GBMC at Owings Mills - Family and Internal Medicine Physicians

Reviews 3

SI

Sierra Bertucci

I have been going there for a little while. I was seeing Dr. Ferentz and I liked him as a doctor but the staff are rude and are incompetent. To get through on the phone requires long waits on hold or calling multiple times. It took me 3 months to get my son in for his new patient appointment and to get caught up on vaccines and a wellness checkup. The appointment I had set up for my son last month was at 2:30pm, or so they had told me. I put it in my calendar on my phone while on the phone with them. When I showed up a few minutes past 2:30 because there was an accident in finksburg where I was coming from and I tried calling them to let them know, they of course didnt answer the phone. They told me they wouldnt see him because the appointment was at 2pm. Not! I had a few days prior talked to a doctor in the office, Dr. Carter, who said they would always make time to see a sick child, which my son had been in and out of the urgent care 3 times that week due to a severe ear infection and croup. Yet the ladies at the front refused to let me speak with the doctor or to see my son. So I set up another appointment and took him just this past Tuesday. (two days ago) He was given three vaccines. One in the front of his thigh and two in THE BACKS OF HIS THIGHS! I thought this was odd but I didnt say anything at the moment due to the fact that I am not a medical professional and I wanted to get another opinion before I said anything. The nurse proceeded to give my son the first in the back of the thigh, then went to give the second in his other back thigh. She then made him a pin cushion because she couldnt get the last bit of the vaccine into him, even though my best friend and myself were both holding my not yet two son down on the table along with the nurse. She stabbed him a total of 5 times and there is even a track mark where she drug the needle across his skin between making him a human pin cushion. My son was screamin, much worse than he ever had with any other vaccines, screaming ouch and telling us to please stop. She was dragging it out so long I almost took the needle myself and said enough, youre done, you clearly were not trained to do this. To top it off, after this lovely torture we still had to give him one more in the front of his leg. Last night he ended up in the ER because the sight around the front thigh vaccine had a spreading red mark that was hot to the touch, swollen, hard, and tender. Out of the 3 nurses and the doctor who examined him all said the same thing, in all their careers they have never heard nor seen any nurse give vaccines in the back of the thigh, it isnt even taught in school. Vaccines need to go into the muscle which is why they go in the front, not in the back of the leg where it is almost impossible to reach the muscle and there are much more nerves and sensitive skin to destroy. The ER doctor suggested to never ever let that nurse touch my son again. I am EXTREMELY dissapointed and enraged with this office. I will NEVER EVER bring my child nor myself back there. If you dont want your child to be unnecessarily tortured, Id look into another office. Horribly dissapointed and I hope no one else has the unfortunate experience of their child being torture by an untrained nurse and the doctors that allow this to happen.

JE

Jean Jones

I first contacted this group around the second week of December via their online portal to become a new patient. Two weeks went by and I never heard from anyone. So I called the office to make the appointment. The young lady that answered the phone sounded like she did not want to be there at all. So She scheduled me an appointment for today 3/9/2017. At that time everything was okay. So I received a reminder call 2 days prior to my appointment stating to bring insurance cards, photo ID and new patient forms. When I made the appointment the young lady never said anything about the new patient forms or whether I would be mailed the forms. I went back on the website and found the icon that said new patient forms, printed the forms and filled them out to take with me to the appointment today. My appointment was for 7:30 a.m. today I arrived around 7:20 a.m. Once in the office there was a patient that was being checked in but I did not see a sign in sheet at all. I went and sat down and as soon as I did that, the woman at the front desk said do you have an appointment you need to sign in. I then took a seat and waited to be called to the front desk to be checked in. Once at the desk, the woman asked for my insurance cards, photo ID and new patient forms. She looked at my card and stated that because it was Bluechoice Open Access, Dr. Volkovs name had to be listed on my card in order for me to be seen. She tried to call Bluechoice, but of course they are closed that time of morning. I explained to her that BlueChoice Open Access is not pcp driven, I do not need referrals. So as she turned around, I am assuming the Office Manager was coming in and she took my card and asked her if I could be seen and she said no. I would need to call Bluechoice and have my pcp changed to Dr. Volkov, but they could reschedule me. At this point, I stated no need to reschedule, I will not be returning. This was not a good experience, especially coming in as a new patient. I have worked in the medical field for over 30 years, verifying insurances, requesting referrals, verifying benefits, etc. I have worked for Carefirst BCBS, UHC and Cigna. I am currently working as an Administrative Assistant for a Retina/Vitreous surgeon. I do know a lot about how insurances work and with Bluechoice Open Access the primary care doesnt have to be on the insurance card for the patient to be seen. The staff at the Owings Mills location need a refresher course on insurances and especially the Open Access plans. In my office we verify a patients insurance 3- 5 days prior to their visit, so that nothing like this will happen. It was inappropriate and will not be referring anyone to this group. As a follow-up to this review, I did call Bluechoice myself and spoke to a representative, who stated that they open at 7:00 a.m. so if the front desk person had said representative then one would have came on the line. She also said that GBMC probably wants their physicians name on the card, out of fear of not getting paid. So in other words, they are more worried about the money than seeing patients and keeping them healthy. Jean Jones Administrative Assistant

JA

Janelle King

I have had a multitude of problems w/ Dr. Ferentzs office. From his staff to other Dr.s in his office, such as Dr. Carter. I was called to my two year olds day care to pick him up because he was ill. On my way to the day care, I called his doctors office; Dr. Ferentz. I speak to one of his staff members in the office on the third floor. We verify my sons information and make me aware that Dr. Ferentz is booked for today, but she will check Dr. carters schedule. She says he has a 6:45pm slot available. I told her that would be fine. When I arrive at 6:45pm, sick child in arms, I was told that my son had no appointment. There was only one staff member there. She suggested that I take my son to urgent care. This is by far not the only incident of incompetence I have faced with Dr. Ferentz, Dr. Carter, and his staff. If anyone else has any other incidents I urge you to file a report, as I will to the Maryland Medical Board, as well as the GBMC anonymous hotline.