maybe this is common and not only my experience...

[steve2470]

I really like my new psychiatrist. He's very competent, actually spends time with me, tries to understand, reveals himself at times, and actually seeks my opinion about which medications to prescribe (?!!). If you know ANYTHING about psychiatrists, it's that, in my experience, they are kindly authoritarian and darn sure don't seek your input. They dictate and you either take the medication or assert yourself. He's extremely unique in my experience. He seems to genuinely care about me (which should be a given in his profession, but I've seen some fairly callous psychiatrists in my career).

At any rate, leaving him is not an option. However, as with most doctors, you have to get past the office staff to interact or schedule appointments, etc. That has been a ****show from the very beginning. Ok, scheduling the very first appointment was OK, I give them that much credit. However, it's been pretty bad ever since. Two examples: 1- They failed to call me back when I left a message asking them to do so and of course left my phone number, name, etc.; and 2- I had an appointment and when I showed up, I was told I did not. I very gently asserted myself and said oh yes I did. A few hours later, I finally saw him.

When I finally saw him during fiasco #2, I told him how unhappy I was with his office staff. Long story short, he said he had no control over them whatsoever since he was not their boss. I'm assuming he subcontracts with the office and someone else owns the practice ? I don't know, none of my business. I think he did speak to someone about them totally messing up my appointment and the next time I had to interact with his designated person, she was extraordinarily rude to me. I just shut up and took it basically, since I like my doctor so much. My gut feeling is to assert myself with them means, eventually, I have to leave my doctor since he has no control over them.

TL, DR: Great doctor, horrible office staff. You too ?