I would have given 5 stars because staff and Dr. all very attentive and thorough (and I will continue care), and I am pleased with options being offered for treatment. However, I live in a part of the country where masking is all about muh freedum and people resist like masking will kill them - like entitled toddlers. I was surprised that during an uptick with a highly contagious variant that can be transmitted by anyone, vaxxed or not, there was no masking going on in the office, especially for an ENT. To Dr's credit, when I expressed that I would feel safer if he wore a mask, from that point forward during my visit, all staff were wearing masks (like he had snapped his fingers, and presto, they were masked up). I appreciated that very much, and no one treated me with a sideways attitude about it. But I still don't understand why, given we've known for weeks that we are in an uptick with the variant that there was any hesitation for a Dr.'s office wearing masks. Dr. said it was because the school's were only told to mask up the day before (but I must note that we have had these clear data ramping up for weeks, so...?) It isn't just this office. It was the same at the local Orthopedist and even Pediatrician's offices that are privately owned and not directly affiliated with the hospital. I feel all medical professionals should follow the hospital's lead during a pandemic, even in private practices - especially with what is going on in states like FL, TX, AL, and now ID. Not only does it instill confidence in critical-thinking patients who actually follow peer-reviewed evidence over the going Murica God & Country Mah Freedum sentiments (which let's face it, are rooted in some very immature egos and denial of science), it also evidences that the medical professionals are in fact... professional. This could have gone badly. Kudos to Dr. for masking up his staff, but it would have been five stars had that been the case at the outset, especially if his office also required patients to mask up in the waiting room. Also, the wait as a new patient was almost 30 minutes, so that was a bit much as I was told I was his first patient right after lunch. Room for improvement.
