Elizabeth D. Smith's Online Review Report Card

The best doctor in Georgia. Extremely intelligent and a real professional.

HIPAA VIOLATION Update: An Athens Internal Medicine employee engaged in a HIPAA violation. I wrote a letter to the doctor and to St. Mary's. I got a letter apologizing for the employee's behavior, but was told they "did not believe" her behavior was a HIPAA violation. I filed a complaint with HIPAA.  Turns out IT WAS A HIPAA VIOLATION. I never heard anything further from the doctors office. No acknowledgment. No apology. Based on the office manager's previous reaction, I doubt they'd want to hear about how they can improve as a practice. It's really sad. It wouldn't be hard to do a better job.

Shes been my doctor for many years and she is awesome. Shes a good listener and is always on target on her diagnoses. Shes compassionate and understanding.

This is, by far and away, the worst medical practice I have ever experienced. My 85 year old mother and I were patients here for almost 3 years.  Though I had issues over the years we never complained. Finally I decided to let someone know what problems we had encountered and tell our doctor how we felt.Our doctor, Jane Fleagle, was, more often than not, what I call a checkbox doctor.  She entered the examining room on every visit with her laptop in tow. She always sat, turned it on and began to go through whatever checklist appeared on the screen.  Same questions, same info requests every time.  She rarely looks at her patients and spends most of her time entering info into the computer.  She never seems to know anything much about the patient (except what she reads on the screen) and spends a great deal of time apologizing for taking the time to input to the software and read the results as opposed to actually engaging with her patients. "I'm sorry", "excuse me" and "let's see what this says" are her 3 most often repeated expressions.As for the practice itself - it is NOT patient friendly.  There are signs posted touting a "patient portal", but there is very little info actually entered into the portal itself.  When I asked why there had been no entries since 2015, I was told that "nothing gets entered" unless a patient specifically requests it, they don't have time to enter "everything".When we needed new or updated prescriptions we were always assured they would be "called in" right away.  Frequently though, when we went to pick them up, they had not been called in or had been submitted to the wrong pharmacy. Our pharmacy told us on several occasions that they had contacted the office for updates and never got return calls from the practice.Personally I was upset with the inaccessibility of the staff/office.  The office is closed every day for "lunch"  (often before or after the times noted in the recording) which then requires patients to call 2 or 3 times just to get through to voice mail - NEVER have I ever called this office and gotten a human being on the phone.  The recording says calls will be returned (NOT before close of business today but rather) tomorrow.  If "tomorrow" falls on a Friday (and you don't get a call back before noon) then you will have to wait until Monday since the office closes and no one is there until then. Often I have called on a Wednesday, left a message, got no return call on Thursday, tried to call again on Friday and got no response until Monday - if at all. Even when the calls indicated a situation where either my mother or I was in intense pain or immediate crisis (such as once when I was unable to breathe due to asthma or in severe pain from a shoulder muscle strain).  Even requesting a referral to another doctor took almost a week to get a response.When I made a simple request for prescriptions to be written for a 90 day supply with 3 refills so we could set them up with a mail order service (to save money), Dr Fleagle said she "didn't write them for more than 6 months" so patients would be "forced to come back in to get new ones."  I thought that letting someone know the problems we had encountered would make a difference but when I told Dr Fleagle that I had "some issues with the practice" her response was "well maybe you should find yourself a new doctor."  The office manager told me that they had no intentions of changing anything, no staff changes and no communications improvements.  She too suggested we just find another doctor since "this practice is happy with everything as is".As I said, this practice and this doctor are the worst I have ever encountered.

I think Dr. Elizabeth Smith is fantastic (five stars), but her staff often isn't that great. DR. SMITH IS FANTASTICDr. Smith is great at really listening to my concerns, and clearly communicating her thoughts about diagnosis and solutions. STAFF IS PROBLEMATIC:HUNDREDS OF DOLLARS LOSTLike other Yelp commenters, I've had trouble with the staff being on the ball. One staff member ended up costing me hundreds of dollars.RECEPTIONIST BLAMED ME Later, when I told the receptionist about how the mistake had cost me hundreds of dollars, she tried to blame me for her coworker's mistake. As a patient, I did not know that her coworker hadn't bothered to look into the cost of the procedure when I'd specifically asked if she would. The employee *could* have told me she wouldn't look into costs, rather than booking me at a hospital which cost hundreds more. I'm not a mind reader. I also would have no idea the final bill from the hospital would increase substantially from the estimate without explanation. For the receptionist to blame me was highly inappropriate. I called out the receptionist for blaming me for a mistake that her coworker made that cost hundreds of dollars, and she proceeded to tell me that I was rude, and she liked to treat people "like family."Personally, I would rather be treated with COMPETENCE. And I'm also not sure any family member would be happy with me if I made a mistake that cost them hundreds of dollars. Blaming me for her coworker's mistake is just indefensible. MORE MISTAKES THAT ARE EASY TO CORRECTOf course, there have been other mistakes and ball dropping. * Phone messages get "lost." * The receptionist says one thing, the supervisor says another (they're not on the same page). * They don't let you know if you'll get a phone call, a letter, or what for test results, or when to expect them. * When I go to the checkout counter, the staff just sits there without a discreet "just a moment," or any acknowledgment that I'm standing there.* The same person who cost me hundreds of dollars also didn't fax over my paperwork in time for my appointment, even though she made the appointment two weeks prior. Pretty disorganized.SUPERVISOR ANGRY AT ME, RATHER THAN SEEING ROOM FOR IMPROVEMENTThese are all easily addressable problems. And yet, when I pointed this out to the supervisor, she just seemed to get pissy.I spoke to the supervisor about the receptionist blaming me for a mistake that was not my fault. She defended the receptionist, and added a passive-aggressive "I'll let the staff know your feelings," rather than acknowledge that blaming a patient for a staff member's mistake isn't appropriate. The supervisor was short, snappy, and only apologized for the way *I felt,* and defended the actions of the employees.

Dr Elizabeth Smith is awesome she listens to your questions and then she cares about your health and takes all the time to listen as needed.

She does not listen. If you are uninsured she will do no testing to get to root cause of chronic symptoms. She is very judgemental. Do not go to her if you have an option.i have been sick for months and she said I have nothing to offer.

The only missing link to perfect scores is the staffs lack of response to voicemail as they do not answer phones

I have seen Dr. Smith for several years and she has consistently been wonderfully attentive and thorough. She makes you feel really listened to and has genuine care for her patients. Office staff are great too. Cant recommend highly enough

Dr Smith is kind and spends plenty of time with her patients. Is very thorough. I get the feeling she cares.