 or 2 visits per year. Hoping in the future to go every other year as my health is good. So my advice is take your meds an take care of yourself. Then tell them that its not necessary to come in so often. I think some of the reason they want people to come all the time is money! I forgot to mention the worst part of every appointment the Doc’s in training who come in first. They act like they know what’s going on, but it doesn’t take long to figure out they’re clueless. I didn’t like having to explain my health to a new person everytime I went to see my Doc. So I put a stop to that, I get that they are learning but they can learn on someone else. It’s just too stressful to have to bring a new Doc up to speed an then still have to see your Doc. Not to mention the amount of time it takes, some appointments I was there for 3hrs. Dont be afraid to say enough is enough! Go practice on someone else.

The medical care is great. The human care is terrible. You are a number you are a problem and you are treated like you are a problem. I think they put people at risk who would give up on care rather than deal with the frustrating process. I call as someone’s advocate and calls were not returned. Getting correct information is very haphazard. We risk losing critical appointments because the right information is not provided. I feel we are put at their mercy and must not complain about anything here or we are put in a worse situation and the person I care for is threatened. As someone else advised only get care here if you have a strong advocate or strong personality.

What can I say? If you are unfortunate enough to need the specialized medical care offered at Owen, this is the place to get it. Dr. Sitapati is a true gift to the world of medicine. Sure the wait times can be long, but the tradeoff is knowing at the end of the wait, is some of the best, most current and trusted specialized care in the world.

I don’t know about the actual Doctors who perform the actual services, but the front desk seems to have been head-​hunted from Burger King. No, I don’t mean you will ‘have your way,’ in fact quite the opposite. Burger King wouldn’t have them as staff as they are ineffective and indifferent, just plain lame. Thank God for private insurance. In summary, I called OC earlier today. I was placed on hold for 5 times and spoke with 5 different people, while each employee tried to figure out who to transfer my call to, They didn’t seem to know anything. The last person I spoke to gave the number to the main office line, which is how I got in touch with her in the first place. I know how sometimes for some employees a voice on the phone is just that, so really not important, just transfer. It is so simple. So, I decided to drive over. True to form, the receptionist handed me a card with the initial number I had dialed from home and told me to call that number. Instead, I had a nice relaxing lunch in the area with an attentive and knowledgeable staff. The Owen Clinic was a waste of time, but lunch was great.

Overbooked, under staffed, no RN case management, no PA-​CS, no communication, no returned phone calls in a timely manner, emails, overworked, the Nurse’s Union controls this cluster f*&k of in competence-​BE YOUR OWN TREATMENT ADVOCATE OR GET SOMEONE WHO WILL!
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AS a PA-​C, here’s my take & intervention that saved Marty’s life one more time due to medical incompetence-​ALLEGEDLY!
Now, that being said, I was able to get Marty referred here from another facility resulting from the incompetency of an Oncologist who told him 2 years ago he was in Stage 4 cancer from a rectal tumor and needed to have a pic line put in, start Chemo & radiation.
The tumor was removed encased in it’s cell wall, never metastasized, & to this day after 2 years, his CEAS (Carcinogen Enzymes Serology are negative); better brush up on your training Dr Segal!
Since coming to Owen Clinic, I and Marty have had a pretty good run, that is until a year ago when I eventually came to this [ clinic ] and witnessed a packed room of chaos, noise, over crowding & down right nobody knows WTF they are doing-​ALLEGEDLY!
Dr. Caperna MD (whom I’ve met) is competent, well trained in the treatment & management of HIV/​AIDS but, is so overbooked, so overwhelmed, so pulled from one direction to another & is impeded from being there for the many patients he so diligently cares for on an A++++ level.
This clinic has a system where you may access your medical records online, see labs, x-​rays etc and, even leave messages for your MD; that’s all well and good, except when you do leave message, the responses are not from you MD but from an individual (s) who respond with such vague, ambivalent, poor grammar & unaddressing the questions at hand that you literally have to make an appointment just to get your needs met &, to be acknowledged.
Marty was diagnosed with hypertension around Thanksgiving of last year & prescribed Lisinopril
an archaic, historically inappropriate drug for treating hypertension, especially in patients living with HIV & AIDS; as you see in the link provided, the side effects are detrimental to the patients health and mental stability.
I’m on Diovan
and after seeing the side effects torture Marty, then an allergic reaction that then led to bronchitis, I discontinued it (Yes I get to do that!) stepped up & did some research prior to the visit to the MD to change the medication; one of the first things I found out is that Lisinopril is cheaper than Diovan & insurance companies are pushing Lisinopril on physicians to use it &, they get a nice $$$ kick back for doing so too!-ALLEGEDLY!
We went to the appointment where we were greeted by a female health care professional who did not identify herself as an MD until 5 minutes into the visit and, as I was quizzing her as to the whys & whats, explaining the effects this medication has had on Marty & the effects it has on patients with HIV & AIDS, she proceeds to tell me «Oh, I’m not an HIV & AIDS specialist, I’m just beginning to learn»
Also, another MD walks into the room, attempting to reinforce the importance of the drug as opposed to Diovan; Oh no Mr. MD, even though you have 2 more years of med school than I, no you will not tout you rhetoric with me and, as I explained how I knew the reasons for putting Marty on Diovan, he was shooed out of the room by me and told «Save it for the gullible, we are not!»
That ALL being said in the shortest correlation I’m able to muster, Marty was put on Diovan at a starting baseline dose, had a D3 test done for bone density
(since he was diagnosed with arthritis in both hips with bone spurs-​this at my insistence too!)
His B/​P is normal, after 3 days it dropped, his side affects abated, and his insurance company has no problem paying for it because he is like me on ADAP (AIDS Drug Assistance Program) which is funded via the Ryan White Care act; he took an additional month to completely recover but I put a dent in the fender of this incompetent small group of individuals & let them know I’m watching, waiting for their next mistake, hopefully it will not cost Marty or any other patients their lives.
Really Owen clinic, you are an embarrassment to the medical community let alone the AIDS & HIV community, Dr. Caperna should open his own clinic and provide patient care the way it was intended; sorry if I sound old school, but I am, I received my PA-​C credentials in 1980 when patient care came first, not compromising over patient care, dollars & utilizing a clinic to have MDS who do not even specialize in the course of treatment a clinic provides &, get bells and whistles for doing so along with inept staff with the communication skills of Helen Keller (who I might add would do a better job!)
Owen clinic you &:

Truly the BEST place for HIV care in San Diego!
The docs are all friendly, approachable and no nonsense. They are going to tell you what you need to hear, whether you want to hear it or not.
The phone staff… Dolores (and her cute Jamaican accent) can move the world with 2 phone calls… Sara is ’bout as good… it takes her 3 phone calls to make the world move… just needs a little more time to get to Dolores’s level.
If something comes up and a same-​day appointment is necessary, the folks at Owen will do whatever they can to make it happen.