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Originally Posted by LSchrum68
I will be relocating to TV in the next 6 months and wanted to get recommendations for medical services such as dentist, PCP, optometrist, pain management specialist, in-home massage therapist, etc. I most likely will be living between the 6s. Thank you!
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Good luck. The quality of medical care overall here in TV is spotty at best. That is not to say that good care doesn't exist. There ARE good providers here. For example Dr. Rao (Advanced Urology) is as good as you're going to find anywhere. But he is hard to get to see: my primary had to pull strings to get me in to see him.
But the problem with Advanced Urology, as with probably most medical establishments here, is that their support teams, to put it bluntly, stink. There seems to be a trend toward hiring technicians rather than the licensed personnel one sees in most other places (they cost less, I suppose), with a commensurate drop in skill level that one may be used to seeing in other places. To add insult to injury, Advanced Urology has a system where you sign in, go to a waiting room, and then after a time are called to sit in another waiting room. Nothing wrong with that, except that the techs who call you when it is your turn, will call you from the end of the hallway where the waiting room is located (maybe 30 feet away), raising their voice to do so, rather than going TO the waiting room to collect the patient. Hard to decipher at times, particularly considering that A. a lot of the people who go there are hard of hearing anyway, and B. the techs are often English-as-a-second-language people and can really butcher a last name when trying to pronounce it. Plus their office personnel is often, to put it mildly, somewhat lacking in skill and/or motivation. I was once scheduled for the same surgery twice in one day! My guess is that you will find such issues, to a greater or lesser degree, in most medical establishments here.
Anyway, after a rather rocky road at first, we've managed to find some pretty good care, as follows:
ADVANCED UROLOGY: See above.
CLEVELAND HEALTH CENTER, Primary Care Physician. Dr. Floryan Gigaj. Small office, Just Dr. Gigaj and two APRNs, but excellent care. They really try to get to know you and will go to bat for you when needed.
MARION DENTAL GROUP: Dentistry. A couple of offices (maybe three) but I use the office on Highway 441 a couple of blocks from Buenos Aires. Five dentists and nine hygienists, plus a front office that really does know what they're doing. I see Dr. Vitaly and am quite happy with his service, though I imagine that the other dentists there are fine as well. One thing I really like about them is that they don't try to upsell you for everything possible at your appointment. Example: I went there for a chipped tooth fully expecting a crown, however I was told that it could be filled and, if that didn't work, a crown was the next option. That was four years ago. Still fine.
OCALA EYE: They have offices all over: I go to the one near Laurel Manor Rec Center and see an ophthalmologist annually. They also have a full-service optical department onsite. Folks there do seem to know what they're doing. A minor issue is what I sense is an "assembly line" approach. Get 'em in, get 'em out.
It took us awhile to find the care we have, so don't be discouraged if it takes awhile for you also.