Ocean Medical Family & Urgent Care

After going to this office for 20 years, I am finally fed up. Next time I need care urgently, I will go down the street to Exer or one of the offices on Torrance Blvd. Never here again. Concerned only about making a buck, the front office gals need some heavy duty people skills, and you should only come down here if you have 4 or 5 hours to spare. I guess these folks aren't geared to be your primary doctor, but they were mine for years since I never really had one that I was attached to and they are so conveniently located. Problem is, when you want them to act like your primary, they see dollar signs and try to gouge your insurance company for every dime they can. Lesson learned--find a true primary doctor, don't use this place for that. Ashley is not a people person. She has flat out lied to me more than once about leaving a voice mail that was never left. One time, I sat in their office for an hour waiting (I had an appointment) only to find out when I finally got seen that the doctor wasn't even there and the nurse could not prescribe the medicine I was there for. Could they have told me that when I first arrived instead of making me wait for an hour? Then she tries to tell me she left me a voice mail--I showed her my phone--no voice mail, no missed call. Apparently, when they have a home phone choice and a cell phone choice--they call the one that no one is going to pick up instead of the one that is on the person's body the whole time. The one they know they can leave a voice mail on instead of talking to a human being. Well, our home phone hasn't had an actual phone connected to it in years, so that message (if it was ever left) was never heard. That day, almost 9 months ago, I asked them to please never call that number and to ONLY call my cell phone if they needed to reach me. And again, couldn't they have said something when I was waiting in their flipping waiting room for over an hour? Same girl who checked me in said she was the one that left the voice mail. Wouldn't Ashley say "Hey, what are you doing here, the doctor isn't here today and I left you a voice mail to reschedule". No, just "Have a seat" and wait an hour. They feel that their time is the only time that's important--no one that walks in the door should expect any compassion from the staff for their time or state of health. Fast forward to the present. Today, my dentist calls me to say my doctor wouldn't sign the clearance for me to have a tooth pulled. I called and was again told (by Ashley) that she left me a voice mail yesterday. No, she did not. My dentist left me a voice mail today, there are no other voice mails on my cell, which is the one place they are supposed to be leaving voice mails. If she called my home phone, I would not have gotten a voice mail. But then again, they told me last time this happened that they would not use that number again. Why wouldn't they clear me? They signed an identical form when I had cataract surgery not even a year ago-and this form was far less detailed than the one for the cataract surgery. I'm going to attach the questions here--you be the judge. The doctor would not complete this form without scheduling a physical, taking blood, doing tons of unnecessary tests, and making me sit in his office for 3 hours. Sorry, I don't have three hours to spare. The worst part is, they didn't even tell the dentist--she had to call them again this morning to find out where the fax was. She said they told her "We didn't send the form back since she isn't cleared for this". Well, as you can see from the screen shot, another qualified doctor DID complete this form in record time for me to have my tooth pulled and implant "implanted". Thankfully, not every doctor out there is only in it to make a buck. Dr. Smith is now harassing me, calling my cell phone because I left my honest and true feelings here on Yelp. Maybe he should read the reviews people leave and learn from them instead. Take inventory of his own staff and the way they treat his patients instead of calling the patient and berating them for "yelling" at his condescending, unsympathetic, inept and rude employees. While I can definitely yell, I most certainly did not yell while Ms. Ashley was interrupting every other word I said and dictating how the world is according to Ashley. Never have I met someone as discourteous and impolite in this type of position. In 55 years, I've met several in this type of position and people generally get into this field because they enjoy helping people. Don't expect that here and you won't be disappointed. And yes, Dr. Smith, I am burning a 20 year old bridge. But as Billy Joel said, we didn't start the fire. Your uncaring, belittling, disparaging front office did. You just helped fuel the fire they started instead of putting it out. Good luck to you, and have a good day.