I am looking for a doctor also , I understand that DrThomas Annulis ,internal medicine is in the Lexington park area and is taking new patients. Can anyone tell me about him ? Recommendations are always good ,or advice to look elseware is also good. tks.
I know that it is getting harder and harder to find a good family doctor. I have been looking for one myself, but I live in Calvert County.
I have been seeing Dr Cafferty in Great Mills, but it is getting harder and harder to deal with the lack of responsible employees in the office. For example; a few weeks ago I had an appointment and when I showed up at his office, there was a note on the door stating that the office would be closed for the week due to personal issues of Dr Cafferty's or something like that. I don't know why they closed and really do not care. The thing is that I realize that these things happen, I would not have had a problem with it had someone done their job. The problem I had was that they didn't bother to call me and tell me that they had cancelled my appointment.
I was furious, so I called and they were in the office. I asked why I had not been notified and the girl on the phone said that her notes state that they tried to contact me but that I did not have an answering service. That is the biggest line of bull I had ever heard. I confronted her with the fact that not only does my home phone through Comcast and my cell phone through verizon wireless have answering service, but that I had caller ID on both phones and neither showed a call from the office. She didn't know what to say except that they didn't need to rescedule me because I already had an appointment for the following week. That was totally beside the point. Do they not get it?
Anyway, I have been looking around and making a few phone calls myself to see what options are out there. I don't see things at Dr Cafferty's office getting any better unless he hires himself a new management team to run that office. That is the only way he will ever fix those problems and the others that they have, start at the top because that is where most of all things start. Then of course it all rolls down from there.
I hate to leave because he is a good doctor, he is someone that I can trust with my life, I just don't want staying to be the cause of it. I have some serious health issues and they are quite involved, so finding another doctor is going to be quite a bit of work. Not just finding one, which I have found two that I am going back and forth about, but then you have to start all over with your history and test to prove you have all the things you tell them you do. They always want to run a ton of test to verify what information you give them, they want to see it for themselves.
I think the important thing for me to remember here is that I need to feel that the doctor spends enough time with me to deal with every issue or question I may have and that I can trust their diagnosis of whatever issue I bring to them.
I have considered going back to a doctor I use to see in Waldorf. He was good and would make sure to resolve all of my issues in one appointment. He wasn't like some doctors who want you to make an appointment for every single thing because they want to charge the insurance company the money for other office visits. I got that in the past and have learned to watch for that. The other option I have is a doctor in Prince Frederick that another doctor recommended to me. This doctor is suppose to have great bedside manner and spend the time needed to treat you and make sure you leave feeling confident in your visit. I hate leaving a doctor's office and wonder what did I accomplish with that visit? I like to leave feeling that everything has been addressed and all my questions were answered to my satisfaction.
Sorry for rambling on, this has just been the main topic in my house for a few weeks now. The other decision that has to be made is whether or not to switch my entire family to the new doctor or to leave them seeing Dr Cafferty. Good luck to all of you that are searching too. I guess the best advice I can give you would be to do plenty of research before you choose one. I know one of the things I hate about a doctor's office is if they don't answer their own phones in person. I hate calling a doctor's office and getting a recording that you have to listen to all the way through before you can select what you need and then you end up with an answering machine anyway. I look at it this way, if I am calling you then I have something I want to deal with right now otherwise, I would wait for you to call me. If I have to call a doctor's office then it should be obvious that I need something now. I would rather them answer the phone and ask if you want to hold or can they call you back so that you feel you have some options.
