St. Louis Behavioral Medicine Institute (Macklind Office)

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A family member was a patient. From what I can tell they have told 2/3 of their patients to find another doctor some where else because they have lost 2 doctors. They gave references of other doctors that were not even taking patients. They are f((($& joke.

This is not a review for the Dr's but rather for the office and their policies that I think people need to be aware of. We visited the office in Chesterfield. I did not think it was unusual to sign an agreement about a 24 hour cancellation policy or you will get charged for the visit. However, I was a little skeptical when we met with the Dr. and she herself had us sign another agreement so we signed it twice. Still, the policy itself was expected. What was not expected was the fact that they expect you to still make this appt. if you are very sick and contagious and cannot make that 24 hour deadline. Very unusual and I've spoken to numerous Dr's about it. My daughter had an appt. at 2:30 on a Thursday. The Wednesday afternoon before (4:30) we found out my daughter had a bad case of pinkeye in both of her eyes. This stuff is highly contagious and to tell a 6 year old not to rub her eyes and touch anything is near impossible. That evening I called and left a message for the Dr. about the circumstances and apologized that my daughter was unable to make the apt. the next afternoon. There was not a doubt in mind that the office would not want her in there anyway and also because they practically had most of the day to call their cancellation list if need be. A few weeks later I received a bill. I talked with the billing dept and their answer was "a policy is a policy no matter what circumstances" I now have a call into the manager. I believe people need to know this. Had I known ahead of time I would have never subjected my family to this practice. Having small children, there is no way I would want my kids subjected to all the contagious illnesses that someone knowingly has (ie: flu, pinkeye, etc..) but cannot stay home because it's past the 24 hour deadline and they do not want to get charged. I also understand that some may abuse this policy. Therefore the policy needs to be revised. If it's such that this practice is going to allow this, the policy or office must have some kind of addendum : Dr's note is needed or first time cancellation ok since sometimes (ie: child is throwing up all day) you do not see the Dr. Paying the bill is the not the real problem: knowing that this practice is unsafe is.