No one at EMA apparently can operate a telephone.
The medical team at EMA is superb, but the Nepo-Baby-In-Charge's management of the administrative side of this medical business is deplorable. Their support staffers seem to have contempt for patients, especially those of us who are former essential workers covered by Medicaid, Medicare and/or L&I (worker's comp). I've been dealing with EMA for nearly two years now and it often seems as if no one below the rank of physician can operate a telephone there. The cause of this collective developmental disability is a mystery, but the bureaucratic disease is real. The office is fully staffed. I know that from firsthand experience because I've been there five times. The parking situation is awesome. The location is stellar and easy to reach. But the front desk is a disaster, Why is answering the phone in 20 rings or less so hard for EMA? Why can't EMA call referral patients to book appointments with them, as promised? No one answers EMA's main number either. Especially around lunch time, which apparently runs from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. there. Good luck booking at EMA via MyChart, as you can with nearly every other MultiCare office or affiliate, because EMA doesn't use it. Why? Apparently, managing physician Kashif Saeed thinks they're so incredibly efficient they don't need it. I've had a wonderful experience with Dr. Wesley San at EMA, who is awesome, but I'm neither healthy enough, persistent enough, intelligent enough nor wealthy enough to navigate my way through the dysfunctional EMA front office team to my superb physician anymore. I know I'm not the only frequent flier at EMA who is sick of this situation. Because its reviews are littered with similar stories, What's the moral of this one? When you create an administrative situation where the only way a patient can get through to their physician is to write a negative review online, guess what you get? You tell me Kashif, because you're reading it. Disrespect breeds disrespect. Look, we don't have a formal caste system in the USA. That means treating Medicaid and L&I patients decently, even if you wouldn't break bread beside us at your country club. Enough is enough. You can do the right thing for the right reason or the right thing for the wrong reason but your team's highhanded treatment of patients is unacceptable, unAmerican and unsustainable.
By Victor