Southeastern Lung Care

"They are present to process your money in their system. Beyond that, I would not expect many good things, or that they would even care about your health beyond keeping you alive and dependent on their service. If one were suspicious, one might think they have a template set up for income generation and a set protocol to follow that does not include taking time to evaluate any variables that come with individual health plans and treatment, let alone improvement that might result in one no longer needing their care. 1. Changed my appointment two times after making an initial appointment by calling me and informing me when my new appointment would be without asking if I could make those times, as if I did not have to arrange time off from work. Outright argued with me that the doctor was busy and his schedule had changed without asking about my schedule and said, "Well, you have to come in if you want anything." Each appointment location was even farther than the initial 1.2 hrs from my house that the first location was. Finally scheduled a telemedicine appointment after I asked if that were an option. 2. When arriving for an appointment in the office, no one was there to open the office on time. Waited in the hall for 20 minutes past my appointment time before someone came to open the door and let myself and other patients in. No apology, and they still made us wait 10 minutes while they "got things running" in the back before letting any of us sign in. (this was prior to Covid.) 3. After having been handed from one practitioner to another without being informed of the change, the most recent one argued with me that the change in treatment protocol his predecessor had prescribed and that WAS working for me was not working for me, and the change didn't make sense because he had never done that before. There was no examination or tests run to validate his claim it didn't work for me, just his opinion and it was clear he did not care for his predecessor. Research showed his predecessor left for another practice. Perhaps that should have been another sign. 4. Would not respond to calls or emails from my new pharmacy for three months after I changed pharmacies . When I finally called, the nurse told me they (SE Lung Care) had been sending in prescriptions and had even sent one in that morning. Then we checked, and they had been sending them to my old pharmacy, and responding to that pharmacy each time the new one called or emailed. 5. Further they told me to "just go pick up the prescription at the old pharmacy," to which I said, "Unfortunately, I have closed my account with them so that will not be possible. Please have the prescription sent to the new pharmacy." The person on the phone sighed at me as if I were being unreasonable to ask for that. 6. Then on discussing the new pharmacy I was told that the pharmacy name was not what I was telling her, but another company that was famously bought by the current pharmacy chain years ago. I was then told I needed to keep in mind their system had the old name if I were to request things, and maybe my incorrect use of the pharmacy name was the problem. I emphasized that I was looking at the prescription bottle that included both the current pharmacy name and their provider's name on the bottle. I noted that perhaps the major shift in the pharmacy industry from several years ago might be a point with which a healthcare office would need to be more familiar than an individual patient. She told me, "I'm telling you what you need to know for calling in. We can't keep up with all these names." To be fair, my limited perception is that it seems the staff are overworked/underpaid and under pressure to meet unit-processing goals as opposed to customer care and customer satisfaction goals. This comes from their leadership and the behaviors they model. Side note: like nearly all other places one calls for assistance, this one does not include the message, "Your call may be monitored/recorded for quality assurance.""

"The staff there works as a team to give me ongoing support. I can always trust that they'll return my calls, and work efficiently with my insurance. The doctors are rated some of the best in Atlanta, and I agree."

"I'll give 2 stars because I do like Dr. Melby. His staff, however, is made up of people who either do not like to work or do not like humans. I have been waiting for 16 days for a CPAP machine. They told me they would order my sleep study report 16 days ago. Then I got a message, 10 days later, that they needed me to get it. I called the same number I left for their staff and it was faxed to Dr. Melby that same day. Why his staff couldn't manage this, I just don't know. I did sign a HIPAA release at Dr. Melby's office. Secondly, I was told 16 days ago that someone would call me to discuss my health insurance coverages for the CPAP. They scheduled me for a "clinic" to learn how to use the machine. The day of my appointment rolled around and I had to call the office several times in order to get to a live person on the phone. She acted inconvenienced that she had to give me information that SHE promised to call me with when I checked out 16 days ago. And the information, by the way, was that I was going to have to pay $1600 out of pocket. I suppose she just expected me to have $1600 when I went to the clinic appointment-- I'd love to see someone do that to her. At no time, by the way, did she tell me they had not received my sleep study report and, in fact, led me to believe that Dr. Melby had reviewed it and everything was in order. LIES. They did not get the report until *I* intervened 2 days ago. At that time, she told me she would send my order out to a DME company who may have lower prices. So just now I called in to make sure they got it and to let them know I have since acquired a CPAP machine from a relative. The woman I spoke to today said "we know you have your own", which is curious as I literally just picked the machine up today. At no point did I tell anyone in their office they didn't need to do the DME order and here is this woman talking to me like *I* am the problem. Trying to explain my frustrations and asking to speak to a nurse instead was like yelling into a hurricane: pointless. So buyer beware here. Good doctors, incompetent staff. As soon as possible, I'm looking to switch."

"This office is a mess. It took 8 phone calls (kept going direct to voicemail) to get a live person on the phone (Sharon) who told me she was transferring me to her voicemail to leave a message of what I wanted, and my contact info. Her tone is rude and when i asked her why would i leaver her a voicemail when she is on the phone now. She told me she does not have time to deal with it. She stated I can hold but she doubts I want to hold that long. Of course after hearing this i knew customer service is not a priority of this office and I can imagine how other issues would be pushed aside. I informed her that I will not be using there services and she just said "ok" and hung up. Clearly this office cares nothing for the patients, i would NEVER go to office that conducts themselves in this manner. How could I possibly trust them with my health?"