Disappointing Doc at Cardon’s Children’s Hospital
We took Carsten into the ER last night at Cardon’s in Mesa. We had seen the doctor earlier that day regarding an eye infection. His pediatrician thought it was sinusitis and to watch it for changes. We started him on an oral antibiotic. By the afternoon, the swelling had increased and spread to his upper eyelid. I called the office back and they recommended we head over to Cardon’s to have it checked out. When it comes to the eye you can never be too careful.
So we head down after Mark gets off work and check in about 8:00 pm. At 9:30 pm we saw triage. Then about midnight we were called back to the room. About 1:15 we were graced with the presence of the most arrogant and demeaning doctor we have ever met.
Dr. James McKown walked into our room and did not greet us for at least 1 min. At which time he began raising the bed and asked us if we were mom and dad. He never said hello to Carsten. He poked around him a bit and said this is nothing more than bacterial conjunctivitis. I started talking to him about what our pediatrician had said and pointing out the changes. He smirked at me and said that is nothing! While I am speaking to him a page comes over that he has a phone call. He starts walking for the door and I am in mid sentence and he says, “I have a phone call.†I was so pissed! No excuse me, I must take this, or I will be right back. JERK! So on his way out I told him I wanted a different doctor and he said there wasn’t one. I asked specifically about Dr. Mead, who was there when we arrived in our room. His response was, “He is sewing some kids up.†What I heard, and had been hearing, is what a waste of time this has been and he wouldn’t dare waste another doctor’s time on our ridiculous request.
Things got a little heated and we told him that he was rude and Mark even told him he was being and ass! I told him to go take his phone call. When he came back he apologized for our wait and how upset we were. I said that the wait was not why I was upset. I am not happy with his attitude and the way he personally treated us. Things got too much for me and I stepped out of the room. Mark continued speaking with him and I never spoke to the man again.
In addition to his rudeness and horrible attitude he had some fishy inconsistencies. When discussing treatment he said we could to a booster antibiotic shot IF WE WANTED. Mark and I said not to do it if it wasn’t going to help him. Then when we were confronting him about the differences in his diagnosis and our pediatricians he raised his voice and said we MUST GIVE THE SHOT IF WE WANTED TO HELP HIM. (A little different from the first time.) While I was out of the room he discussed other possibilities like running blood tests or doing IV antibiotics but Mark agreed to the booster shot. About 10 minutes later a nurse comes in to discharge him and gives a prescription for eye ointment. After she was done explaining everything I asked about the shot. Her response was the doctor was confused about that. WHAT!!!
Carsten got the shot and was discharged 35 minutes later. I read the discharge diagnosis and it indicated sinusitis, which is funny because he told us it was bacterial conjunctivitis.
Overall the experience was awful! We did not feel that our concern was taken seriously and we did not feel Dr. McKown was courteous or professional. We will never return to Cardon’s Children’s Hospital again.
Dad said,
February 12, 2010 @ 12:07 pm
You should file a formal complaint.
Gma Tucson said,
February 12, 2010 @ 12:09 pm
so sorry you had such a tough experience sweetie. Love you
Orient Coleman said,
February 12, 2010 @ 3:31 pm
Heather,
I work in an administrative position for a couple of hospitals in northern AZ. In my work, I have listened to both compliments and complaints from patients and families concerning their care at our hospitals. Bedside manner is important but usually not life threatening, but the neglect of the reporting the eye infection in the medical record, as well as the not documenting the order for injection is very concerning and not to be taken lightly in an ED physician. I suggest you report this.
In any case, the physician’s manner sounded very unhelpful – especially with regard to the treatment of a child. A fearful child may not report symptoms accurately to avoid interaction with the professional causing them anxiety – this can lead to increased mis-diagnosis for this physician’s patients and should be corrected. Children’s emotional state is a big consideration in healthcare and because of this, training in bedside manner is an important part of a peds physician’s residency training.
I suggest you mail or email your blog story to the hospital’s medical staff services. Also if you are interested to see if the arizona medical board has filed any board actions check out azmd.gov “Doctor Search”.
Glad he is OK today, will be praying! Orient
Heather said,
February 12, 2010 @ 4:22 pm
An update: I spoke to patient relations in the ER Dept and got some good information from her. She is sending on my complaint to the hospital patient relations department. I also submitted a complaint to the contract company that Dr. McKown works for, Progressive Medical Associates.
The most important thing that can come of this is that no other family will be treated the way we were and that this doctor improves his bedside manner and does not change information of diagnosis or treatment course like he did with us.
GG said,
February 14, 2010 @ 10:07 am
Be sure to let us know how this tangled mess works out.
Aunt Dianna said,
February 25, 2010 @ 1:05 pm
Have you heard anything further from the hospital? I’m glad you reported it as that is what I would have suggested. Hospital administrators need to be made aware of situations like this.
Heather said,
February 25, 2010 @ 8:05 pm
I just got a long letter explaining the process for review from the hospital. They indicate that the outcome is confidential, but it sounds like they are taking this serious. If I at least make enough of an impression that he never disrespects another parent the way he did us, I will feel successful!
Heather said,
February 26, 2010 @ 8:03 am
I also just wanted to mention I am equal in complimenting and complaining. We took Camden to an Urgent Care last weekend and received top notch care from Dr. Sidhu there! We were really impressed with her.
MyBannerExperience said,
March 7, 2010 @ 3:13 pm
We had taken our daughter to Cardon’s about 3 weeks ago and experienced a similar wait time. No surprise here and I guess it’s to be expected. Nursing staff were very friendly and helpful. The doctor was just ok…. The biggest observation was the lack of consistency that you pointed out. Tests were ordered but it didn’t appear that anybody was tracking our case, e.g. the doctor’s breathing treatment was ordered. It took 5 minutes and it was complete yet we sat in the room for an hour before I took it upon myself to chase down the doctor in the hallway. It took him literally two minutes to say, ‘yep, it looks good. The nurse will get the discharge papers.’ We arrived at 8:30pm and we left at 1:45am. I know there job isn’t easy but good communication skills go a LONG WAY to reassuring parents. Unfortunately bad PR is the only pressure that seems to change behavior. Lets hope others speak up when there not satisfied. Thanks for the post.