Is Professional Medical Decorum A Thing of the Past Now?

Warning: This is a long, very detailed description of my visit at Wal-Mart's "Care" Clinic. Keep in mind that I am only one person and this was my experience at only one of their locations.

Quite recently, and for the first time, I visited a clinic located within a Super Wal-Mart. I suppose some people would ask what other sort of treatment or experience I expected going to a doctor whose practice was setup in a Wal-Mart, but all I can say in response is it definitely wasn't my first choice to go there since I was dependent on medical expertise, but it was the most convenient at the time. First of all, nothing was broken, bleeding, and I could walk and talk. I didn't think I needed to go to the emergency room at the hospital, but my first choice was to visit an Urgent Care center in the area where I lived. The problem was, by the time I was going to make the visit, even Urgent Care was closed for the evening. And anyone who's ever had to sit in an ER waiting room at a hospital knows that they could be waiting anywhere from six hours to eleven hours to be seen even if the waiting room is practically empty and they need stitches for a bleeding wound (been there, done that). Not only that, but even if you don't see a doctor in an emergency room you could still be charged for taking up space in a chair in a waiting room for close to two hours—that's happened to me before. I was charged well over a hundred dollars for sitting in a waiting room in early 2006 in Columbia, SC and I was never even seen by a doctor. I couldn't breathe very well (not that they cared) and I was in excruciating pain, but after I sat there for about an hour and a half, I thought the best course of action I could take was going somewhere else. But since I'd filled out forms upon arrival at that particular hospital, I was charged…for the use of their ink when I filled out their documents, I suppose. That was some very expensive ink. Since then, I have to be damn near dead before I set foot in an emergency room. Going to the doctor the next day wasn't an option, and then someone suggested that I go to the clinic in Wal-Mart. I'd never even paid attention to the fact that Wal-Mart even had a clinic before. I was told the visit would be about $40, and that sounded good to me since I didn't require any major examination, I just wanted to tell the doctor my symptoms, have them take a listen with their stethoscope, and then let him or her either give me a prescription or tell me I needed to go to the ER. It was never my intention to make this person my primary care physician, I just needed to see someone quickly because I was miserable and there wasn't really any other option.

The wait was short up front, and the wait in the back was short as well, but I always take a book with me. Always. Magazines are cool and all in the waiting area sometimes, but I don't trust that they always have any interesting ones that I like to read. When the doctor first walked into the room in the back, she looked at me, looked at my book of choice, and already I got a sense of being judged. It was Blood and Chocolate by Annette Curtis Klaus, a book I've already read before, but I was reading it again; I didn't think anything of it. Usually doctors see that I have a book with me and sometimes they comment on it, sometimes they don't. At the medical center I used to go to in my hometown I've had nurses and doctors comment on what I was reading, and sometimes if I was cool with a nurse she borrowed my book. I know you're reading this and wondering what it has to do with anything, especially my medical visit, but what I'm saying is this woman came through the door, and with one look I felt like I was in high school again, I kid you not. Like I was a nobody, she was with the popular clique, and I was stepping in on her territory where she was queen and she didn't want me there. Does that sound overdramatic and childish? I know it does, but that's how I felt sitting there when she walked in. I'm in my thirties, I've seen many different doctors and nurse practitioners—male and female—over the course of my life, and I've never had any of them act like that even coming through the door of the room where I've been waiting for them to arrive. A doctor will say hello and put on a friendly face even when you can tell they're not in the mood. It's easy to surmise that a doctor is doing this so that you feel comfortable; after all, you're the patient and you're in a vulnerable position putting yourself in their care. I like something that Edie Falco's character said on Nurse Jackie, that the people who are coming to the hospital seeking their services are usually having the worst days of their lives and it's up to them to make it bearable, (or it was something along those lines) and that's very true. A doctor should know by looking at the patient's info before they walk into the room with them whether it's just a routine checkup, a physical, or if the person probably feels like shit in some way. Why would any medical professional make it worse for a patient? Well, that's exactly what the doctor did to me. However, I thought, maybe it's just me; maybe there's something about me that rubbed her the wrong way. I always do that. I want to try to give the person the benefit of the doubt before I immediately jump to conclusions. Then I thought, I am in here rather late (it was around six in the evening, or thereabouts) and she's had a long day, possibly a bad one. Also, I'd taken a good bit of cough medicine and maybe the attitude that I sense from her is all in my head—that's what I thought for a few seconds, at least.

