"It’s not a checkup. If they’re seeing us, there’s a problem," said Dr. Christopher Fink, a pediatric gastroenterologist at Santa Clara Valley Medical Center.
He and two other doctors, including Dr. Rachel Ruiz, wrote a letter to hospital leaders on Dec. 8 requesting “an urgent meeting” to talk about the state of the facility’s pediatric gastroenterology department.
In the letter, obtained by the Investigative Unit, the physicians detailed what they describe as a dire situation.
According to the letter, their department had 135 routine new referrals waiting for an appointment that, once made, would still be three months out.
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In the letter, the doctors estimate, “It takes three to four months for a child in that queue to make it to the front of the line to then be able to make an appointment with us. Therefore, our wait times for routine new patients is about six to seven months.”
Dr. Ruiz feels the system is inequitable and unjust.
“What if that family doesn’t speak English? That adds a whole other barrier,” she said. “When you’re thinking about a problem that you’re dealing with, whether it’s a stomach ache, whether it’s horrible diarrhea every day where you’re afraid to even go to school…it creates a stress for the entire family.”
Dr. Ruiz is one of the doctors the Investigative Unit spoke to for our prior report on physician burnout and long patient wait times for specialty care across more than 20 Valley Medical Center departments. Over the course of our reporting, the county reached a deal with physicians to increase their pay, add staff and allow primary care doctors to see one fewer patient per four-hour period. Dr. Ruiz and Dr. Fink say the deal does not help their department because they are a specialty.
“This population here has less capacity to advocate for themselves,” Dr. Fink said. “What I find disappointing is that they’re treated differently when the reason to treat somebody with compassion and respect is not because they might sue you, but because it’s the right thing to do.”
The doctors say there is a separate queue for urgent cases, but to get on that list, a pediatrician or the family needs to advocate for the child. In some cases, they say, families aren’t able to advocate enough for the child or they might miss a hospital notification. Ultimately, Dr. Frink and Dr. Ruiz believe the county needs to increase patient access by hiring another fulltime pediatric gastroenterologist – something they’ve been requesting for more than a year, they say.
On Monday, Santa Clara Valley Medical Center’s CEO Paul Lorenz declined an interview with the Investigative Unit and did not answer specific questions our team sent to him. Instead, he sent a statement to NBC Bay Area saying, ““Like many health care systems, our hospitals and clinics are impacted by a high number of patients seeking care following the COVID-19 pandemic and the rising incidence of influenza and RSV.”
The statement went on to say, in part, “We are working with the Pediatric GI Division to ensure that all clinic appointment slots are appropriately filled and optimized each day, to assess any additional provider staffing needs, and to further improve the system and patient access.”
“We think about if that was my child, if that was my niece or my nephew or my neighbor, would it be acceptable? And the answer is always no,” said Dr. Ruiz. “Something needs to change.”
Update: On Dec. 16, the County of Santa Clara sent the Investigative Unit a statement saying:
"Currently, based on information from the pediatric GI division, appointments for urgent visits are scheduled according to urgency and can be accommodated as soon as within 1-2 weeks. Routine appointments typically take about three months given the increase in patient volume following the COVID-19 pandemic. We have not been provided with any information to support the allegations that new/routine appointments take 6-7 months...If there are specific outlier situations, we would be happy to review them with the division."
Candice Nguyen was the investigative reporter on this story. If you'd like to reach her about this report or another story idea, email candice.nguyen@nbcuni.com.
