Business ProfileforThe Dental Office of Long Beach

This complaint is about the office manager, Marji****** of the Dental Office of Long Beach. Dr. ****** Wu previously examined my wife and stated that she has an abscess and there was an infection in her gum. He stated that a root canal was imperative to correct the above. The above office has an endodontist that comes to the above office approximately one time per month. I informed Dr Wu that we have prior experience with another endodontist and we prefer to use him. We have Delta USA HMO and a referral is necessary from the primary dental office to obtain care from a specialist. I called Dr. Wu's office and requested a referral for both myself and my wife to the endodontist of our choice. Our appointment was for both of us on 10-1-21. On X-XX-XX a staff member at the endodontist office called me and stated that the office manager, Marji ***** had not sent over the referral for my wife, Francine and was uncooperative and stated that she does not have time to send a referral and that it would not be done by the appointment date of XX-X- XX. I went in person to Dr. Wu's office and the office manager became belligerent, rude and raised her voice stating that she has other things to do and that the referral will most likely not be completed by my wife's appointment on 10-1-21. She stated that they like to use their own endodontist and that it was my fault for choosing another doctor. She stated that if we would have used their doctor there would not have been a problem. I told her my wife was in pain and needed an emergency root canal. She stated that a referral takes one to two weeks and she cannot guarantee that she would send the referral over to the endodontist. She previously sent my referral, but not my wife's. I told her that if my wife had to pay the full cost of the root canal due to her lack of cooperation and if my wife had to cancel the appointment with the endodontist, that Dr. Wu's office would be liable for the cost and any medical condition and treatment associated with the infection. I called Delta Insurance and they said they would contact Dr **** office, I also called an affiliate office and they contacted Dr. Wu's office to speak with the office manager to expedite the referral. Ultimately the referral was sent over, however the office manager was belligerent and medically negligent regarding the referral. We like this dental office, but are not able to return as long as she remains the office manager. We have since changed dental offices.

In response to this review. Patients were seen in our office as stated. And Steven ******* did state that he wanted to see his own endodontist. We explained that we could supply a specialty referral form at the request of that office. We received a request from that office to send a referral for ONLY for Steven Brodkin which we complied with and the referral was sent by Adriana Rangel not Marji ****** On the morning of 9/30/21 a staff member from the other dental office called and stated that Francine was there in their office and would like to have a root canal done on 10/1/21 when her husband was also having his. The representative from that office stated that she needed me to send a referral over immediately. I informed the person I was speaking to that unfortunately I would not be able to do it that moment as we had our endodontist in our office that day and that my primary focus was those patients. The representative demanded that I give her a time that I would do it by & I stated that I could not but would get it done by the end of the day if possible. Generally we ask to have referral requests made a week prior to give us time to process them. About an hour later Steven ******* showed up in our lobby demanding that we give him the referral immediately. I explained that I was in the middle of working on a case for a patient that was in our office and that was my priority and that I would not be able to stop what I was doing. I also stated that we usually ask for a week's lead time to process such requests. My hygienist was sitting behind the desk and he pointed at her and loudly demanded "then you do it" I said sir she is the hygienist she does not do medical forms. He then started yelling that he was going to sue Dr. Wu for malpractice and that he was going to report us to the dental board if we did not comply with his wishes. He was causing a scene in the office in front of all the patients in the waiting room. I told him that I would get the form to the office by the end of the day. And he stormed out of the door yelling that if we did not send it and his wife couldn't get treated we would be sorry. I had a patient in the lobby state that man was extremely rude. Mr. ******* then proceeded to call another one of our dental offices and asked them to call our office and tell us to send out the form. I sent the referral form over as indicated before the end of the day on 9/30/21. We always do the best we can for our patients. No one patient should feel like they are entitled to be a priority over other patients. Also, it is never ok to treat people rudely and be disrespectful. Steven ******* is a bully. Because we did not drop everything to meet his demands he got mad and threatened us. No one should have to do business with people who are rude & disrespectful.