October 2019 by Elise M.
This review is for the care that I have experienced during my third pregnancy at the UW Health OB-GYN Department at West Clinic. I don't feel comfortable identifying my doctor in this review, because although I have certainly had better doctors, I don't think the issues are necessarily her fault. I think the clinic itself is poorly managed. 1. The service at this clinic has declined significantly since I first started having babies in 2015. That's only 4 years, and I was a much more "demanding" patient the first time around (nervous new mom, lol), so if anything, I should be getting by more easily now than I did before. It's not my first rodeo, you see, and I only call or visit for issues that are actually important. It doesn't seem to matter, as nothing is taken seriously by staff. 2. I have had uncomplicated pregnancies. I think if I did have any problems, I would have had poor outcomes due to the piss-poor communication that I have experienced with staff. 3. I had a cold that lasted for 2 weeks. (Pregnancy makes your immune system really weak). I had the worst sore throat of my life and a horrible cough. I tried three times over the course of these two weeks to get an appointment with the clinic. Each time, I was told that they were busy and to go to Urgent Care or the ER "if I wanted to be seen" (but not told to go because it was a true emergency, just because they were too busy to see me, I guess). Well, I ended up calling my PCP, because we have a large co-pay for Urgent Care and the ER. I went to my old-man PCP country doctor at 36 weeks pregnant with a cough that was so bad that it was causing me 6/10 pain in my large pregnant abdomen because my OB/GYN and none of her colleagues could see me for even 15 minutes after I tried three times to make appointments. My PCP prescribed a prescription cough syrup but he also called a pharmacist and checked a bunch of different references to make sure it was safe for pregnancy. He even told me that he wanted to help me, but was not very comfortable treating pregnant patients. Still, he helped me anyway, when my OB-GYN would not. It was a very bad experience. I was always told in prior pregnancies that when you are pregnant, your OB/GYN becomes your PCP. Apparently this was not the case here. 4. I requested a doctor's note to begin maternity leave slightly before my due date due to discomfort and not being able to easily walk around or drive. In my prior pregnancies, this was not an issue. I went out a few days before each time and was given a note the same day. In this case, my request was met with a message from a nurse (RN) in MyChart in which she explained that they would not give me a note to begin leave early since I did not have a "medical reason" to go on leave early. Excuse me? I was so appalled that I did not respond to the message. Instead, I contacted my company's HR and simply requested to begin leave a little early and they said it was fine, no note required. Like, seriously, what's it to the random RN at the doctor's office if I want to begin maternity leave a couple days early? And last time I checked, being too pregnant to walk into work *was* a medical reason to stop working. Such b******** Made me feel like I was dealing with a not-very-smart person on a power trip. 5. I complained about having lots of trouble sleeping and was told by my OB/GYN to take melatonin rather than a Category C medication that has anecdotal data behind its usage. Melatonin may be harmless, but frankly, it's not well-studied and seems to be a less-safe choice than a drug that has been around for a long time and that there exists data; even if the data has not been tested in a clinical trial. This made me think my doctor might be one of those types of people who think as long as something is "natural", then it is also safe. It did not inspire a lot of confidence, frankly. I know most of us are limited by our health insurance regardi