It didn't take long for me to realize that what was happening was NOT all in my head. I'd had no idea what I was about to deal with, but I soon found out.

I'm the patient, and as far as divulging why I was there, it's not a real problem. I caught the flu a few weeks ago, but after my flu symptoms passed, I was still coughing. In fact, I'm still coughing. From today, nearly four weeks after having had the flu, I'm still coughing. It's just that last week it got particularly bad and that's when I decided to go to the doctor. I can admit that I hate going to the doctor, but when I have to go, I suck it up and make the trip.

She asked me the standard questions: When did my symptoms start and what medicines was I taking? They were very easy questions to answer. My symptoms started around late February (like the last two days of that month) when I caught the flu, and even though I got over the flu, my coughing persisted. (The only medicine I was taking was over the counter Tussin and sucking on cough drops. I don't take expensive cough medicines because they never work for me. Every single time I've bought five or six dollar over the counter meds for a cold or cough they never work; the cheap kind always works better for me, and I don't understand why, but I'm not complaining. Obviously, I didn't mention the part about why I take Tussin to her, that's just in this hub that I'm telling you, but even with the straightforward explanation I gave her, it seemed to piss her off in some way.)

For some reason, she got confused over the timeline I gave her, and I still don't understand how or why that happened except that either she was slow or she just wasn’t really paying attention to what I was saying. Or maybe she was simply looking for a reason to be difficult, and with her attitude, I wouldn't put it past her.

Aside from the way she came into the room, she came up with a big discrepancy as far as when my symptoms began to occur. After I told her when my symptoms began, I explained to her that I've had a very persistent cough for the past two weeks. She gave me a really cold look, and then said, "Okay, I thought you said three weeks." I then backtracked over what I'd already said and told her, "I caught the flu a little over three weeks ago. After my flu symptoms passed, my coughing continued." I should tell you that during this explanation, this woman was rolling her eyes at me, pausing, and giving me looks as if I was stupidest person she'd ever talked to in her life. I had to backtrack yet again, and tell her that I caught the flu at the end of February (she looked at me then as if I was lying to her, and I didn't quite understand that one) and I've been coughing since then. I also coughed a few times during the ongoing explanation that seemed never ending. (She was starting to confuse me, and I knew what had happened.) Somehow, around the third or fourth time that I was going over this timeline, I mentioned that this was the second time I had the flu over the course of about a six-week period. She actually cocked her head to the side and gave me the most dubious look I have ever been given by anyone since I was a teenager and they knew I was lying about something. I will say that around this time, I seriously just wanted to walk out of the room and say screw it, her attitude is not worth this, but for whatever reason, I stayed. Oh yes, right, I mostly stayed because I trekked out of the house in the pouring rain to see her because I'd been coughing for about 3 weeks straight, as well as a whole two weeks after I had the flu and those flu symptoms disappeared (see how I added that part on for clarification so you wouldn't get confused? You like that, right?).

