Penn Family Medicine

The doctors here are great, however the people who answer the phones and messages, are rude and incompetent. The amount of time I’ve had to wait for referrals, and left messages for my doctor only to never be called back, is ridiculous. They really need to up their customer service game.

Today I had the worst experience at this primary care office. The patient service associate Andrea Williams and the office manager Mayrie Boykin made me feel disrespected and inconvenienced my life greatly. I signed in at the front desk at 3:10 PM for my 3 PM appointment and apologized for running ten minutes late due to traffic. Andrea rudely said I was going to need to re-schedule my appointment (for another day) due to not being on time. I asked to speak with the manager, Mayrie, who spoke to me briefly. Mayrie did not make me feel respected, and she did not make me feel as though my frustration was valid. She rudely told me that "medicine has changed" and that "patients need to arrive thirty minutes prior to new patient appointments in order to fill out a thick batch of registration forms." She went on to say that "if we run a little behind and do not stick to our policy, then it becomes a slippery slope." Where is the compassion? Where is the consideration for the fact that I just spent 45 minutes of my time hustling through Philadelphia traffic to arrive as soon as I possibly could. We are talking about 10 minutes, maximum, here. I would be more understanding if it was, say, 30 minutes. But ten minutes is not enough time, in my opinion, to justify me having to come back another day when I had already taken off of work and spent money, time and effort on the commute. Not once did Mayrie offer a solution to remedy the situation. Not once did she do anything more than offer disingenuous "apologies" and repeat Penn policy. I promptly called the Penn Medicine "guest relations" department, which is the line used for complaints. I placed this call at 3:22 PM (I know this because it is in my cell phone call history). I have yet to be called back by the office person who handles complaints for the University City Family Medicine location. The doctor I was scheduled to see is named Dr. Nahid Farhat. To Dr. Farhat, I beg the question, have you ever been ten minutes late for an appointment? I am certain, in your tenured career, you have (at least once). Did the patient ask you to reschedule? Is that how modern medicine should be practiced? We argue over ten minutes? It is wrong, and frankly, you will hear from me in a personal letter, which will again outline my feelings and frustrations regarding this matter.