"This facility dramatizes the crisis in healthcare in this country in general, and spotlights the poor state of medical training in Southern Nevada. I wish a TV channel would do an undercover spot here, because only if the public were made aware of this office's practices would there be incentive for improvement.\n\nI have seen two doctors there within 24 hours, one with a resident in tow. They appeared to be knowledgeable, but whatever medical knowledge they may possess is compromised by the patient scripts and protocols they are required by office rules to follow. It is difficult to imagine a better situation for misdiagnosis than one in which the patient interview is funneled into clipped responses for computer questionnaires while the stopwatch ticks. Both doctors were like racehorses, waiting to bolt at the gate. I suspect there must be some sort of internal reward system for seeing as many patients as possible within a given time frame, or finishing up before the next guy, or getting in and out of the room in under 10 minutes. \n\nBecause of the pressure to dispense with patients as quickly as possible and the restricted script for the patient interview, I was prescribed a medication that I should never have been given. Blame on it on the tree-diagram. When the doctor-patient relationship is reduced to a rote exchange, a computer can--and possibly will--do it. I will never go back to this facility, and urge my fellow Nevadans to steer clear. What could have been a source of pride--a decent, even strong, medical school facility--is a model of corporate greed. Whatever medical expertise the staff might possess takes a back seat to the \"office rules\" which, in my case, didn't work.\n\nI am grieving; I can't sleep. I went for help, since the melatonin wasn't working, my anxiety was rising, and I was feeling depressed. The doctor heard only \"can't sleep\" and we were off and running on a set of questions in his computer to determine which medication is the right one for me. When I was asked, \"Do you smoke?\" I said \"no,\" then added, thinking it might be relevant, \"in my 20s for a few years.\" His response was, \"I don't need detail.\" The questions kept coming. I was obedient, keeping my responses short. \"Did any relative die of a heart attack under the age of 55?\" \n\nI said my paternal aunt had died at 55 of a heart attack. Instead of asking about other heart issues in my family, apparently the tree diagram led to a pharmaceutical conclusion: a prescription for some God-awful sleep aid that made my heart race, my ears ring, and my throat dry out, leaving a bad taste in the my mouth for hours that I couldn't get rid of. The palpitations were so strong that I had pain in my chest and contemplated emergency room care, but rode it out at home. At 3 in the morning, I Googled the drug--it's not to be given to people with cardiac disease in their family, such as (in my case), three grandparents dead of heart attacks and two parents with heart issues. I had no time to give this information to the doctor who saw me; his patient questionnaire didn't have space for the detail, and the tree-diagram for question-and-response steered us out of the office. It would have taken time, and intuition, and interest, to delve into my family history.\n\nI returned the next day, and I went through the same routine with another doctor and left with a different medication. Again the script for patient interview. Again the pressure to get in and out of the room as soon as possible. Two co-pays and one bad-drug episode later, I left with a grand total of 15 sleeping pills for one month (since I insisted I'm sensitive to medications, she insisted I take half) with no refills. I would sooner stay awake all night than go back to that place. \n\nI am still shocked by the lack of fellow feeling at this facility, a quality that is at the core of the doctor-patient relationship. What about kindness? Cheerfulness? What about the connection between the doctor and the patient that is the foundation for accuracy in diagnosis? Can that really be reduced to computer questionnaires? To tree-diagrams scripts for doctor-patient interaction? Just because I have a common problem--sleeplessness--do I need to be made to feel I'm wasting time? I feel for the residents at this place, because whatever impulse to service that steered them into the medical field in the first place is certainly being crushed. The full-time docs have already crossed over to the dark side.\n\nI am ashamed for our city that our medical teaching facility is all about a very ugly bottom-line."^^ . . "0"^^ . "10"^^ . "1"^^ . "2014-05-17T00:00:00"^^ . . . "2"^^ .