Contact Ascension Online Care Support

I have tried this service a few times now. One time it took me 5 hours to speak to someone. I get assigned to a doctor and wait in line until I’m the next patient to be seen (mind you many times throughout the waiting process it appears they add people in front of me because it will get longer multiple times throughout the wait) and then I’ll get a notification that says the doctor is reviewing my file and then I’ll immediately get another notification that I’m being transferred to another doctor where I have to wait in line again. I’m currently waiting for the third doctor tonight and it’s been over 4 hours. Ridiculous. Originally the wait had 3 people ahead of me and as of right now there are 5. This currently is a difficult time because we are all advised to not leave the house if we can avoid it. I felt relief when I found out about this service but I can’t express how frustrating it really is. The app also does not have any clear way to contact customer service. after looking around I finally found a phone number. However as I mentioned I’ve been waiting over 4 hours to speak with a doctor and don’t even want to think about how long it would take to reach someone in customer service.

Just after COVID-19 lockdown on a Friday, March 13th I returned from traveling via airline. Eleven days later I started to run a low grade fever with coughing and decided it was bronchitis again. Called Urgent care on Friday, March 27th who told me not to come in and was referred to Ascension so I downloaded this online service to get antibiotics for chronic bronchitis. There was 28 ahead of me and I got dumped with message “Physician not available” then logged back on and 41 ahead of me. Tried again on Saturday and could never get a physician as the lines were too long. I understand there were probably not enough available because of COVID-19 and lines were too long as a result. I could not get my primary doctor either. Many emergency rooms were locked down too so I tried to treat myself but without antibiotics I would not be successful. On Sunday after low pulse oxygen, my wife called an ambulance. At the hospital they begin antibiotic treatment as I now had pneumonia but was isolated with COVID-19 precautions until I tested negative. I spent 5 days in the hospital. If only I could have talked to a doctor and gotten oral antibiotics. So I feel that the fact I could never connect with an online physician did not serve me well.

I made an appointment, had to fill out intake info only for the appointment to be cancelled at the time it was scheduled for. If you’re going to offer a service like this your app better be top notch. I could have taken my daughter to an actual urgent care and been back home. You need to find a way to hold doctors accountable to the appointment they accept. I then signed in to wait for the next available doctor for urgent care. It started at 11 patients before us, dropped to 10, then went back to 11. What?? We waited an hour and a half and still weren’t seen. I cancelled that appointment and signed back in for the next available doctor and my daughter was finally seen. This was way more of a headache and waste of time than actually going in and waiting. If we weren’t practicing social distancing I wouldn’t have wasted my time or money. We don’t even have an option to give our intake info from the very beginning or to even save it! I had to fill in the info each time we tried a new doctor. Apps are supposed to make everything easier and more convenient. This one does the exact opposite.