How was your experience with Jim Thompson at The Fertility Center of New Mexico?
He definitely takes the time to meet with patient's one to one when necessary and will take as much time as is needed for any discussion.
I thoroughly enjoyed this about this facility.
He seemed unsure as to the results at times.
I was told I 'may' have endometriosis, then it was not included on the results page.
I was told I 'may' have adenomyosis, but they could not be 'sure' unless I had a exploratory procedure, which he stated was invasive and therefore did not recommend.
I did not want to go off of a diagnosis for me based on a seemingly insecure evaluation. He then stated he would refer me for a lap endo.
I asked if there were any other test I could receive that was less invasive, that may be used to reinforce whether or not I had adenomyosis and important details about it.
Both MD Thomspon and a separate physician named Carrie Swartz OB/GYN stated there was no other test I could receive to give a more confident result and location, extent details in regards to my adenomyosis.
Later another physician ordered for me a MRI of my abdomen, providing with much stronger confidence that I indeed had adenomyosis and with important additional detail.
So I was a bit confused as to why Dr. Thompson and Dr. Carrie Swartz never ordered an MRI of my abdomen for me.
Afterward I felt a lot more confident about the finding and the additional details it provided since if I do become pregnant, adenomyosis is something I should know as much about for the IVF stage and for sustaining a pregnancy.
During treatment, were you treated like a number or a human with Jim Thompson at The Fertility Center of New Mexico?
I was largely unsatisfied with my experience through this facility due to the increasingly indifferent, unhelpful and unprofessional responses by the main IVF coordinator, Sheila.
The more I asked detailed questions and I believe, when she realized we weren't intending to jump into care quickly, the more unprofessional and downright rude she became.
Although I know that patient reviews cannot always be a fair representation of the care or results of a provider or facility, I do believe that patient's are generally very aware of the quality of care they are receiving, what it is lacking and some healthcare provider responsibility.
I found it unsettling that Dr. Thompson at one point was clearly annoyed that I mentioned I was considering going forward with their facility because it had a lack of negative patient reviews.
He spoke about patient's as if many of them leave unfair and extreme reviews without taking into consideration their responsibility or their health conditions into consideration.
Does this happen? Yes.
But I feel that healthcare providers that see no validity or responsibility in patient negative reviews are often not the ones to go to for a myriad of serious reasons.
I personally often find this to be an excuse many physicians make, skirting the blame to the patients. I find most patients actually have a very good idea of when they are not being treated appropriately or when their results have been diminished in part due to lower quality care.
I know that this facility has produced many successful cases for many people, I just personally did not go forward at this location largely because of disturbing, impatient rude commentary from the IVF coordinator.
Also when I was told I had Adenomyosis, MD Thompson stated the 'only way to be more sure is to get an exploratory surgical procedure'.
Actually, he could have ordered an MRI, as a following fertility MD did, which provided me with a more definitive evaluation, such as the location and extent specifics, as well as other helpful details.
I guess he expected me to just start taking medications for Adenomyosis without any further and more detailed testing, which does not seem safe.
Also, the MRI providing detailed location of where my adenomyosis was, was told to me, could help significantly with choice of a more successful implantation location for IVF.
Describe the protocols Jim Thompson used in your cycles at The Fertility Center of New Mexico and their degree of success.
They do not do Natural based IVF cycles here, as far as I am aware.
They did explain they do use the lowest-dose hormone birth control pill available at present, in order to reduce the negative risks of older women using oral contraceptives.
I had planned to do my IVF cycle earlier, so I started the birth control pills right away.
However, when there were delays, largely to my being unsure whether I wanted to go through IVF at this location due to the increasingly unsupportive and unprofessional attitude of the IVF coordinator, noone ever suggested that I stop taking the oral contraceptives and start them again at a certain time before my determined cycle.
I was on oral contraceptives for an extended period of time and I don't know if that's a great decision for someone in their 30's.
Also, one time when I was planning to go forward with IVF right away and had lost my birth control pill on a weekend and had to have him call in my prescription as I was not in my regular location, he made it VERY clear that he was not happy about being bothered over something of this nature.
