Don't Call Us, We'll Call You: Customer Service Failures at UCSF

Despite being consistently ranked as one of the best hospitals in the nation by U.S. News & World Report and the Leapfrog Group, Bay Area residents often express a different view of the University of California-San Francisco Medical Center. The problem seems to be one of poor customer service. And it's high time the people who run this taxpayer-funded behemoth do something about it!

I became involved in trying to change the culture at UCSF as a result of problems my wife had in obtaining treatment for multiple sclerosis. Sherri is a registered nurse who works for California Pacific Medical Center. Both of us have been patients at CPMC. Sure, CPMC has its faults, but the service and care we have received there rivals any we have experienced. Perhaps our experiences with CPMC caused our expectations of UCSF to be too high.

My wife first attempted to contact the Multiple Sclerosis Center at UCSF in December. She had just fired her neurologist because he wouldn't take her off Avonex, a nasty interferon that had rendered her virtually immobile. She wanted to ask someone at the MS Center a couple of questions before asking her primary physician for a referral. She was met with a recording that informed her that nobody at the center would even speak with her without a referral. She could leave a voicemail. There was no way to "zero out" and speak with a live human being.

Her primary physician referred her to a wonderful, Harvard-educated neurologist who practices at CPMC. Sherri continued to have MS-related relapses, however, and the neurologist suggested that she be seen at the UCSF MS Center. A woman from the center called our home at about 5:20 on a Friday evening, but we were out to dinner. The problem began when Sherri returned her phone call bright and early Monday morning.

The voicemail system was the same one Sherri encountered in December. She left a voicemail Monday that was never returned. She left another early Tuesday morning. Sherri works in a department where it is difficult for her to make and receive personal phone calls. Tuesday was her day off, so I knew if we didn't get the appointment set up then, it would be at least another week until Sherri had a day off on a regular business day. I left a voicemail with that information and complained about the fact that there's no way patients can speak to a live person. Later that same afternoon, I sent an e-mail to the medical director of the department. You can read it and others on the web site. When we finally received a call, the woman began by complaining at length about the content of my voicemail and e-mail rather than just booking the appointment. Sherri told her she didn't want the appointment and hung up on her.

Both of us are all for a single-payer national health insurance program. We can't wait to see Michael Moore's "Sicko" when it comes out later this month. But if publicly-funded health care is going to resemble what's going on at UCSF, well, thanks but no thanks!

Just in the past couple of days, I've found examples of UCSF patients who experienced the same maddening runaround. Amazingly, they remained UCSF patients! Perhaps they had no other options. Sherri has talked to a former UCSF employee who reported that co-workers routinely screamed and swore at patients over the phone. And remember, friends, you're paying for this bad behavior whether you choose to be a patient at UCSF or not because it's a state institution that also gobbles up a fair amount of federal tax dollars in Medicare and research grants.

Health care -- public or private -- doesn't have to be this way. There are steps UCSF can take to make itself more user friendly. If UCSF won't take these steps on its own, then perhaps the California Legislature needs to force the issue.