1 /5 James Kushon: Lies and retaliation from a group of "medical professionals" that have incentive to do better because they have a constant feed of patients to matter how poor the service they deliver. What I write here may seem like a fabrication, I will swear an oath under penalty of perjury that everything in this review in 100% accurate:
Synovation Medical Group is a pain management group in Southern California. They are also the sole provider of pain management services for 1 of only 2 or maybe 3 plan administrators for MediCal. In other words, they have a pipeline of patients constantly coming in their front doors, no matter what level of service they give. A few housekeeping things before we get into my specifics:
Dr. Jain has been in their Santa Ana office for approximately 3 years. One of the options in their phone menu is to leave a message for your provider. In the 3 years Dr Jain has been in that office, she has never established an inbox on their phone system, yet the PA she replaced. her mailbox has remained the entire time.
I cannot take my pain injections on a schedule due to the nature of my neck injury. I have to wait until the pain starts, then I schedule the shot (which is under full anesthesia). They did not make any accommodation and told me I had to wait 2 months. The clinical director, who does my shots, told me to message him through their system. Multiple messages to both him and my doctor have gone unanswered for months.
When I had to schedule another injection, it was a 6 week wait and I was having considerable pain. I inquired about a waiting list. I was told there was none and the only way was to call the office every day. The next day, I used 2 different cell phones and I called the Santa Ana office 250 times. Not once did a human pick up and ALL voicemails were full.
I drove there the next day and asked them about the phones. I was told they were working just fine and that I must be dialing the wrong extension. Without them knowing I was able to dial it right in front of them, it rang.
I filed a complaint with my plan administrator. Synovation responded stating they reply to voicemails and emails within 24 hours and that patients are seen within 10 minutes. That is funny, my last appointment was 2:45 behind schedule and I was told that is modus operandi 6 in beds and the waiting room overflowing before the doctors even get in.
Now it is 100% retaliation for my calling them to the carpet for their bad actions.
Because my last injection had so little efficacy, Dr Jain referred me for an MRI. At the same appointment we made a followup appointment to go over the results of the MRI and determine next steps. I got the MRI and the findings, well less than stellar. 3 severely bulging discs, 4 sizable spurs, a reverse of the curvature and a few other things with the word severe in front of them.
So last week, the day before the appointment I got a text confirming my appointment, I didnt realize it was for a different office, it is a PA from their Simi Valley office (Im in the City of Orange) calling me to do a medication check and that Dr Jain was out sick. He knew nothing about the MRI, the results were not in my chart, he was completely confused and he transferred me to the front desk. Shocker, I got voicemail.
I played a hunch and called Synovation Santa Ana early the next morning, much to my not surprise, Dr Jain was in the clinic all day the day before, no sickness, nothing. I asked about an appointment with her because I needed to review my MRI… 6 weeks!!!
When I finally had an appointment with the PA a week later, he suggested PT and maybe some chiropractic. The first he had even seen my MRI results was when he was on the phone with me. He was so tragically out of his depth it was palpable.
The sad part is this review means nothing because their patient count will continue to grow because MediCal will continue to send them patients. I am grateful that Covered California was there for me when COVID took my business. Coverage is great, but I actually need healthcare from these people!!!
