Below is the letter I just sent to the UW Health Patient Relations Department:
RE: Leslie Liegel, PA, Complaint
Dear Sir or Madam:
On August 20, 2019, my husband and I had my husband’s first
appointment with the UW Health Pain Clinic.
Unfortunately, that appointment was with Leslie Liegel, PA. We live in Athens, Wisconsin, a drive which
took us approximately 2-1/2 hours. We
left our home at approximately 8 a.m. for our 11 a.m. appointment. Unfortunately, traffic was not on our side,
and we were 13 minutes late to our appointment.
The receptionist explained that there was a 15 minute window, but that
we were within that window, at 13 minutes.
While speaking with the receptionist and completing the last-minute
registration information, Mr. Liegel informed the receptionist that he would
not see my husband and that we would have to reschedule the appointment. Needless to say, my husband and I were
flabbergasted. We pleaded with the
receptionist, who again asked Mr. Liegel, who again declined to see us, even
though we had traveled 173 miles to this appointment and I had taken the day off
of work. As we were pleading again with
the receptionist, the office manager happened to come out. The situation was explained to her and I’m
assuming she discussed the matter with Mr. Liegel and came back out to advise
that we would be able to see him after all.
We were able to complete the registration information and were escorted
to a patient room.
We spent approximately ten minutes finishing additional
information with another woman (possibly a nurse?), and then Mr. Liegel entered
the exam room. Upon his entering the
room, he introduced himself to my husband and completely ignored me. He reviewed my husband’s information on the
computer and asked a couple of questions.
He then did a brief examination on my husband and asked him to walk
towards the door and walk back and then to attempt to walk on his toes. After that, Mr. Liegel indicated that my
husband may be a candidate for infusions and that our time was up. I asked him what the infusions were and what
was the difference between infusions and a pain pump and why was he not a
candidate for the pain pump. He briefly
explained the lidocaine infusions and when I asked for additional information,
he rummaged through the desk, but was unable to find any information relating
to them. He then wrote the words “lidocaine
infusion” on a business card and told us to “Google it.”
At that point, I asked Mr. Liegel how my husband’s pain medication
would be handled, because he has a doctor with Advanced Pain Management that
prescribes his Hydrocodone. Mr. Liegel
informed us that UW Health Pain Management does not write prescriptions for pain
medicine and that we would have to continue seeing my husband’s doctor at
Advanced Pain Management. He then stated
that we should make an appointment in three weeks to go over the infusions and
schedule any tests that may be needed and left the exam room. We arrived at UW Health at 11:13 a.m. and left
the exam room with Mr. Liegel at approximately 11:50. A total of approximately 37 minutes was spent
at the Clinic, after driving more than two and a half hours.
To say we were disappointed with Mr. Liegel would be quite
an understatement. Mr. Liegel has
absolutely no compassion and did not care that we were stuck in traffic or that
we had driven 173 miles just to see him.
My husband is in an incredible amount of pain on a daily
basis. He has a very complicated health
history, having had cancer 3 times, a bone marrow transplant, congestive heart
failure, a pacemaker defibrillator, bulging disks, a history of shingles and
neuropathy in both his hands and feet, among other issues. We came to UW Health, in part, based on the
information on your website. We expected,
after having had to wait approximately one month for an appointment so that all
of his records could be gathered, that his records would have been reviewed by
your “team” of doctors and that we would be meeting with more than just a physician
assistant. We assumed our appointment
would last a couple of hours and that we
would be meeting with these additional specialists on the “team” and a plan of
action would be put in place. We did not
expect that we were only allotted 40 minutes with an egotistical PA who appeared
to have not even bothered to look at my husband’s records prior to his
appointment. Instead, we were met with a
physician assistant who at first refused to see us, and when he did see us, was
nothing less than arrogant and condescending.
Additionally, I have since discovered that the doctors at UW Health Pain
Clinic do indeed prescribe pain medications, so Mr. Liegel outright lied to
us.
The lack of compassion expressed by Mr. Liegel for someone
in constant pain (as stated on his form, my husband’s pain is generally an 8
out of 10) was infuriating, and quite frankly, disgusting. Instead of even attempting to obtain
information relating to the lidocaine infusions, Mr. Liegel told us to look up
the information ourselves by “Googling it.”
As the internet is full of
inaccurate information, and we specifically wanted information on UW Health’s
lidocaine infusion program, advising us to “Google it” was completely
unacceptable.
Neither my husband, nor I, understood the need to come back
in three weeks to further “discuss” the lidocaine infusions and to schedule
whatever testing may be necessary prior to any potential infusions. We have no intentions of driving almost 350
miles for yet another less than 30 minute appointment with a physician
assistant with a sneering attitude and complete and utter lack of compassion,
only to have to schedule more appointments to have tests completed at a future
time. Additionally, I absolutely refuse
to see any professional who outright lied to me and my husband. That one lie has proven Mr. Liegel to be
completely untrustworthy, unreliable and absolutely unprofessional. I do not trust Mr. Liegel to tell us the
truth about anything after lying about prescribing pain medication.
We currently have an appointment scheduled for September 9,
2019 with Mr. Liegel. I will be
canceling that appointment, as we will never waste our time with Mr. Liegel
again. I refuse to be treated in such a
horrible, condescending manner. I refuse
to be lied to by a medical professional and I refuse to have my husband treated
by someone with absolutely no compassion.
Mr. Liegel is the epitome of everything that is wrong with the medical
profession and I will be filing a complaint with the Wisconsin Medical
Examining Board and the Wisconsin Department of Health and Human Services with
regard to Mr. Liegel’s unethical behavior.
Sincerely,
Gregory P. Miklaszewicz
Julie A. Miklaszewicz
GPM:bms
