Carondelet Medical Network

The doctors and assistants are great. Seriously. But …
The office staff are incompetent. Really, where do these people come from?
The referrals folks don’t bother to listen to patient requests (such as geographic location of the referred doc) and they don’t understand the concept of «urgent.» It’s likely that they’ll refer you to a specialist who isn’t on your insurance plan. The front desk people run interference for the referral staff and will not transfer your call to them.
The office offers «same day» appointments, great in theory, awful in practice. They’ll schedule you for a 1:30 pm slot and you won’t see the doctor until an hour or more later, and if you call at 1:00 pm to see if he’s running late, they’ll lie to you and say he’s on time.
You can’t schedule a non-​same-​day appointment without it being almost a month out. So if your condition isn’t urgent, by the time you get in it will have passed.
The practice does have a few positive features, such as an on-​site phlebotomy lab. But given the staff’s indifference and incompetence, you’re better off elsewhere.

I have NEVER talked to a live person when calling this medical office. EVER! Waited 19 minutes today and finally hung up.
Perhaps more insulting, their phone system no longer offers me the option to leave a message, which has been my only available method to communicate with this office since I have been a patient. As a side note, the Carondolet Foundation office picks up on the first ring.
As this problem seems chronic and systemic, I am giving up. This is a problem that Carondelet Medical Group has had for the two years that I have been a patient in their care (and a donor to boot), but I continue to put up with the aggravation, as I do like my doctor.
No more. A perfect example of healthcare gone bad to worse.

The doctors are all great here but!!! No matter what time of a day, you will have to wait 30 minutes on hold to talk to anyone or make an appointment. This is not an exaggeration unfortunately either. Staff appear to be frustrated as well. They indicate they are down to one staff in scheduling referrals instead of two, one for answering phones instead of two. If they could get this fixed this would be a great place to go. Dr. Besettee is particularly helpful. They also will see each others’ patients so you can be assured to getting to see a doctor quickly. HIRE SOME STAFF CARONDOLET, this can’t be nice for the staff either. We all deserve better.
My advice is before using this facility, try it for yourself. Call and see how long you sit on hold.