Centracare Health

When I moved to Central Minnesota in July 2017, I knew I would have to hurry to get my specialty doctors replaced. I'm 63 & had the misfortune of being contaminated w/hep C virus during my late 20s while in college. But I graduated & had only a Dx of Rheum Arth by that time. I met many doctors who didn't recognize hep C symptoms & had to get the worst of them, cryoglobulinemia, before receiving hep C Dx. I took the 1st experimental treatment available, 8 years after the Dx. The long term infection left me with fibromyalgia but the hep C treatment ended the rheum arth. So I've been seen by neurologists because of the fibromyalgia.

I have a complicated medical history & much pain at the time of appointments. But even though I provided records less than 6 months old from the doctors who knew me well, CentraCare's main use of 15-minute appointments was to badger me to give them access to records going back 45 years, so they can fill up their Epic computer system. They also use Epic to tell clinics throughout MN when a patient is uncooperative or confronts their doctors about aloofness as indicated by lack of considering records that are most recent, including special imaging that could have shown the CC "integrated pain management" clinic that I truly have the stenosing, degenerative disc disease and degenerative arthritis for which I have received steroid injections throughout the last decade. But their Dr Massey wanted to talk to me about "mindfulness" & postured himself as if an expert in psychiatry. He disregarded that I have a psychology degree & That I refuse to use anti-depresssants "to block perception of pain" So I wasn't easy for him. At the third appt, of only 15 minutes (thanks, Obamacare) I told him I wasn't coming back & said, "Good luck with your future, and all that." Now I look in MyChart & see he added a diagnosis that I have "Socially Inappropriate Behavior" This is how the Clinic retaliates against patients who know their doctors are barely qualified to recommend treatments out of other specialties. The clinic also sent a letter telling me that I can't go back to the Integrated Pain Mgmt Clinic (after I already told the doctor I wasn't coming back). Why do they have a need to harass people? The letter was a form letter, suggesting they have need for it often. They filled in the blank with "breakdown of doctor-patient relationship"

Also, my consult with an endocrinologist at CC began with a review of my prescriptions, & the one prescribed by an endocrinologist 6 years ago elicited an eruption from the new doctor. She blurted "That's off label!" As if I should feel panicky about a drug that has worked well for me for 6 years. So I'm not interested in encountering her "professional" style again, either.

I pursued physical therapy in a pool, & the CC physical therapist couldn't make the 1st appointment at the pool, as required by medicare. So all four of the appointments I had, that I was required to make at the same time of the intake at the pool with the Physical Therapist, were appointments that had to be bumped to later dates. But I use a ride service that requires I schedule ahead of time with them. It's horrible to be in pain & stuck in between two entities that have scheduling policies that conflict with each other. So I told that CC specialty I wouldn't be back.

Finally, trying to use their dermatology clinic was also tedious. Their phone system is set so all calls first go into a lengthy recording followed by a 10-second loop of "trance music" probably intended to make patients passive, trance-like. My studies convinced me that the use of certain sounds, if repeated long enough, can relax or agitate or even torture. I haven't been able to find any clinic management contact that might care about the experience of CC patients who are expected to hold up to 5 minutes, listening to 10-second loop cycles of trance sounds. It's even used at their Plaza Pharmacy. When I gave them feedback, I invited them to call themselves sometime & try listening to those sounds for even only a minute. It's very disrespectful to subject callers to that. To be able to select silence while holding would be most respectful. That way, patients can continue doing their own work while holding & only have to listen for a polite human voice asking, "May I help you?" But truly helping doesn't seem high on CC's list of priorities.

Apparently CentraCare pays significantly for their clinics to show at the top of the list of links presented when a person searches for new health care providers in the St Cloud area. But with diligence & creative problem solving, I have found Independent practices in the area & they are not experimenting with sounds, and Mindfulness theory and antidepressants.