Has anyone switched their GI and then gone back?

I don't like my GI's medical assistant. She is snotty, rude, pushy, acts like she can diagnose me, and she is NOT a nurse.

So today she got a fax about another office wanting my records since I'm thinking of switching. She said, "if you go see another doctor we have a rule that you can't come back to this office." Does that sound right to anyone?

I left my first GI 10 years ago because she insisted that I take pred. I had to go out of town to get another doc.

Now there is another GI in the local office. I tried to make an appointment with him to get a second opinion and was told that I could not return to that office because of my history.

I have also been told that I cannot switch GIs in the group I currently use. To change I have to leave the group.

Limits our choices. Looks like a conspiracy to me!

IAS

Regarding the snotty medical assistant. I can do and have done "snotty" right back.
Sometime they totally "overstep" acceptable boundaries.

One had the nerve to tell me that my "cancer" was slow growing.
BTW, I don't have cancer.

Recently had the same issues with a student dental hygienist who scolded me for a gum problem that I do not have.

You might learn a couple of really "polite but withering" comments that can be used in such circumstances.
Good luck.
IAS

I ran into a situation with my GP, absolute malpractice so decided to switch. However in my area ALL the decent doctors belong to the same humongous practice, must be over 50 docs of all types. They have a rule that your current doctor must agree to "release" you to another doctor in the group or the new doctor can't accept you.

I was very taken aback. Seems extremely un-American to me, but they make the rules. I looked and looked for a decent GP outside the humongo practice and decided there wasn't one I wanted so jumped thru hoops to get the new doctor. Took several weeks of their foot-dragging, making me sign off on various papers, but it got done.

When my DH went in for his yearly to my previous doc the doc said he didn't blame me for switching and was surprised my spouse stayed. Doc blamed office staff for my departure. Not true in the least.

I can understand a practice not wanting to *treat* someone who is being *treated* elsewhere. But getting a consultation should not be a problem. Might have been better to tell your doc you wanted a consultation and even asked for the referral.

Also, you can request a copy of records (sign release to yourself). That is what I do periodically. I have them in case I move, and I can hand-carry to any consultation I choose.

But they can refuse any patient as long as it is not on the basis of class membership protected by federal law.