UST Hospital's Billing Department: BAD Customer Service

Please see below my entire email to UST. I dunno if it will fall on deaf ears, so I'd rather share this with my friends.

November 24, 2008 sent to medicaltourism@usthospital.com.ph:

I want to file a complaint against one staff in your Billing Department, assigned in Window 7. She's an aged lady with a permanent frown on her face. This incident happend last Saturday, November 22. (Kindly check who was in Window 7 on the afternoon of the said date.)

My fiance was diagnosed with Stage III Dengue and has been confined in your hospital since Wednesday afternoon, November 19. Last Saturday, November 22, I wanted to make sure his Philhealth requirements were complete, so I went to the PHilhealth window of your Billing section. The staff there told me I needed to retrieve several documents from our office (my fiance & i are officemates)in order to process his PHIC requirements in time for the billing. The staff in the PHIC window suggested that I could have the remaining documents faxed and I just have to pay them. I frantically called up the office and pleaded with our accounting supervisor to go back to the office and fax documents to the billing section's fax number.

Our acctng supervisor texted me that she already faxed to the said number. I POLITELY asked the lady in Window 7 if she knew where that certain fax number was, because there was an fax for Philhealth. With a sour expression on her face, she got up, checked the fax and handed me 2 pages. I paid for it and then confirmed with our supervisor if it was just 2 pages. She said it was 5 pages, and that the person who answered the fax confirmed having received 5 pages. So I again politely asked the lady in Window 7 if there wasn't any other pages left, and she irritatedly looked at me and said, "Wala na nga eh, yan lng tlga ung andon." I just said thank you and again pleaded with our supervisor to re-fax the 3 remaining pages.

(By this time the pressure on my part was great because our office was already supposed to be closed by this time -- I was the only reason why they couldn't close up.)

Then our supervisor texted me that the billing department's fax line is busy, so she couldn't get through. I approached the lady in Window 7 to supposedly ask if there was another fax number. I barely got the words, "Mam, ung fax po..." when she looked at me and cut me off, "Pra san ba yang pinapafax mo?!" I was stunned and told her, "for Philhealth po." It turns out that the staff in the Philhealth window was talking to someone over the fax line. The lady, assuming that the Philhealth guy was talking to MY office, told me sharply, "Eh un na nga ung kausap nung tga Philhealth eh!! Galit pa nga ata opisina nyo eh! Yun na oh!" she said, her nguso pointing irritatedly to the fax machine. I was barely able to tell her what our company name was when she said , "Oo nga! un nga eh!" so I scrambled out of her window. Confused, I called up our supervisor and asked her if she was on the fax line with UST, but she told me, "Hindi ah, busy nga eh, hirap maka-connect." The lady in window 7 really did not bother to check, she just thought of me as a nuisance, when in fact I used all politeness and pakikisuyo when dealing with her. Despite having a long line, I just made a request to the Philhealth staff to give me a new number, all this time causing delay in our office also.

I would just like to remind you that at that the fact that people are there in the Billing section preparing Philhealth requirements means that someone close to them was/is SICK. Sick enough to get confined and file a claim through Philhealth. Most, if not all, are dealing with paying large sums of money, and so the last thing that we need is MORE STRESS FROM YOUR VERY OWN STAFF -- the very same people who are supposed to guide us on what to do.

For sure, there are some people who may not be as educated as I am who will be asking questions from them, because NOT EVERYBODY IS PRIVY TO THE PROCEDURES OF HOSPITALS. I hate to think what this lady does to other people who seek her help.

Whatever happened to your mission to "provide the best quality healthcare possible, especially to our less fortunate brothers and sisters..."? If that lady in your billing section does not have the patience to deal with a polite and educated person like me, then we can certainly expect she will barely have patience to answer basic questions from those who barely know what to do.

I'd like to turn the tables on her, see what she would do if one of her loved ones got really sick and the hospital billing staff SNUBS her face off and REFUSES to assist her.

I look up to UST Hospital as an institution who will take care of our needs. I was born there, in fact. I hate to lose my respect for it just because you have a dragon lady in your billing department. But unfortunately, it's experiences like these that we tend to remember. Instead of remembering how your nursing staff were prompt in attending to our needs, I'd remember how your billing staff made life hard for me. Yes, I'd remember, and would likely NOT forget. See how important customer service is?


I know I came quite close to losing my fiance, 1 month before our wedding. But I most certainly do not need any further stress from the hospital which saved him.


A very disappointed customer,

Eva