If Google had allowed it, I would have definitely given 0 stars: the horridly irresponsible MRI technician must be fired not today – yesterday.
Today (12/3/24) I had an appointment for an abdominal MRI. I arrived in a wheelchair (accompanied by my granddaughter) at the appointment on time but was mistreated by the MRI technician on duty. Only one technician was working today, so she was to conduct my test. My doctor referred me to an MRI test with and without contrast. After doing the non-contrast part, the technician, after trying to penetrate the vein to apply the contrast, gave up after several attempts. She kept looking for a vein, repeatedly perforating my both arms, but didn’t succeed (we are talking about a professional, right?) My granddaughter and I asked, even begged, to call in the doctor so that she or he could apply the contrast, but the technician lied – you heard it right: outright lied to us that the doctor already left for the day. The technician then left right away, without completing the contrast part of the test, rushing out like a bullet, while I was still in the MRI testing room. This was at 4:30 PM, well before her scheduled shift ended at 5 PM.
Only when we returned to the front desk and talked to the staff did we discover that the doctor was in fact there, and the technician knew this. The technician could’ve talked to the staff at the front desk to ask them to call in the doctor, but she didn’t even try.
This is a clear case of negligence: the MRI test was prescribed with contrast too, and the self-centered decision of the technician to conduct it without contrast without consulting with the doctor and even doing the basic minimum to call in the doctor is against all medical principles.
Sadly, I suffer from many medical problems, including hypertension, impaired cerebral blood flow, dizziness, asthma, thrombophlebitis, serious varicose veins, lymphedema, severe knee arthritis, due to which I can’t move around, even at home, without a wheelchair. This is just the tip of the iceberg of all the problems I unfortunately need to deal with day to day. Now, I had to prepare for this appointment by taking two types of medications: Dipherdryl and Prednisone, every several hours before the appointment, so I didn’t even sleep well the night before the appointment. All this is, of course, without mentioning that the appointment was postponed by the clinic twice (!) because all technicians were away or were busy or whatever. You can start imagining what a challenge it was for me to prepare for and arrive at the appointment, only to face another disappointment just because of the actions of that irresponsible technician.
We tried asking the people sitting at the front desk (who kindly apologized to us for what happened) for the name of the technician, but they didn’t tell us. For your reference, the technician is a slim, dark-haired young woman in her 20s or 30s, who speaks Russian (though somewhat brokenly).
Bottom line: if you are scheduling an MRI test at Sinai Diagnostics, and you learn that your test will be done by this one young lady: better ask to change the appointment to have it with a different technician, or just do it at a different location/clinic, for your own sake.
And to Sinai Diagnostics: fire this technician ASAP. Her lack of professionalism and disregard for patient well-being is just unacceptable. She shouldn’t be allowed to work in any medical field until she gets, and most importantly, learns and applies, proper technical training. You deserve better, more serious employees. The staff in this clinic are always friendly and professional, and the doctors, including Dr. Kolesnikov, are amazing, but mind that the clinic’s image gets ruined because of the employment of such a few rotten apples like that careless technician.