Let's get this VERY CLEAR: Back in early January, I caught the flu from someone I live with. They came home coughing and they said they thought it was allergies or a cold, but I said it didn’t seem like that to me, and they went to the doctor. As it turned out, they had severe flu with something else (I can't recall what the other thing was they had), and about a day later, I came down with their symptoms. Allergies aren't contagious; however, the flu virus is. If I live in close quarters with someone, breathing the same air that they do, and a doctor checks them out and tells them they have the flu, and I happen to have the same symptoms they do, I think it's wise to conclude that I have the flu as well. I had the flu over a three or four day period in January. I took some Mucinex and Tylenol Cold & Flu, and I felt better in most ways (the coughing stopped, my nose was no longer runny, and my fever was gone), but my nasal passages were killing me. Then I popped one Excedrin for the pain, and bam, after about an hour or two, I felt more like my old self again. Then I read on the bottle and realized that I'd probably developed sinusitis after having caught the flu, which was why my face felt like it was going to swell up and fall off completely. Then I caught what I like to call the "bionic flu" at the end of February. Everybody that I am in close contact with daily went to the doctor and got a flu diagnosis. I'm talking about two people here. Two people that I see every single day were told they had the flu—in late February. And it wasn't only them. Other people they were around (on a daily basis as well) had gone to the doctor and were told they couldn't go to work because they had the flu. Mind you, most people that work and go to school mainly go to the doctor for written excuses they need and prescriptions if their symptoms are bad enough. If you're not going to work, the medicines are all there, and those around you have the flu and they're taking the same medicine—why would you go to the doctor? Most doctors will simply confirm the diagnosis and tell you to ride it out. My thirteen year old niece went, had it confirmed, and her doctor told her lots of people have it, take over the counter meds, and she should feel better within a few days. I'm not going to go sit in a waiting room for hours then pay a doctor to tell me the same thing when two different doctors just told two different people that live under the same roof as me that they have the flu and they should be okay soon. There's no point making an appointment, because by the time they see you, you'll more than likely be okay (I don't know one doctor that will be able to fit you in with an appointment within a day or two after calling; four days to a week later, maybe, but not one or two). The only choice is to go in as a walk-in most of the time and that takes forever, and forever feels longer when you have the flu, and I know that from experience. Therefore, I didn't go to the doctor either time for a diagnosis. The second time I came down with the flu, I wasn't just coughing with a runny nose and fever, but on top of all that, I had nausea and vomiting as well. After I had the flu over the course of the first week of March, I downed some Maximum Strength Mucinex Fast Max Nighttime and that is the best over the counter flu medicine I think I have ever taken in my entire life. Within a twenty-four hour period, my flu was gone, but the coughing remained. For days, I didn't worry about the coughing and figured after a week it would let up, or stop altogether (which was what happened to me in early 2013 when I had the flu and a terrible cough). A week passed by, still coughing. It didn't get worse, but it was beginning to get annoying. By the morning of March 19, 2015, I woke up and not only was I coughing almost nonstop, but I could barely breathe. Let's just cut out mentioning February altogether, and let's just say from the first day of March until that Thursday I hadn't stopped coughing. I no longer had a fever or nausea, wasn't throwing up or anything of the sort—that had ended days ago, around the sixth or seventh of March—just the cough. But the cough sounded funny. In fact, the cough sounded terrible. This was why I made up my mind to finally go to a doctor by then. Not for the flu, obviously, but just to see what was up with all the coughing.

Was any of that hard to understand? Did anything I type seem crazy or unbelievable? Because if it was, I would like for someone to let me know. I can even explain it shorter.

At the beginning of January, someone I live with came down with severe flu and was diagnosed by a doctor. A day later, I came down with their symptoms. In 3 days, I got over the flu. And yes, I'm sure it was the flu. At the end of February, more than one person in my household came down with the flu, and I came down with their symptoms. It took about a week that second time, but eventually the flu symptoms passed, and all that was left behind was a persistent cough. For two weeks, I was coughing nonstop, but with none of the flu symptoms I'd had previously.

I mean, I doubt any medical professionals are going to read this, but I would think that what I said was pretty straightforward. A ten year old could have probably understood what I just typed with no problem, yet with that medical "professional" I had to repeat that so many times I got tired of talking.

During all of this, not only was she rolling her eyes (and no, it was not a condition, she had a major attitude problem), she would sigh and look up at the ceiling, she was smirking, she was shaking her head as if she just couldn't believe such a fool had come in her presence and uttered sentences.

