Roger R Guillemette, MD

 

10

32

flyinglimegreen T.

Brooklyn, NY

4/15/2008

Dr. Guillemette recently treated me for a bout of foot and mouth disease.  Don't confuse it with the ones that goats get...there ain't no hoves on me!  It actually comes from a virus called Coxsackie A.  And if you're a parent you probably already know this itchy, painful, spray of red bump personally or from a friend's kid.  

ANYWAY, so my hubbie and I are fairly new to St. Lou and really hadn't had a reason to find a general doctor until now. I called up the ONLY doctor listed in my health insurance "big book" of doctors they recommend...the first thing I hear is a recording..."You've reached the offices of Dr. A, B, C, D, E,  F and G.  For Dr.s A through C's assistant, please dial XX, for Dr.'s D-Q's assistant..."  I just hung up at that point.  The way I see it, if the practice is THAT big and they still have customer service that's that terrible, they probably don't need my business.

So the next step is I do just a random google search for doctor, reviews, stl, right?  Get back this one doctor who SEEMS promising.  He's close by which is AWESOME.  So I call.  I get a real live person on the line...SCORE!  Turns out the doctor doesn't have any openings until September.  It's April right now.  By that time I could be dead.  No seriously, I don't know what I have at this point.

OK, climbing back out of the melodrama pool.  So.  I'm itching, there's several huge lumps on the side of my neck, I think I'm dying...I'm at my wit's end.  So I email the hubby...and of course, he comes through again and gets a great recommend from one of his coworker's.  

So, I call Dr. Guillemette's office and I get a person.  Ok...then I ask the requisite questions:  Are you accepting new patients? Ok, good. Do you accept this health insurance...Okay, almost there.  Do you have any appts soon?  No?  BUT you can transfer me to your sick patient triage nurse might be able to squeeze me in in TWO DAY?!!  (I was about to reach through a hug the lady).  I thanked her and waited as she connected me to the triage nurse's line.  "You've reached the triage nurse, please leave your name..."  F-me!  A voicemail line?  Fine, so I leave the info the voicemail message requested...who I was, my D.O.B. my symptoms.  

A little disappointed that I didn't get to speak to a human.  But still glad I at least had an appt for two days from now as opposed to 6 months from now.  Whadda you know? 30 mins later, my phone rings...it's the triage nurse...long story short, she gets me in there the next day.  Halleluya!

The office experience was awesome.  Even though they keep these sick patient appointments short,  like 10 mins, that's plenty of time for the doctor to look at my hands and immediately diagnosis me and tell me to stay home till next week because I'm super contagious.  YES!  not going in to work...DARN!  But I feel like crap, that's probably why I can't go in...

Oh, so I keep getting side tracked.  So the breakdown, and why this doctor's practice is so revolutionary...and why other doctor's offices haven't done this too is beyond me:  They divide the appts up between accutely sick people and all the other visits.  And it's perfect b/c the sick visits are scheduled in 10 min increments, so they have a chance to see as many of the sickest patients immediately as possible.  And seriously folks, when have you ever spent more than 10 minutes with the doctor on most visits?  Come on.  That's ample time to talk about the color of your sputum.

WOW, ok this review's gettin' kinda long.  Time to sign off.
Here's the run down:  
Dr. Guillemette, awesome.
His staff and the front desk office, super efficient and super friendly.
The people answering the phones when you call, they're actual people.
Bottom line:  If you're looking for a good doc, here's a pretty good one.

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