Diagnostic Health

As an update, the horrible tech actually performed the test wrong, and the results were useless to my doctor. And the test, which is really expensive by the way, cannot be repeated due to radiation risk. My insurance company and I both were billed anyway, and although I refused to pay, I have since switched radiologists and would strongly discourage anyone from going here.

Save yourself time and trouble & just go to washington radiology associates. I tried this place twice for a tiny little xray because it’s where my doctor sends his referrals. Both times I was told that unless I come in at 8am, I will have to wait over an hour to be seen. I told another doctor about this, he referred me to WRA and I was in & out there in literally 15 – 20 minutes. And it’s on the same block. Don’t bother with this place.

Things didn’t start off well at the onset. I don’t do well with doctor-​related things, and usually need to take a sedative if I’m going through anything even remotely invasive. My doctor set up the appointment for me at this place directly, and when I called Diagnostic Health to ask a bit about the procedure, they fell short on customer service skills and empathy. All I wanted was a description of what I was going to experience, so that I could prepare one way or another. I don’t understand how someone can work in a doctor’s office and be anything but pleasant and soothing and helpful. Really, if the baggers at Harris Teeter can be those things, doctor office staff should really shine in this area.
I sat in the waiting room for almost an hour after my appointment was scheduled to start. I watched the young staff try to deal with all incoming patients, and they seemed short-​staffed and a bit too young to be handling it all. Maybe it was a day when the office manager was off, or maybe they have a completely ineffective office manager.
Once in the room, the technician revealed nothing about what was going to happen. Simply, «lie here.» and that was it. Maybe to him it’s not strange to have some giant machine move around your head… but to me, it is. A little bedside manner would have gone a long way. It doesn’t take much to tell the patient about the procedure either before, or during, or even at the end to explain what to expect next.

Man, I really hate to give a review like this, because the technician who performed my actual procedure was phenomenal, but the front desk staff were some of the rudest, most unprofessional people I have ever encountered. (And I’m usually pretty forgiving because let’s face it, I’ve had some client-​facing jobs in my life and they’re not always fun.)
At my nurse practitioner’s suggestion, I made an appointment for some tests in the hopes of alleviating some potentially serious concerns I was having about my health. I picked this place at random because it was close to my work and covered by my insurance.
They asked me to arrive 15 minutes early to fill out paperwork; I ended up getting there, like, two minutes early because my bus didn’t show up until the driver darn well felt like it. I practically sprinted in the front door, mortified (I’m one of those people who would die of embarrassment before I’d be late for something, I’m a little high strung) and said something like «oh god, I’m late, I’m really sorry» and the receptionist actually looked at the clock and rolled her eyes at me! I also heard the two receptionists snarking the fact that my procedure’s prescription-​thing was written by a nurse and not a doctor; I mean, wtf?
So I filled out the paperwork, sat down, and then when my technician came out to get me, I found out from her that, before one gets this particular procedure, one is supposed to drink approximately four thousand gallons of water. At no point in any of the three phone calls leading up to this appointment had the receptionists mentioned that to me, nor did they mention it to me when I checked in. At first I felt bad because I felt like I should have asked if I needed to do anything beforehand, or googled it, or something, but my technician said it was the front desk’s job to tell me that and seemed pretty put out by the whole thing. Somebody came in and spoke to them about it a few minutes later. The end result, though, was that I had to stay in the waiting room until I had consumed enough water, which caused my appointment to be delayed by over an hour. Fortunately it was my technician’s last appointment of the day and she was incredibly patient and understanding.
It may sound like I’m coming down hard on these folks, but seriously? When your job is dealing with people who are having serious health concerns and who are trying to get tests that might have a pretty hefty bearing on the future of their bodies, and are thus probably feeling emotions ranging from mild anxiety to full-​blown scared-​witless-​ness, it is not acceptable to be snarky, rude, and uninformative.
Now, with all that said, the technician I had was fantastic and if you’ve got it in you to ignore the front desk people (and ASK when you make an appointment if you need to drink water/​not drink water/​not eat/​show up drunk/​sacrifice a small mammal, etc.), I would actually recommend this place for the procedural part of the experience.