Komprehensive Primary Care

I was new to the area and found Dr. Michael Ward’s office, Komprehensive Primary Care, through my insurance provider. A general practitioner and a sports medicine specialist — two things that were important to me when finding a new doctor. The office was conveniently located, had great office hours (open two Saturdays a month), and squeezed me in when I had an injury, but no previously scheduled appointment. Sounds like a great practice, right? On my first visit appointments were running two hours behind. The reception staff did nothing to notify me of the delay. So I sat in the waiting room for over an hour. Then I was moved to an exam room where I sat for another 45-​minutes waiting for Dr. Ward. He was very engaging, great attitude, asked lots of important questions I think doctors should ask new patients. I got a full physical, blood workup, etc, something that my previous general practice doctor hadn’t done in almost 10 years! I was asked for a urine sample — I was instructed to use the washroom, and «Just leave the container on the counter.» Not terrible, except when I walked into the restroom there were at least five other containers of urine on the counter. Ewww! One would hope that specimens would be collected in a timely manner when left in a common area like the patient washroom — that can’t be sanitary! Anyways, I let the wait time slide, chalking it up to a very nice doctor trying to squeeze in all the patients that needed to see him into one day of office hours. I informed Dr. Ward that I was there for vaccinations I needed for travel in January. He said they did not have these vaccines on hand, but they would order them and I could come back in two weeks to get my first round of shots. Fast forward two weeks later. I injure myself and wind up at Dr. Ward’s office with a bad muscle sprain. I again waited almost two hours before getting to see Dr. Ward. He was thorough, sent me for X-​rays, and I was out the door with prescriptions, specific instructions, stretching exercises to help me recover (which the receptionist forgot on the copier — I had to drive back to get them). Again, great doctor, but awful time management and attention to detail by staff — things a patient doesn’t want to deal with especially when in a lot of pain. I ask the receptionist and nurse during check out if my vaccines arrived. Nope. I call back two weeks later. Still no sign of my vaccines. I called later in the week, no one returned my message. I walked in last week during business hours, now six weeks after my initial visit, still no vaccines. The nurse said, «Well, you know you can go to Wal-​Mart or Walgreens and get these right?» I said, «My insurance will not cover vaccinations through Wal-​Mart or Walgreens. The out-​of-​pocket cost is over $ 200 per round of shots, and I need three rounds of shots. That’s why I came here, and keep following up with your office. $ 10 copay versus $ 600 out-​of-​pocket.» The nurse promised to call the distributor first thing Monday (yesterday) and find out what’s going on with the vaccines they supposedly ordered six weeks ago, and she would give me a call. I asked if she would like me to write down my contact information, she said «Well, you’ve been on my call back list forever now, so I have your information (!!!). If the distributor doesn’t know what’s going on with the delivery of the vaccines we can refer you to another doctor’s office that has the vaccines.» Um… couldn’t we have done that four weeks ago when the vaccines weren’t delivered? I called today (Tuesday) and asked to speak with a nurse. Sophia, the receptionist, told me that all nurses were with patients at the moment, could she help me with anything? When I said I was following up about the vaccine situation she said «Has a nurse called you back yet?» I said, «No, that’s why I am calling.» Sophia says «Well she hasn’t called you back because she hasn’t heard anything.» Wow… rude. So the window of time for getting vaccines before I travel is closing. Looks like I’ll have better luck finding a new doctor than getting the vaccines I requested through Komprehensive Primary Care six weeks ago.