I knew it wasn't trivial because they had told me prior, that if I did not take my BCP consistently it would throw off my IVF start date.
So, that was another experience that didn't seem to reflect consideration for patient's feelings or success in regards to the extreme impatience and tone it was delivered in.
Describe your experience with your nurse at The Fertility Center of New Mexico. (Assigned nurse: Sheila. I'm not sure if she's a nurse it'd be appalling because she ditched our initial appointment when we flew in from out of town, after she stated she would be present for our New Patient appointment. Then at her more indifferent, impatient and callous stage she word-for-word told me that I should sell my prescription hormone medications online, if I can't use them. She said this strictly because we found out we had to do PGT-M at this point. Basically because we were taking longer than expected to start - she felt completely justified in being demeaning, insulting and derogatory to us. It was really an unbelievable difference from our initial meetings with her. Truly appalling. )
Sheila is very organized and thoroughly educated in the typical process at her facility.
She was initially extremely kind, supportive and compassionate and this was one reason why I felt comfortable at this facility to start.
However, that professional and supportive demeanor changed VERY quickly and I was never certain as to why, but she clearly felt very comfortable changing her tone.
She often spoke to my significant other and I with statements such as 'well I don't know, that's on you to figure that out', 'we work with this lab, but we don't talk to them about their statistics/processes and costs to the patient, that's not my job, so you'll have to talk to them. I can't be responsible for that information'.
I understand that it is our responsibility to hold a lab responsible for their details and to discuss these things with them one to one, but I found it completely unsupportive and disturbing that she did not know the information at all, nor thoroughly, in order to give us a complete idea BEFORE we discussed it with the lab.
Just because this part of the care, which is HUGE, is 'not her responsibility' to discuss with us technically, in no way means she shouldn't know it all nor think it isn't her responsibility as the Nurse Coordinator to discuss it with us at all.
Also, once we found we had to do PGD testing, she used language, verbal and nonverbal, that we both perceived as her talking down to us in major ways.
I looked over at my significant other and it just hurt me the most to see how it was hurting him the way she was talking to us at this point.
She used language that strongly suggested for one that we were stupid, that she wasn't sure we would even be able to go forward there since the process was becoming more complicated, which itself started to decrease my confidence in the facility.
I asked, if we weren't able to go forward with the facility, what I should do with the 5,000 worth of medications I purchased.
She spoke to me in, her then expected, extremely patronizing tone and said
'Well, MOST people don't purchase their medications before diagnostic screening, that's on you since you purchased them too early. Really, I guess you could always sell them on the internet somewhere?'
I was never told otherwise and knew nothing about the process.
I'm not sure how someone can think their so incredibly brilliant when they pretend as if the knowledge they hold in the regular day-to-day job is just common knowledge to the general public.
Being someone whom works in the medical field, having an IVF coordinator think its acceptable to suggest that I sell prescription medications as a private citizen, obviously not licensed as a prescribing doctor or pharmacist, that were meant for me, privately, on the internet to someone else............is an absolutely inexcusable and horrific thing to say/suggest/or even joke about.
I have no idea why this IVF coordinator's tone changed, but the way she began talking to us and the statements she made are genuinely disturbing and this person should in no way be in charge of anyone's care if she feels perfectly entitled to speak to anyone this way at any time.
Describe your experience with The Fertility Center of New Mexico.
The majority of the staff at the front desk and the staff RNs are excellent, organized and well-educated in the process.
I had one nurse whom would not run my insurance for a diagnostic exam, which would have been approved and would have saved me about $250.
I told this nurse that although my IVF would not be covered, that this did not mean my diagnostic exams wouldn't be and I'd like to save money where I could and she still insisted it wouldn't make sense to use my insurance without explaining why further.
The facility stated that they fixed this, so they are responsive in fixing snags
What specific things went wrong at The Fertility Center of New Mexico?
- Failed to order appropriate test
- Provided conflicting information
- Failed to convey critical information