WNY MEDICAL P C

Just switched from WNY Medical after 4 ½ years as a patient. Support staff were almost always rude, never accepting responsibility for mistakes (they once blamed me when someone was entering my insurance info incorrectly, insisting I didn’t have insurance, and kept calling me in the hours before my appointment to insist that she was going to cancel it because I wasn’t insured.) A) I was insured, and my info hadn’t changed since my last visit. When someone helped her enter it, I miraculously appeared in the system. B) Don’t they treat cash patients anyway? Or do those poor people get this kind of treatment? C) Getting machine gun style aggressive phone calls when you’re laying in bed doing all you can to not toss your cookies is pretty unpleasant. I’m sick, people, please don’t yell at me for not answering my phone at 8:30 AM.
Amherst office is dirty and dingy, turnaround times on things like referrals is pretty dismal, and they just don’t listen. When my ear felt full (but I had no sign of an ear infection), they wanted to send me for an MRI to check for a brain tumor. I declined this and said I would go to an ENT instead. A week later, they called me to say that my referral to the MRI was approved and I could come pick it up. I had already been to see the ENT and began physical therapy for jaw and neck issues, which started helping my ear.
I think the physicians/PA’s there were OK-​ish, although we had frequent miscommunications. It was much better when the practice was owned by Dr. Benjamin. The new ownership has been pretty much downhill, and I took my health to Buffalo Medical Group.

After spending two weeks trying to schedule an appointment, unsuccessfully trying to get them to call me back, and giving them my information no fewer than three times, I finally jumped through all of the hoops to make an appointment. Upon arriving she looked at my prescription from the doctor and informed me they «don’t do that here». Of course this means they never called on the referral or checked anything leading up to this. Very frustrating. Find somewhere else. They are not organized to provide any level of health care.

Just had my first visit here, and am already on the hunt for a new PCP. Red flags:
— When it came time to enter my information as a first-​time patient, the front desk person allowed a new trainee to do it while she played on her cell phone, instead of watching to make sure it was entered correctly. I’m all for training new people and being normal humans at work, but come on. This is my health on the line, not a pants purchase at the Gap.
— A patient who hadn’t visited in a while asked the front desk person for help in identifying the doctor he and his infant son had seen last time, describing what she looked like and about how long ago she’d been working there. The staff person told him coldly, «I don’t know what you’re talking about.» No hint that she would be willing to help him find the answer.
— The first examining room I entered had dry leaves on the floor, as if it hadn’t been vacuumed in days.
— My doctor looked over my mental health screening form and joked, «Ah, good. You’re just normal crazy, not cuckoo crazy.» Ha ha, but does this mean that I had shown more serious signs of depression, I would have been considered cuckoo crazy?
— The nurse who came later to help the doctor kept interrupting both the doctor and I as we were discussing my health history, and at one point yawned loudly and said, «Oh, man. I think I’m done for the day. Aren’t you?» Right in front of me. Needless to say, I was not looking forward to having her come near me with a needle after that.
Overall, an uncomfortable experience that I have no wish to repeat. There aren’t too many doctor’s offices taking new patients right now, making it hard to switch, but there have to be better choices than this for people in the WNY area.