Awhile back we had an intern call Planned Parenthood (PP) centers to find out where they were referring for mammograms. Mainly, we found they don’t refer much.
But we found something we weren’t even looking for: about a quarter of them either didn’t answer the phone, left the caller on hold for a good long time, or hung up before answering.
We now have thousands of Google and Yelp Reviews for the PP centers. We counted those that had complaints of serious phone problems – not just one person one time, which could be a glitch, but one person several times or several people reporting the problem.
This also came to about about a quarter of the centers.
Those reviews are up at Problems at Planned Parenthood, which is primarily a facts-only site intended for those who refer to PP or otherwise would be taken aback. On this Grassroots Defunding site, whose primary audience is pro-life activists, we have these centers marked with this banner:
We also include the link to the Problems website page that includes that center, where you can find out if the reviewers are complaining about no answer, no answer back, long waits on hold, etc.
So Why Do We Care?
If PP doesn’t run its business well on something this basic, why not let them lose business? Though online appointments are more common now, they could still lose appointments for medical services that, unlike abortion, people can easily get elsewhere (STD testing, etc.) We’re working on various methods to get those potential patients going elsewhere. Not answering the phone would be a method they’re using on themselves.
But as with their other methods of being uncaring, the phone practices can cause a lot of damage:
Medical danger: Not getting back test results, not getting appointment changes clarified, having a medical emergency — phone problems which block crucial communication can make medical conditions worse. Some of the reviews will say so.
Financial danger: An inability to get a bill straightened out could be a major hardship on low-income people. Again, some reviews will show such frustrations.
People who refer to PP now are already unimpressed with the problems of abortion. But do they want to refer people to a healthcare place that can’t reliably be reached by phone? If they know about the problem, it could be a way of getting them to take PP off the list of those they refer to.
Documenting Problems
Much as other problems would be hard to find evidence for, being a phone-caller is about as simple as it gets. Pulling together a project where several people call can tell you whether the problem has been fixed since the review was written, or whether it’s still a problem all the time, or more likely it’s a problem at some times and not at others.
Recording with a time stamp gives you legal-testimony level documentation. But when we’re talking about something that isn’t likely to go to court, you could just write down the time and date and exactly what happened and keep the notes.
Of course, you need to be prepared with something to say if they do answer. Asking about prices for STD tests might be a good idea, since one way to get people to a CHC instead is if you can truly say the CHC has a lower price, and you need to know the prices to do that. Or any other aspect of their services that might be of interest. Or you could honestly tell them you had heard they had trouble about answering the phone and wanted to check on that.
We also have a huge number of complaints about them being rude, and often that’s on the phone. If you want to make that case, of course, you’ll need a recording. They won’t take a PP opponent’s word about whether something was rude. With a recording, they can judge for themselves.
Also, it’s not necessary to have a review to rely on in order to check on your local PP center. Just because no one thought to write a review doesn’t mean the problem isn’t there – especially if it only developed recently.
What To Do When Problems are Documented
Even if you’re not a patron, someone calling on the phone and having trouble is qualified to write a review. The spot for Google and Yelp Reviews is kept updated on the Problems website page for each specific PP center. Those two are just the most prominent; there are other reviewing sites as well.
You can file a complaint – or, with several people, several complaints – with the Better Business Bureau (BBB). The link to some of the centers is on both sites (Grassroots and Problems). If the BBB for the PP center isn’t linked there, you can easily web-search the one that would cover that center.
If it’s sufficiently egregious, you can file complaints with your state’s health department or similar agency. We have those listed in the top content on each state page (as does the Problems website).
If you know of places that refer to that PP center, such as college health services, you can complain to them directly. That will probably be most effective speaking to someone by phone; e-mails tend to get less attention. If the problem is common at this center, it’s something they don’t have to take your word for, but can easily check out for themselves by making phone calls to the center.
These are what we’ve thought of so far. But we don’t know of any precedent for this kind of situation. If you have other ideas, and especially if you try these ideas out and have experience you want to share, please write to:
grassrootsdefunding @ consistent-life . org (remove spaces)
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