Hypaccess

I had a strange experience at this clinic. I had a pelvic floor exam with Tithi Shah, who was excellent, by the way. I had no problems with her or her treatment. But I didn’t feel safe in this office. I was having an extremely intimate, invasive exam — that alone, made me uncomfortable and insecure. The office environment amplified my discomfort. It is disorderly, chaotic, visibly cluttered, has multiple cardboard boxes visible in treatment areas, and two strangely oriented reception desks. I’m hearing loud music that featured course language outside my room being played by the receptionist, and someone even knocked on the door during the exam and almost came in! Thank goodness the door was locked. I didn’t feel this was a private space. The room I was in was extremely small. There was no place to put my belongings or disrobed clothes, and the floor was unkempt. The walls were paper thin, and it was uncomfortable talking about my pelvic floor trauma in this disordered environment. I won’t be returning. I think a great solution to improve your client experience is to make the office a relaxed, organized, and intentional space where healing happens.

This clinic has a warm atmosphere and great staff. They are all very kind and knowledgeable, and it feels nice and safe coming in there. However, one thing that has made me uncomfortable is that Hands of Hope is connected to outside “medical providers” who try to diagnose you and give you “pain treatment” via Zoom or sometimes briefly in person. This system feels very strange and a bit shady. I am on Medicaid so I don’t have to pay out of pocket (but obviously many do); however the medical providers REALLY push medication and random tests. For example, one of them wanted to check my nerves but then was repeatedly insisting I get an allergy test even though I said I have done one before (and it didn’t seem related at all to my issues). Other doctors have pushed crazy amounts of pain killers and one even told me “physical therapy actually won’t fix the issues, so you need medication” when I said I was hesitant to take all these meds. Very strange thing to say at a PT office where we are rebuilding strength and mobility, which obviously can fix issues that are posture related. This part of the business feels very scammy to me, but it’s not Hands of Hope itself. I’m writing this in hopes that they evaluate their relationship to these medical providers, or for others to know that they can say no to this part.