All I thought was, "Am I in the Twilight Zone here?"

Yes, I know what some people will say: You can't get the flu twice within a few weeks time. That once you've had the flu once in one season, that's it, you won't get it a second time. That's the same thing they say about chicken pox—that once you've had chicken pox you're immune to the virus—yet I know people that had the chicken pox twice in their lifetimes. And no, I'm not talking about the Shingles virus that they say you get if you've had the chicken pox once, I'm talking about getting the chicken pox all over again. Things like that do happen to some (weird) people, and just because I had the flu once, doesn't mean I definitely didn't have it again.

After that ordeal, we moved on to what medicines I was taking. This was almost worse than trying to explain the illness/coughing timeline.

She'd asked me what medicines I'd been taking. I told her Tussin. She did NOT ask me what medicines I'd taken at the beginning of the month; she'd asked me what medicines I was taking at the time. For the past two weeks, mostly the only medicines I'd been taking was Tussin; although at one point I'd taken one of my sister's Tamiflu pills less than a week before the nineteenth just to see if it would help with the cough since nothing else had and I knew I'd had the flu. Nope, the Tamiflu hadn't worked. Did I think the Tamiflu was even relevant at that point of her question? No. At first, I hadn't even remembered taking the Tamiflu, but then I mentioned it and she rolled her eyes again. (I was hoping her eyes would roll out of her head by then.) Then she did a big dramatic sigh and asked, "I asked you what you were taking, and all you said was Tussin." My retort? I said, "I said, aside from the Tamiflu, Tussin was all I've been taking for the past two weeks." She sighed very heavily because that timeline thing was a bug in her ass, and I still don't understand what bothered or confused her so much about it. By then, I did my own sigh and shook my head as well. She'd already pissed me off, and by that time, I couldn’t believe this woman had a PhD in anything, and even less that they allowed her to work with the public in such an intimate capacity. If you're at a certain age in your life, you've answered certain medical questions so much that you understand why, but I didn't figure out what one of her MAJOR problems was until I got home, because it hadn't crossed my mind then that the twit she STILL DID NOT BELIEVE I HAD EVER HAD THE FLU. I'm a grown woman; I've gone to the doctor many times as an adult, and twice during my adult life with the flu. I know what having the flu feels like. I had the fucking flu. There was/is no reason for me to lie about that. There is no reason to believe that if everyone I was around was diagnosed with the flu by a doctor and I came down with the same symptoms they had AFTER they caught it, that I would somehow be immune to it. So I told her all the meds I'd taken since the onset of my symptoms and because I didn't go for a separate diagnosis than everybody else that had the flu, in her eyes, I had no flu, it was only allergies and I'm too stupid to realize that.

In the end, that's what she prescribed: Allergy meds. Claritin D and then something called Bronkaid for asthma symptoms. And guess what, I'm still coughing. The month is almost over, and I AM STILL COUGHING. If this really is an allergy, it's the most aggressive allergy I've ever experienced in my life especially since it does not respond to ANY allergy medicine available. I've never coughed this much or this long in my life. Soon, I am sure I will cough my lungs up. But other than that I feel fine.

