I know you’ve had a horrific problem w/ communicating w/ that office. I’m so sorry! I don’t understand why they have that problem. So many of the doctors on our Doctors List have busy practices, but Dr. Hepworth’s ofc seems to be one of the more difficult to communicate with. Perhaps they are understaffed? I vaguely remember someone making a comment to that end. I guess it goes back to the old “squeaky wheel gets the grease” adage, but I understand that even that isn’t very effective.
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Dr. Fraser Henderson is whom my doctor has referred me to for neck instability. I’m on west coast too so its a long haul for me. I have looked into going and haven’t quite got around to it. I do know Dr. Henderson requires you to go for specialized imaging at a specific radiology practice before your appt with him so its likely a couple day stay. He wants the scans done by his people. There are some good U-tube videos Henderson has done.
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Yeah, he missed my last appointment and the only response I’ve had since has been that they’ll look into it. They haven’t rescheduled or even told me why he was a no-show. If I’m relying on him for anything I might be at a dead end.
Do you use the patient portal with Dr Hepworth’s office?
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I just don’t get it. Even though others have had communication problems w/ his office, I don’t think any others have been through what you have. I wish it was a better experience for you. I don’t blame you for being frustrated/angry.
Patient portal, personal email and phone. I’ve never had anyone answer the phone but I have had people call me back. Dr. Hepworth gave me his email address and he’s never responded to any of my emails. I get some response through the portal but usually it’s just putting me off saying we’ll look into it. I’m sure the holidays didn’t help matters but this isn’t the only time I’ve had issues with their office. I’ve even had the people doing my CT scans try to reach Dr. Hepworth’s office to clarify his orders and they could not reach anyone and had no response. I know several others have had great luck with him and I don’t want to discourage new patients but I do feel they should be cautiously optimistic. I know how it is to finally feel like you found the answer to your pain and then have them dismiss you like every other doctor has.
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It has been about a month since Dr. Hepworth missed my appointment. I still have not had a response from his team. I’ve messaged through the portal and left messages at his office. Just ridiculous to not respond to a patient. I doubt I’ll be able to see another specialist without his referral so he is in complete control of my healthcare.
Maybe one of our members who is currently seeing Dr. Hepworth can inquire about the office staff’s poor communication & give us a report. When you do finally get an appointment, I recommend you call his office the before, & if you don’t get a live person, the day of, to confirm that he will be meeting with you. I know someone who recently did that, & it saved a lot of frustration since he did come into the Zoom meeting about 30 min late but at least she knew FOR SURE she was on his schedule.
I was in to see Dr H today and asked about the communication problems. He understands and said they have had a lot of MA turnovers, training a new front desk and lost an NP due to child care which was a big hit. His frustration is palpable and they are doing the best they can with the limited staff. Given this, if anyone is having difficulty, my recommendation is to be persistent and pleasant using the patient portal and phone messaging. At any medical office I have always walked out with paper orders (imaging and prescriptions) just in case, everyone is so busy and we outnumber the providers.
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Thank you for sharing this information. I hope it encourages our members who are frustrated w/ Dr. Hepworth’s ofc. staff or even Dr. H himself.
I’ve been as pleasant as I can be even though I’m obviously very frustrated. Much more pleasant than I am on here 
I haven’t left nasty messages on the phone or in the portal and the response is still the same. The most negative message I sent was just detailing out how 3 of my 4 appointments haven’t gone smoothly. I really don’t know what else I can do other than fly out to Denver and show up at his office.
Isaiah the first time I had a zoom appointment with him I called 4-5 times before the appointment and sent messages. I didn’t have any of the zoom login information. Someone finally got back to me the morning of my appointment. For whatever reason they just don’t respond to me.
Hey Stuuke, I’ve had a difficult time with scheduling and communicating with Dr. Hepworth’s office as well, but unfortunately he’s apparently the only one who can really help with this issue, so we’re stuck with him. When I was in for an appointment last week I was told they had tried to hire a second front desk person, but that fell through and so far they haven’t found a suitable replacement. So, in the meantime I have developed a few strategies that are slowly making interactions less painful.
