Last year, while recovering from a terrible car accident and trying to deal with facial nerve damage pain I was sent to pain management at Austin Pain Associates. My first visit with the doctor was great! I felt he was there for me and his "plan" for my treatment sounded real thorough. Not only was he going to address the issues I was dealing with from the car accident, but he also had plans to combat the debilitating migraines I have suffered with for over 15 years. He explained how the offices there all worked together. It is like having a team of doctors working with you. From physical therapy to surgery to follow-up visits...everyone on the "team" communicates and works together so the patient receives the best care possible. I was so excited! On your first visit you meet with the doctor and he paints this beautiful picture of how your treatment will be. He sets you up on a treatment plan to get things rolling. You schedule with any "therapies" he recommends and get your prescriptions. You are asked to sign a contract that states you will only be treated here for any pain and only receive pain meds from here while you are a patient. Fair enough. That makes sense. A few months into becoming an Austin Pain Associates patient I began having severe abdominal pain. When I called to get in to see the doctor he was booked for at least 6 weeks. I asked to speak to a nurse. I was told a nurse would return my call. (I called in on a Friday morning, my call was returned on Monday afternoon.) Over the weekend I was in the ER because the pain was so excruciating. When I finally did receive a call back the nurse told me I would need to come in. I explained how I was told the doctor was booked. She set me up to come in and meet with the PA. At my visit, the PA prescribed me a stronger pain medicine to hold me until I could see the doctor. I went in to see the doctor on my scheduled day. I was told my appointment had been cancelled. The girl at the desk said that one of their schedulers made the mistake of cancelling all my appointments because she misunderstood a notice they had received from my insurance company. I was rescheduled with the doctor another 4 weeks out. In the mean time I had another follow up with the PA. I called on Monday to verify the appointment for Tuesday morning. Again, I had to leave a message to have a scheduler call me back. An hour later the scheduler called. She informed me that my appointment had been moved to today, Monday. I asked why, she asked if I could make it. That was actually better for me because I had another follow up at the hospital that same day. I left work and drove down to the clinic. When I checked in I was told my appointment was for Tuesday. I explained to the girl about that morning’s phone call with the scheduler. After checking with the schedulers no one knew what was going on. They spoke with the PA to see if she could see me since I was there. She could, but not until later that afternoon at 1:00. (It is now 10:30 am) I have another appointment on the north side of town at 2:00 so that will not work. I told them this was the second time they had done this to me. All they could say was, “we don’t know who you spoke with so we don’t know what to tell you.” I told them I will be in at the end of the month to see the doctor for my last appointment and I left. I am still having severe abdominal pain and have had to be hospitalized to keep the pain under control. My primary care physician is doing all he can to get this figured out. At the Austin Pain Associates Pain Management Center they treat all patients like they are drug addicts scamming for narcotics before they treat them for the pain they are suffering from.
I was a patient with a doctor there for 5 months, I received no physical therapy at all, none was even suggested. All they were interested in was how much medication I was prescribed. These doctors were treating me only for the money they received from my monthly visit.
