Dr. Singh (who resides in Texas) has had his way with the county. He bought the hospital and equipment for far below appraisal value because the oversight group for Palm Drive was incompetent, to put it mildly. He then failed to provide emergency or at least urgent care and blamed it on Covid. But he took Covid patients at his 'hospital' (really an acute care nursing home) because it was extremely lucrative. His protocols were loudly criticized by his staff. I really don't understand why he isn't being sued by the county for breach of contact. He is making money and will make even more when he decides to sell the property. But the county just can't be bothered going after him?
While I don't doubt the difficulties of operating an urgent care facility or the stranglehold placed on doctors by insurance companies these days, I feel Sebastopol Times has done a disservice in writing an essentially hagiographic piece about Sebastopol Urgent Care and Dr. Flower in particular. Flower claims to "not (be) here to get rich, I'm here for the community," yet she operates a concierge practice clearly for the benefit of the 1% with its $1500/year membership fee (as of last year). She also claims to want to see 20 patients a day in urgent care. I find this curious because I took my elderly mother to see her at urgent care where (after a very slipshod exam) Flower didn't review my mother's list of prescriptions (all two of them!) and ended up prescribing one of the exact same medications my mother was already taking -- when I mentioned this to Flower, her petulant VERBATIM response was "Well I've seen 21 patients today and I'm tired." (So does that mean she can see the 20 she wants to see but you'd better not have the bad luck to be patient nos. 21 or 22?) She was unprofessional and rude, so maybe that's why people aren't flocking to her urgent care facility.
As for Sonoma Specialty Hospital being in breach of its contract to provide urgent care to Sebastopol, which is a whole other can of worms, it uses the excuse of not fulfilling that part of the contract because Sebastopol already has an urgent care facility in place, Dr. Flower's. So maybe Dr. Flower shouldn't have opened her urgent care in the first place, since it may have impeded Sonoma Specialty Hospital's ability to fulfill its contract and open its own.
Shortly after moving to the area about two years ago, I had a very positive weekend experience with Dr. Flower at Sebastopol Urgent Health Care. I was very ill and she quickly diagnosed the problem and provided just the right treatment--her ER experience is a real asset. Check-in and wait were short and easy. Within a day, I was on-the-mend. I will definitely use the clinic again if a need arises and my usual health provider isn't available. I am forever grateful and hope the clinic can continue to serve this delightful community.
The state of medical practitioners, their reimbursement through insurance and ability to stay afloat is yet another crisis of our times. I just want to say here that Dr. Roger Pitzen, Dr. Flower's neighbor, has been providing "sports medicine", "Urgent Care", "Concierge Care" and much more for decades, simply because he feels that's the way medicine should be practiced. I know how fortunate my family is to be in his care. We have worked hard and paid more to keep him as our physician for decades. This is not a criticism of Dr. Flowers or anyone else. I just feel compelled to give the wonderful Dr. Pitzen a shout out and thank you publicly here- a true (and largely unsung) hero of Sebastopol.
"Dr. Flower post a community appeal for more people to use the Urgent Care service" Maybe I don't understand "urgent care " but that doesn't sound like something people proactively plan to use. It's an unexpected emergency service?
I had the same thought. But I think, as evidenced by one of these comments, that people didn’t know she was there at all and we’re therefore driving to Santa Rosa for urgent care.
I think part of the issue is that the urgent care does not take Medi-Cal so even if they take Medicare, there are many seniors that have med-cal as a secondary and a required to pay 20% of services.
Wow. Here's the thing. I am a long time resident of Sebastopol. I did not even know there was an urgent care office in this town. I assumed that one had to go to SR for urgent care. This useful article can get the word out but maybe there are other ways as well to let people know this service exists?
Dr. Singh (who resides in Texas) has had his way with the county. He bought the hospital and equipment for far below appraisal value because the oversight group for Palm Drive was incompetent, to put it mildly. He then failed to provide emergency or at least urgent care and blamed it on Covid. But he took Covid patients at his 'hospital' (really an acute care nursing home) because it was extremely lucrative. His protocols were loudly criticized by his staff. I really don't understand why he isn't being sued by the county for breach of contact. He is making money and will make even more when he decides to sell the property. But the county just can't be bothered going after him?
While I don't doubt the difficulties of operating an urgent care facility or the stranglehold placed on doctors by insurance companies these days, I feel Sebastopol Times has done a disservice in writing an essentially hagiographic piece about Sebastopol Urgent Care and Dr. Flower in particular. Flower claims to "not (be) here to get rich, I'm here for the community," yet she operates a concierge practice clearly for the benefit of the 1% with its $1500/year membership fee (as of last year). She also claims to want to see 20 patients a day in urgent care. I find this curious because I took my elderly mother to see her at urgent care where (after a very slipshod exam) Flower didn't review my mother's list of prescriptions (all two of them!) and ended up prescribing one of the exact same medications my mother was already taking -- when I mentioned this to Flower, her petulant VERBATIM response was "Well I've seen 21 patients today and I'm tired." (So does that mean she can see the 20 she wants to see but you'd better not have the bad luck to be patient nos. 21 or 22?) She was unprofessional and rude, so maybe that's why people aren't flocking to her urgent care facility.
As for Sonoma Specialty Hospital being in breach of its contract to provide urgent care to Sebastopol, which is a whole other can of worms, it uses the excuse of not fulfilling that part of the contract because Sebastopol already has an urgent care facility in place, Dr. Flower's. So maybe Dr. Flower shouldn't have opened her urgent care in the first place, since it may have impeded Sonoma Specialty Hospital's ability to fulfill its contract and open its own.
Shortly after moving to the area about two years ago, I had a very positive weekend experience with Dr. Flower at Sebastopol Urgent Health Care. I was very ill and she quickly diagnosed the problem and provided just the right treatment--her ER experience is a real asset. Check-in and wait were short and easy. Within a day, I was on-the-mend. I will definitely use the clinic again if a need arises and my usual health provider isn't available. I am forever grateful and hope the clinic can continue to serve this delightful community.
The state of medical practitioners, their reimbursement through insurance and ability to stay afloat is yet another crisis of our times. I just want to say here that Dr. Roger Pitzen, Dr. Flower's neighbor, has been providing "sports medicine", "Urgent Care", "Concierge Care" and much more for decades, simply because he feels that's the way medicine should be practiced. I know how fortunate my family is to be in his care. We have worked hard and paid more to keep him as our physician for decades. This is not a criticism of Dr. Flowers or anyone else. I just feel compelled to give the wonderful Dr. Pitzen a shout out and thank you publicly here- a true (and largely unsung) hero of Sebastopol.
"Dr. Flower post a community appeal for more people to use the Urgent Care service" Maybe I don't understand "urgent care " but that doesn't sound like something people proactively plan to use. It's an unexpected emergency service?
I had the same thought. But I think, as evidenced by one of these comments, that people didn’t know she was there at all and we’re therefore driving to Santa Rosa for urgent care.
I think part of the issue is that the urgent care does not take Medi-Cal so even if they take Medicare, there are many seniors that have med-cal as a secondary and a required to pay 20% of services.
Wow. Here's the thing. I am a long time resident of Sebastopol. I did not even know there was an urgent care office in this town. I assumed that one had to go to SR for urgent care. This useful article can get the word out but maybe there are other ways as well to let people know this service exists?