Inspira Medical Group Neurology Woodbury

I had an appointment today that took me 40 minutes to get to. Not to mention school is in session so I was stuck behind a few buses. I’ve NEVER been to these facilities before as I only deal with Vineland Dr’s so I had NO clue where the office was exactly located and my GPS only brought me to the car lot, the wrong one at that. So I called the office and the receptionist told me where they were and what suite. Not that they were on the 2nd floor. So I’m already looking for which building, called and went inside and looked all around for suite 204 until someone else said it might be on the 2nd floor. Just to go up there and get told I have to reschedule. Mind you NO ONE is in the office waiting, apparently a patient was coming in 10 minutes and the receptionist was extremely rude! She apparently told the Dr that I was supposed to be seeing my situation and I swore I heard “Oh well”. Oh well to an appointment that I waited 4 months to keep, on top of symptoms getting worse and won’t be seen for another 3 months... yea I’m looking else where. I get if you don’t know where you’re going leave earlier, which I did. There should be no excuses as to why that receptionist was so rude and couldn’t tell me this on the phone when I spoke to her. And at least 3 people that worked in the building didn’t even know Neurology was in the same facility because I had to ask where it was. Didn’t even mail me new patient packet so that could’ve been done either and that was one of the excuses as well. Very unprofessional, even the Dr who was there. And a girl sitting at the computer just shaking her head everything I said something with a smirk. I was so upset I cried in the parking lot for 20 minutes before even heading home, that took another 40 minutes.

I like the doctor I see. I find the staff (at most medical facilities) to make the lives of patients more difficult. I’m seeing a specialist who needs my medical records from this office. All other doctors sent my records without question. Here? I get a call back from Ashley (I believe a manager?) saying I need to fax in written consent first. She wasn’t sure whether that was just a note or a form. Since this is a lot of what I’m studying in school, I thought I’d share what HIPAA really states. References may be obtained via HHS.gov/HIPAA.nn“The HIPAA privacy rule permits a health care provider to disclose protected health information about an individual, without the individual’s authorization, to another health care provider for that provider’s treatment of the individual.”nnSee also:nn“A physician may mail or fax a copy of a patient’s medical record to a specialist who intends to treat the patient.”nnLiterally. HHS.gov/HIPPA. ...but since no one at that office can provide me with an email address to email (securely) a written consent, I have to go out of my way tomorrow to find a fax machine and pay to fax in consent that legally, isn’t even needed.nnI mean, honestly the staff should know this and it reads on the #Inspira HIPAA Privacy form, in more or less words, that they reserve the right to revoke every patient privacy right you have regarding your public health anyway... so why make this so hard?nnI should also note that I’m well aware of the fact that this probably isn’t Ashley’s rule and this probably is not the only practice or health care establishment to enforce it. Maybe she/they all have great intentions of protecting PHI. However, it is a great problem when many of our health care workers and providers are misinformed about the HIPAA law (true, not just here, but everywhere) and in general, our PHI is not very protected at all. It is reported and given away without our consent all the time and there are laws allowing it. We should be doing more to change that; not making it harder for patients to go see a doctor. That’s already hard.nn#HIPAAn#Inspiran#InspiraHealthNetworkn#InspiraMedicalNeurology

Very friendly staff