Back to this doctor. Aside from walking through the door being rude, the rolling of her eyes as I explained my symptoms to her, and how sarcastic she was in her tone at times, she was condescending when she spoke to me; every single thing coming out of the my mouth seemed to bother her and she found something wrong with everything said. Let's also not forget she never believed a word coming out of my mouth which was really odd. She asked me if I'd had a headache about three times during my visit. THREE TIMES. I couldn’t figure out if she was really stupid and couldn't get it through her head that I hadn't had a headache or if she was just an a-hole. Same for the part about me not realizing she thought I was lying until later, it wasn't until I got home that she was probably asking me at various intervals about having a headache to see if my story would change and she could catch me in a lie to confirm her diagnosis of sinuses/allergies. I've dealt with seasonal allergies since I was a teenager given that I've lived in SC since I was born. A headache typically goes hand-in-hand with allergies, as well as itchy throat, runny nose and sneezing. I've always either used Allegra or Claritin when my allergies got too bad. I've been doing that for about thirteen or fourteen years at this point. She kept repeating that she's seen many people with the same symptoms I have (the persistent dry cough) and it's just allergies. When she came over to me to examine me (to look in my ears, nose and down my throat as well as to check and see if my lymph nodes were swollen and check my breathing with the stethoscope) I'll admit that I didn't even want her touch me at that point. Would you want someone who's been acting that way toward you to touch you? I don't care what their written credentials are. Anyway, once she checked those areas she commented, "Well, I don’t doubt you've been coughing for a while since your throat and ears are very red." She said this as if she hadn't truly believed I'd been coughing as long as I said I had been. What a lovely warmth instilling woman she was…

I took any meds with me that I thought mattered. A few years ago when I was having these same symptoms I was prescribed an inhaler. During that time I'd had a chest x-ray done at the hospital in the same city and the doctor showed me how my lungs looked at the time (it looked like a kid had stuffed them with little cotton balls here and there; a little funny and "cloudy"), and since I felt similar to the way I had then I brought in the meds that doc had prescribed to me. I did mention that this took place a few years ago, right? Obviously, they'll be expired. She didn't seem to understand the purpose of me bringing them in, and in her very small pea-sized brain, she deduced that the container was still filled with some of the Albuterol and I was still using it. The inhaler had been empty years ago; I was only bringing it to show that—and I feel a need to repeat this—when I had the similar feeling in my chest, this is what that doctor gave me. She not only rolled her eyes, she frowned at me at this point, shook her head incredulously, and went back to typing up something on her computer. She did a lot of typing on that computer. Doctors, I will tell you this, it's easier if you just write things down the old fashioned way because typing on that computer in the office takes longer. Most of the time I was in there, she was typing something. I don't know if anyone that comes across this hub will realize why I took the inhaler with me, but it made perfect sense to me at the time. If the doctor wasn’t going to prescribe me anymore Albuterol, all I would have thought they were going to say was, "Well, I have something different for you." That's not hard, it's not rude, it's actually pretty standard. Not in this case. I actually have a written paper from her where she typed: THROW AWAY EXPIRED INHALER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! There's nothing in the inhaler, you dolt. She didn't even ask me if there was any more medicine in it or when was the last time I'd used it because I doubt she bothered to listen when I told her it was years ago. I probably looked confused to her when I went to pick it up, and that was because I was trying to figure out whether to slap some sense into her, stay and be a lot more civil than she was being, or just give her the bird and walk out. I chose to stay (like an idiot) until the end of my visit and be more civil than her. In all honesty, I should have walked out the moment I felt uncomfortable, which was about 30-40 seconds after she walked through the door.

I will be blunt at this point. She was a bitch the entire time she was in there with me. I have never had anyone in the medical community treat me the way that she did and I've seen many doctors since I've been born. I've encountered rude doctors and nurses, I have encountered curt doctors whose behavior may have been construed as some by rude, and I've encountered nice doctors and some of the sweetest nurses in my life. I've been hospitalized after I've had surgery, and had a kind doctor and a very wonderful nurse care for me, and I was thankful I got only one nurse that was mean during that time. I've had a nurse that was so good to me in the past I bought her gifts. For years I went to a nurse practitioner for my primary care needs because she was better than most of the doctors I'd encountered. I've also had a rather odd experience with a middle age racist white male OB/GYN because he was suggested by a moron someone and THEN all the other women I knew that heard what I did went, "I can't believe you went to him!" And no, I never went back to him after that initial encounter; once was enough for me. More than enough. And with all that mentioned, I have NEVER in my life experienced a doctor behave as unprofessionally as that woman did at the Wal-Mart Care Clinic. Between the eye rolling, the heavy sighing, having me repeat basic information over and over again as if she was confused or I was saying something so terribly wrong and nonsensical, looking up at the ceiling as if to say she'd encountered the biggest idiot in her life when all I was doing was explaining my symptoms to her, and making sarcastic comments, I will honestly say that I have never seen behavior like that from a medical DOCTOR in my life.

