Aranas Catalina MD

NOT a fan. My first appointment was ok, Dr Aranas is much friendlier than some of the other review sites made her out to be– that was reassuring. That’s the only nice thing I can say about this office. This is my third pregnancy. I don’t need someone to coddle me or hold my hand– however I DO expect to be treated with respect and have issues addressed promptly and I DO expect a certain amount of customer service skills to be displayed by the office staff.
I called their appointment line to make an «urgent» (not emergency) appointment for an issue I was having. I called on a Tuesday at 11:30am. Their phone line is supposed to be open until they go to lunch at noon. I received their answering service at 11:30 am who said they «may have switched their phones over a little early». Excuse me. 30 minutes is NOT a little early. (Their answering service needs an overhaul, IMO… I’ve never had anybody be so rude to me over the phone in my life).
Fine. I had to wait and call them after they got back from lunch. I called around 2:00pm and was finally able to speak to somebody– I got an «urgent» appointment for that week Friday afternoon. 3 ½ days later. Fine, I guess. When I went to my appointment on Friday and voiced my concerns, I was told that yes, actually my original screening at my first first prenatal appointment HAD shown something wrong– but nobody bothered to call and tell me in the time between that appointment and then (a MONTH!!!). Then, the office staff told me that since I was supposed to have my regularly scheduled appointment the following week (we were to hear the heartbeat of our baby for the first time) that she was going to just go ahead and make that «urgent» appointment my regular appointment. When I protested because I wanted my husband to hear the heartbeat and he’d already planned to take time off work for the other appointment, I got an EYE ROLL and a sigh. I guess it’s just really too much to expect that a father would want to be a part of something as amazing as hearing his baby’s heartbeat for the first time. Wow.
After a couple other issues (including having a terrible migraine and calling on a Wednesday– surprise, got the answering service because their office is closed on Wednesdays and was told I’d have to wait until their office opened again before someone could help me) I decided to switch my care over to Martin Army Hospital.
Today I received a call from Dr. Aranas’ office letting me know that they got the request for my records and asking where they should send them. I told them I would get the fax # for martin and call them right back. When I called back– SURPRISE AGAIN– I got the answering service! When I explained I was returning a call I had JUST received and I needed to get information to the staff there, I was told they’re not open today and all they could do was take a message.
ARE YOU KIDDING ME!!!
This is absolutely ABSURD! I am SO thankful that I’ve already taken the steps to switch my care over to another doctor. I can’t imagine going the remaining 20 weeks of my pregnancy like this!