Dear Reader:
I have never had to use this service before to complain about anyone.
If I have had an issue with a business, especially a health professional, I have always had the situation resolved quickly in a professional matter.
Not however with Matt Clark, Physical Therapist, and owner of Horizon Rehabilitation, of Hilton Head Island, SC.
After a week or so of visits of getting worse and not getting better, and being left in treatment rooms alone, being told to stetch and hold positions, while no one looked on to see if I was doing such correctly, or having heat packs laid onto me, being given a bell to ring (the kind one used to see in the old 5 dollar per night hotels in the black and white gum shoe detective B movies), I finally spoke up.
I grabbed my belongings and left the room to find Mr. Clark, PT, treating another patient, while he was supposed to be treating me as I had booked an hour appointment.
I have had PT before, years ago, and ran into the same thing, at another office, where PTs, can do this, and hence bill for three patients in one hour, trippling their income, but decreasing quality. However, upon voicing my concern, the PT treated me as he was taught.
I asked my physician before he referred me to this PT, if this PT did this, and my physician assured me that Mr. Clark did not.
Further I made this point clear to the receptionist when I made my initial appointments and she assured me that Mr. Clark is with the patient at all times.
Since I was only a few feet away from the receptionist desk and bare foot, carrying my shoes, Mr. Clark, yelled, "Where are you going Hecky, you still have 2 minutes left on your heat pack?!".
I said that since I was only wearing a T shirt, my skin was starting to burn and he did not respond to my bell's ring. I could hear him laughing and talking with some patient, he was doing ultra sound on, which he never took the time to do with me, and talking about young teen age girls and how they play basketball.
I told him that I came to him for private, not clinic, care, explained this to his receptionist and my doctor, and I did not appreciate being left in the room alone, while he treated other patients, and basically being treated by him for only 15 minutes of an hour visit.
His response was "I will run my freakin' office any way I want, and the man I am working on is a friend, and I am doing him for free, and get the hell out!"
His staff looked on without alarm as if they had seen this witnessed this many times before.
If you are looking for an office where the Physical Therapist, moves from patient to patient, leaving you on machines and modalities, and not concentrating on you for your full hour visit, Horizon Rehabilitation of Hilton Head Island, SC and Matt Clark, PT are for you.
If you are seeking a PT, who when you voice a concern about your health and treatment, responds to you vulgarly and a hair under threatening, with his eyes ablaze and his chest puffed out, to elderly folk, who are in pain, Horizon Rehabilitation of Hilton Head Island, SC and Matt Clark, PT are for you.
If on the other hand you want a PT who will spend your hour visit with you, concentration on you, not leaving you in the room alone, but when for example, has you stretch, holds you and balances you, so you do not fall off the table, or when he has heat packs on you, sits with you and lets you ask questions, or has him give you advice on your home exercise, i.E. Making use of your time for which you or your insurance company are paying. Then please interview other physical therapy offices in your area.
No sooner than I got home, than I got a call from a friend also going to Matt Clark, PT and Horizon Rehabiltation of Hilton Head Island, SC and told me of the exact same experiences... Of being left alone on a painful machine, while Mr. Clark went and took care of another patient, and other similar episodes.
So there is evidence of a patern.
The Roman adage of caveat emptor, let the buyer beware, has now existed in medical care, unfortunately, for a while. Gone are the days when most doctors truly were concerned about their patient care first, and their incomes second, because they knew that their incomes would eventually come if they treated the patient correctly.
One must be a wise consumer in a medical office, remembering that PT's were auxillaries, who used to work under direct supervision of a doctor. Many do not have the ethics that drove doctors to Medical schools. Many now behave with the ethics and morals of over paid gym teachers.
Instead of this PT (Mr. Matt Clark), bringing me back into my room, apolgizing and assuring me he will take care of me properly and professionally, he allowed his ego to act up, and tossed out of his office, which is called 'professional abandonment', a person, who entered his office in pain and left in pain. He did not see me as a patient in pain. He saw me as someone cutting into his profits and someone not going along with his assembly line office flow. If he saw me as I was, a patient in pain, a child of God, with legitimate concerns, that it was his job to allay, he would have put his concerns for his profit aside, and not played, the 'my way or the high way' card.
Please make sure you learn from my experience. Ask questions. Especially if you are on Medicare, or some PPO, HMO, or discount Insurance plan, where docs are being paid less than others and hence have to make it up somehow.
My insurance and I will pay the PT's full fee. However, his web site, www.horizonrehabilitation.com has a list of so many discount plans they belong to, they have to make the money back on volume. This is a red flag.
In any event, I am glad I found out Mr. Matt Clark, PT's true colors, as well as Horizon Rehabilitation's business practices, before they hurt me. As a general rule of thumb, medical care providers who try to juggle and multi task, end up harming someone. It all becomes a numbers game. And I do not want to be a number.
This is just my experience. You need to investigate for yourself. If Mr. Matt Clark, PT, was having a 'bad day' and I receive a call from him of apology, I will add to this post. I am very forgiving.
I am not saying Mr. Clark nor Horizon is doing anything illegal. I do not know SC insurance law. I am not saying Mr. Clark nor Horizon is doing anything unethical. I am not saying he or his corporation did malpractice, as I am not an attorney. I am saying that from my experience, I did not receive 100% attentive care, nor did my friend, and when asked to receive such, was kicked out of the office. Anyone reading this, should investigate for themselves the type of PT they want and from whom they wish to receive it and in what manner.
But for Mr. Matt Clark's sake and his patients, I hope he reflects on what occured in his office, and takes a good look at himself and his practices, as he is basically young, and if he continues in this manner, statistically, he will not be able to say, he ran an office, where he 'did no harm.'
Thanks for listening.
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