I don't go to any doctor to play around. I will not sit in a waiting room and fill out information on a clipboard for fun. I do not lie about my symptoms because I want to spend money on meds that I don't need. I realize that many people do this, but I am not one of them. I realize that doctors have to put up with a lot of crap from patients. I realize that doctors have to deal with patients lying to them all the time because either they're embarrassed about the behavior that brought them to the office in the first place, or they're lying to get drugs. I would also think that after having seen so many patients after a certain time, they'd be able to tell which from which. Granted, this was my first (and hopefully last) time ever seeing this woman, but I don't beat around the bush. If a doctor asks me a question, if it can answered with a yes or no, that's what I do. I don't say any more than they ask. If they ask me what meds I've been taking, I let them know. I don't go into long explanations, adding things as if they don't have other things to do besides look at and listen to me. Doctors rarely take long in their assessment with me, and when I went to that clinic, I shouldn't have been back there with her longer than three or four minutes. and yes, I have seen doctors, known what was up with myself, the procedure wasn't invasive, they shone their light here and there, they left the room, came back, told me what was really up, and I hadn't looked in their faces longer than a couple of minutes. I timed it once.

I would expect that attitude from a cashier, but a doctor?

I will never go back to a Care Clinic in a place like Wal-Mart again. I learned my lesson. Fool me once, shame on me—I am rarely fooled twice. They don't care how they treat you in there, and Wal-Mart doesn't care about how you're treated either—they only care about you paying the clinic your money. Maybe she believes she can behave that way because it's located inside a Wal-Mart. According to a couple of reviews for the Care Clinic online, they don't all act that way, but those people who claim their doctors were great live on the opposite side of the country from me in California.

And there's no one to mention this grievance to since Wal-Mart doesn't technically have anything to do with the Care Clinic, which is why I'm venting in a hub online. Let me explain that. Same as a fast food restaurant located inside a store like Wal-Mart, if there was something wrong with your food you wouldn't go up to a cashier or call their overall manager to tell them your issue, you would go back to that fast food place and ask to speak to their manager. I didn't realize the Care Clinic was setup that way as well. She can treat patients anyway she wants and get away with it. She's not a partner at an office, nor does she answer to Wal-Mart as far as I can tell. If you have an issue with the doctor at the clinic in Wal-Mart, you actually have to call the clinic and speak to their "management". Who do you think they're going to put on the phone? I only saw two people in that entire clinic area, but supposedly, they have their own separate management. She and her receptionist looked rather chummy. I would have had to call her receptionist and explain that I had a grievance. Wouldn't you think she'd put that same doctor on the phone (especially since it looks as if she's the ONLY doctor that works at that clinic)? And don't think it wouldn't have happened, because I've been in situations like that before and it surely can. Her receptionist wasn't nice by a long shot, but she wasn't nasty like the doctor—she just seemed as if it was her job, she definitely wasn't happy about it, but she was there and did what was necessary. In other words, the receptionist just came across like one of the cashiers that you'd deal with on the floor and you can tell she doesn't want to be where she is.

