The Cold Speculum, or "Turn Your Head and Cough"

Let's share our experiences with doctors in the DC area. Send any reviews to doctorsindc@gmail.com - Thanks! For a thorough resource check out http://www.washingtonian.com/health/topdocs/list.html (List compiled by fellow doctors, however, so lacks the patient perspective.) One more note: this site is hard to search right now. But you could try doing a Google Advanced search on the domain name if you're looking for a specific doctor or area.

Thursday, April 28, 2005

Dr. April Barbour - Internist - 2150 Pennsylvania - good recommendation

Dr. April Barbour, Md, MPH (internist)
Medical Favulty Associates
2150 Pennsylvania Ave, NW
Dr Barbour is a great doctor, when you can get an appointment with her. She really took the time to listen to me and put me at ease regarding a few of my major concerns--she is, although, almost impossible to get an appointment with if you need one on short notice. Her office staff is the worst I have ever experienced and the building itself is depressing.

(recommended by: Emily)

posted by zzzzzoe @ 1:07 PM

1 Comments:

At 3:38 PM, Anonymous Maureen Murphy said...

Dr. April Barbour failed to respond to a letter of complaint about the internal medicine group she heads up at GWU. Letter below:

February 24, 2011

April Barbour
Director
Division of General Internal Medicine
GWU Medical Faculty Associates
2150 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20037

Dear Ms. Barbour

I am writing to complain about my indifferent, rude, and unprofessional treatment today as a “new patient” by the front office staff at GWU Medical Faculty Associates’ Internal Medicine Department. GWU Medical Faculty Associates is my Primary Care Provider under the Optimum Choice Preferred, UnitedHealthcare.

I am suffering from serious hypertension and had a reading of 160 over 110 today (which I related to your staff). I also mentioned I was very concerned about getting medication for my condition.

After a family emergency in January, I rescheduled my “new patient” meeting with GWU for today. Two days ago, I got a voicemail message from your staff confirming the appointment for 2:45 p.m. today. W

hile I had “thought” the appointment was for 8:30 a.m., I assumed there must have been a need to reschedule for later in the day. Why else would they leave me a message to come in at 2:45 p.m?

The voicemail was inaccurate. When I arrived at 2:35 p.m., I was told that my PCP (Dr. Reenivasan – sp? – my “formal” PCP is Dr. Adam Possner, but he is not taking new patients) was not available and the appointment had, in fact been for 8:30 a.m. A staff member said she would tell Dr. Reenivasan that I was there, and also tell her what my blood pressure reading was.

After about 20 minutes, I was told that Dr. Reenivasan could not give me any medication since she did not have my health statistics. I was told that the ‘best option” would be to go to the emergency room to get some medicine to “tide me over.”

This is very frustrating, since I did go to Suburban Hospital’s emergency room and was told to see my PCP. I had the same problem with the CVS Minute Clinic. No one will help me get my medication!


I was then told the earliest I could get in for my next “new patient appointment” was March 17th. I felt very upset, and told them I was concerned for my health and scared of having a stroke. I felt the staff was very indifferent to me. I told them then that I would find a new doctor. The thing that hurt the most about this was that, as I was leaving, the staff at the front desk and further back were snickering among themselves!

I am very upset by this and afraid for my health if I have to almost another month. I am disgusted that I am paying significant premiums every month for health care and am shut out when I desperately need medicine. I am going to find a new PCP and try to find a “paid” clinic to give me some medicine to get my blood pressure down.

I was concerned about your practice when I read the reviews on Yelp (which I am enclosing, with staff difficulties highlighted) and my concerns were, unfortunately, confirmed today.

 

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