- I always expect to wait up to an hour past my scheduled appointment before seeing anyone, and simply plan my day accordingly.
- I have started asking that the nurse message my visit reports and other pertinent information directly to me through the portal, as they never show up on their own.
- If any referrals are suggested, or prescriptions written, I request all contact information for the doctor, generic and brand name of the medicine etc, and a time frame in which to expect the referral or prescription to have been sent. Once that time frame has passed, I usually end up calling the referral or pharmacy to initiate what needs to happen. They don’t always have the referral or script, but once I contact the secondary party, they somehow magically find communication lines into Hepworth’s office and make things happen.
- I refuse to leave the office until my next appointment has been scheduled. This has at times meant I’ve ended up standing silently at the front desk for long periods of time until some action is taken. It doesn’t feel great, but I try to be as pleasant as possible while also making sure I’m on the books before leaving. I have never once had the front desk call me back when told they will, or when leaving a voicemail.
I know not all those strategies will work for you since you’re not local. However, I have my next appointment with Dr. H in person on Jan. 16th. If you haven’t gotten through to his office by then, please direct message me with your phone number and I will call you from the office when I’m done with my appointment, and see what I can do to help you get back on their radar. <3
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I messaged Allison directly today. She has always been pretty good in my appointments. I apologized and told her I don’t know what else to do. Jenna said she would get back to me but that was almost three weeks ago.
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@stuuke, the person I mentioned also didn’t have a link for the meeting, & it was 15 minutes prior to the appt. that she got ahold of the front desk person to request the meeting link. Sadly, Zoom only worked for a few min. after Dr. Hepworth started the meeting then his end froze up, & he had to call her to finish the appt. Gotta love modern tech.
If nothing else, this whole mess is teaching you patience. Remember the saying - Good things come to those who wait (patiently…my addition 
). I expect good things for you when this gets ironed out.
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Sounds like some good advice Bearshark and you are an excellent advocate! You know how to get the job done.There is more than one way to skin a cat and you being there in person to assist out of town patient helpful.
I myself had a zoom appt with my neurosurgeon on Friday at UCLA. When I went to check in on the portal, there was no link. Luckily I did get someone on the phone without much wait. The bottom line was doc has had a merry go round of medical assistants and the one that just left forgot to input the appt into the system. There has been some issues past 6 months getting responses and I have had to call several times. My appt rescheduled next week which is no problem at least for now. I do know know he has a permanent MA and have her direct number.
Alot of this is staffing issues, not enough of them, training new ones and then there is always the nasty ones whom just plain shouldn’t be in a customer forward position. There is just too much falling through the cracks and patient care is suffering because of it.
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In the zoom waiting area now. Special thanks to JustBreathe for giving me help along the way. Hoping he shows and I can get the results from my CT scan.
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His zoom was acting up so he called me. He said the CT scan showed a little infection in my sinuses which would explain the thick mucus scabs I’ve been having come out every few days. They’re going to put me on an antibiotics and anti-inflammatory for that. He said they might have to balloon the area and wants me to come out early March. They might see if they can get me scheduled for a catheter venogram to see if there is any blockage further up. He said it looks like my ultrasound on the jugular was done correctly and shows some improvement but that there is still a velocity inconsistency. They also want me to try the blood thinners again until my appointment in March. I wouldn’t say I got any answers but at least we’re working on diagnosing the issue again.
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@stuuke - I’m so glad you finally got through & had an appt. w/ Dr. Hepworth today. That alone must feel like a victory! I’m really sorry to hear you have an infx going but hope the antibiotic kills that thing off quickly. It’s good, too, that you were given a follow-up appt, fairly soon (as opposed to 6 more mos out).
HOORAY for @JustBreathe’s advocacy efforts paying off for you! She is amazing in so many ways (just read her past posts here!!) & has been a great support to many of our members!!!
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Okay… not the dream visit but moving forward no less! The infection is certainly not helping you feel any better, pesky bugs. Having a venogram while you are there would be very helpful diagnostically, hope that comes through. Send a friendly reminder if you have not heard about that by next week, just for giggles
Grateful to hear from you, thank you!
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Well at least you’re in the system again! I hope that the antibiotics work quickly for you 
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