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Review 12/8/2009
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Have you ever walked into a place of business and immediately felt uncomfortable? That's how I felt when I walked into Perfect Teeth in Cottonwood Park this afternoon for my appointment with Dr. Henry Espinosa. I should have trusted my instincts and walked back out right then.
The front area was cramped, not welcoming, and as I stood at the front counter, no one even acknowledged my presence for several minutes. When I was noticed, I was asked to sign in. The information requested on the sign in sheet included my name, address, telephone number and how I planned to pay for today's visit, and if I had dental insurance. That may not seem unusual, until you understand that all of that information was on a sheet with multiple sign in labels and was available for anyone who signed in after me to read. There were probably 10 to 15 labels on a sheet. Privacy did not appear to be their first concern.
When the office staff finally realized I was a new patient, they did not welcome me to their practice, and politely ask me to provide some information about myself, they grabbed a clip board, hurriedly snapped on 3 sheets of paper, thrust it at me and told me I'd need to fill out these forms before I could be seen. Courtesy was not their first concern either.
One sheet of paper work was pretty standard, the other sheets let me know they might disclose personal information to a third party who would not follow HIPPA rules for disclosure and that Perfect Teeth was in no way responsible. However, they still wanted me to provide my name, address, telephone number, social security number, date of birth and next of kin. The next sheet asked questions about obtaining payment for their services and after answering the same question, asked several different ways, I felt like I was applying for a mortgage.
As I turned in the forms, filled out with as much information as I had with me, the office assistant informed me I had to have all the information filled in and began highlighting in yellow the offending areas I had left blank. When I explained I did have dental insurance, but no card issued by Delta Dental, I received a patronizing smile and the question, "You don't have a card?" I answered "no" again, and suggested they could perhaps call my regular dentist, to obtain further information because his office had somehow managed to see me, get paid, and deal with my insurance with exactly the same information I had provided to this office. They didn't bother to refuse to call; they just ignored that part of our conversation. As I was being questioned for the third time about the same information, I decided either they were unable, unwilling, too busy, or too inexperienced to work with the same information I had provided my regular dentist, and perhaps this was not the periodontist for me.
I left. I'd recommend you not go in the first place. I have no idea how competent or professional Dr. Espinosa may be, but the lack of professionalism of the front office staff was enough to make me not want to risk finding out.
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