I wouldn't ever recommend anyone go to a Wal-Mart Care Clinic. Maybe that sounds unfair because this was only one incident and one doctor, but her behavior was absolutely outrageous. There wasn't anything I did she didn't seem to find some fault with that I said: telling her my symptoms, explaining how long I'd been sick, my previous prescriptions, the list of meds I'd been taking, even where I'd lived. At one point she asked me if I'd just moved to the area. I told her no. Then she acted as if I hadn't said that and she went on to say, "People who have just moved to this area can sometimes develop allergies. If you've only lived here a year, that could be the issue." I then explained to her that for most of my life I lived about thirty minutes away, but I moved to the particular area that I live in now (a different county) for nearly two years now. She acted as if she'd long since stopped listening to my "drivel" at that point (you can tell when someone gets that expression on their face when they've mentally stopped up their ears). She refused to admit that it could be anything besides allergies. She flat out refused to show me even a morsel of respect. For the small amount of time she saw me, she went out of her way to make me feel belittled and stupid.

Listen, it wouldn't matter what I have to say in the end anyway. All she'd do is deny she ever did or said anything I just mentioned and she'd still have her job. Perhaps this is the standard for medical care now because I can't fathom how someone that behaves that way made it out of medical school, and was sanctioned to work with other human beings in an official capacity. The reason a doctor's behavior used to be important was because they're the people that look at your most intimate body parts. They touch you in places that usually only your partner touches you. You're supposed to trust them. You can't trust anyone that behaves the way that woman did.

Go to a REAL doctor (you know, with a real staff, and not just two people in an area that may or may not be qualified for their job), not one at a Wal-Mart Care Clinic. Not all doctors show compassion to their patients, but most do; I received zero compassion or respect at the clinic in Wal-Mart. Also, when a real doctor gives you a printout from their office, it typically has their name typed somewhere on it—not at Wal-Mart. I also think most doctors consider their behavior towards their patients and they don't treat them like dirt—not the one I saw at Wal-Mart. She behaves that way because she knows she can get away with it. If anyone has a grievance, where are they supposed to lodge their complaint? Not with Wal-Mart, it may be in their building, but it's not their issue apparently.

I'd rather pay twice, three times, even four times what I did that day to be seen by a doctor that will actually behave as you would expect a medical professional to behave. I'd rather pay a thousand dollars to a hospital for ER care as I've done in the past than be treated the way I was at a Care Clinic in Wal-Mart, and I'm not exaggerating.

It's up to you to discern whether I sound like a person of sub intelligence reiterating my experience at that place. I also never saw that woman a day before in my life; I don't know her at all, and I wish I never met her. I shop at Wal-Mart all the time; this isn't a stab at the store area of Wal-Mart and I have no reason to make up anything so someone wouldn't visit a clinic. I never thought I would have a person in the medical profession treat me so poorly that I would type out an eleven page online hub detailing my experience, and I've dealt with some jerks in the past. At the end of my visit, she said, "If you've been coughing that long, I would suggest you get a chest x-ray." Of course, she said it as if she still didn't believe I'd been coughing for as long as I told her I had, even after she examined me and saw with her own eyes that I had been. I don't know if she was even being sarcastic or not with that comment.

If I ever went to another medical facility in my life and I saw that woman's face (and she has a rather distinct face) and she's supposed to be my doctor, I would gather up my things and walk right back out the door without being seen by anyone rather than deal with her or anyone else she works with.

I don't know if I'm the only person/patient she's ever treated this way and her behavior towards me was because she didn't like me specifically, but I doubt if there's any way to know if anyone else has had an issue with this woman because there's no one to report it to. Maybe I'm the only one (though I doubt that) or maybe she treats most of the people she's seen this way, there's no way to tell. It's a strange situation to be in, especially because of where this facility is located.

Just so that no one is confused about where this visit took place, and so you won't think it was your Wal-Mart, this happened in Sumter, South Carolina in March 2015. The doctor's photo is blown up huge in the waiting area and her name is on it, but I don't recall her last name; as I said, with a real doctor, if you get a form of some kind after your visit it usually has the doctor's name on it, and although I have a form, it doesn't have her name typed anywhere on it. but I do remember her first name is Felicia. Seek her medical expertise and "care" at your own risk.

**Also, I was back there with her for what had to be 20-25 mins which was ridiculous. I don't know what rank she graduated in her medical class, but I've had pap smears and other things done that took less time.