I was referred to Dr. Shields for pain management for chronic back pain. As soon as she entered the room, she exhibited an antagonistic attitude which caused me great distress. I got the strong feeling that she wasn't taking my pain seriously, and more to the point, that she was more interested in my financial situation rather than my pain. I brought in my mri and a more recent x-ray with flexion of the lower lumbar spine. The radiologist who diagnosed my mri said that I have two bulging disks in my lower spine, but Dr. Shields said that it was fine. The x-ray shows very clear disk space narrowing, but Dr. Shields said that the problem was only muscular. I came to her because I was referred to her by one of her colleagues at the Florida Orthopaedic Institute for trigger point injections. She never ordered any. She only seemed interested in wasting my time and telling me that my problem was because 'I'm obese'.

     They sent me a copy of my medical records and she states that physically there is nothing wrong with me. This I find to be interesting because, even though she can see no problems with me, if you check the records they sent me, a reasonable person would note that when I saw the physician who referred me to her, and they are both based in the Florida Orthopaedic Institute, that my height in July 2007 was stated as 5' 8.5', yet when I last saw Dr. Shields her nurse measured my height as 5' 7'. These were not my stated height. These measurements were taken by the nurses in the physicians respective offices. To be honest, until the date of my injury, my height was acknowledged as 5' 8.75'. If as Dr. Shields states, there is no problems with me, what happened to the 1.75' in height that I seem to be missing. My family has notices the problem. I used to be taller than my older brother, yet now, it is he who is the taller, not I. Also, I find it amusing to note that on my medical transcription, Dr. Shields makes note in my physical appearance that I wear a pony tail. This beggars the question, of what veracity would my chosen style of hair dress have toward a medical determination concerning the condition of my internal skeletal system?  I can only assume that, by the way that Dr. Shields and her senior nurse treated my from first sight, for some unexplainable reason, they made a value judgement concerning myself before they ever had a chance to test or diagnose my condition in any way.

    Also, I have had a considerable amount of trouble with getting in contact with Dr. Shields staff. One of her office personnel called my home to reschedule an appointment because Dr. Shields was going to be out of town on our prescribed appointment. I was at the pharmacy when this person called, and they wouldn't allow my wife to reschedule for me. I attempted to get in contact with this person repeatedly, leaving detailed messenges as to the nature of my call. Not to my surprise, I never received a call back from Dr. Shields office. I had to call the Florida Orthopaedic Institutes standard appointment line to reschedule. All told, over the space of a week, I wasted over an hour on the phone.

     Lastly, I paid Dr. Shields office thirty dollars to send a copy of my transcripts to myself. I just received the aforementioned documents, and greatly to my surprise, they had been transcribed by a company other than Florida Orthopaedic Institue and they are insisting that I remit to them an additional outlay of fifteen dollars. This seems like an unethical business practice to me. If Florida Orthopaedic Institute needs to use a service such as this, why then is it that there patients are forced to double pay for the same documents. I feel as if that those who are in charge of the Florida Orthopaedic Institue are more interested in managing great profit for their investers than in causing great change in the lives of their patients. Their actions are injurous to those who have no need of further injury. A person is at the mercy of their health care administrator. If said health care administrators are inurred to the suffering of their patients, where will mercy be found for those who are in need?

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