General Practitioners - Greenbelt, MD

"I’ve scheduled a first time visit with Dr. Restrepo through the Aetna app which somehow took me to the Zocdoc app, everything went through smoothly and looked perfect until the day of the appointment when I’ve called the office because I couldn’t find the location and after being on hold for more than 10 minutes the person on the phone was extremely rude, she kept using a very interesting tone, almost scolding me for coming on a Thursday and using the Zocdoc app. She repeated herself over and over as I wasn’t able to understand what she was saying… probably because I’m not a native English speaker and I do have an accent, which can lead to many other assumptions but I don’t want to get into sensitive topics. So it turns out that Dr. Restrepo is not available Thursdays and Fridays but I was able to scheduled the appointment for a Thursday through the Zocdoc app. The lady on the phone was very clear about the app not having their accurate schedule which is very confusing because they shouldn’t be linked to something that doesn’t work and creates inconveniences to the patients. After the lady was done being rude I asked her if it was possible for me to come up and try to schedule and appointment for the next available day, she said I could but didn’t sound like she was willing to help, I then asked what was the floor and told her for the 3rd time that it was my first time in the building and she said: 12th floor, I asked if I should make a right or a left and she said: “nothing, you’ll see the office there” which wasn’t true because the medical center is actually to the right all the way to the end of the hallway. Once I finally found the suite and got to the front desk two ladies were there, but the lady who I spoke on the phone with wasn’t one of them. I greeted them, they barely responded and once I started explaining why I was there they kind of showed annoyance and rolled their eyes. One of them left, and the one sitting at the desk took her time to help me and find out the available dates for an appointment, she mumbled March 5th and that was the most interaction I had with her. I left. Disappointed and super stressed out because my blood pressure is very high, I ran out of medication and really needed to be seen by a physician. The whole experience was disappointing, frustrating and discouraging, I wasn’t even seen by Dr. Restrepo and honestly I’m not interested in being seeing by her or any of the physicians from Southern Maryland Medical Center, that’s not how a patient should be treated. The health industry should be the one with the highest standards in hospitality, patients are vulnerable and struggling with their health, being sick is a stressful situation so where should we get support, compassion and comfort if not in our health providers?!"