Shady Grove - what were they thinking

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yep... this email arrived overnight from Shutterfly:

Please accept our most sincere apologies. We mistakenly sent an email that was intended only for new parents who recently made baby-related purchases at Shutterfly. We’re truly sorry if you received this email in error. We realize this is a very sensitive issue and we did not mean to upset you in any way.
We care about our customers above all else and have taken measures to ensure this will not happen again. If you have any questions or concerns, please reach out to us at [e-mail] and we’ll get back to you.
Sincerely,
John Boris
Chief Marketing Officer
Shutterfly, Inc.

I didn't get the Shady Grove one but I did get the Shutterfly one. At least it wasn't on Mothers Day I never got the follow up apology letter though!!

[Anonymous]

Those of you defending SG, are you staff, or do you not get that this is about more than the email. If Shady Grove had goodwill with us, we would more easily forgive the mistake. But Shady Grove shows its pure profit motive in the way it treats its patients, while purporting to provide medical "care". When you need more than one hand to count lab, surgery (missing a retrieval!?!) and protocol mistakes that Shady Grove has made on you and friends, in such an important matter in which you invest so much money, time, physical and emotional trauman--the email is just a slap in the face.

Goodwill, when it is there, cushions the blow. Shady Grove has worn out the goodwill with callousness and incompetence.

So such hideous, callous "marketing", is like scraping the bottom of a dry well with a rusty bucket.

But for the SG staff posting here, don't worry too much, the fact that SG accepts most insurance and most generous Shared Risk program ensures your business, and your jobs.

While SG may offer better pricing plans, it's still not chump change, they owe us competence, and they absolutely could add some consideration and compassion without it costing them a cent.

[Anonymous]

I don't think Shitty Grove (I like that one) sold information to Shutterfly. I have a lot of friend with no fertility issues and/or babies who got the Shutterfly email. THey weren't pissed they just thought really bad marketing.

But they don't get why SG did it - even my friends who never want kids are sensitive enough to know better.

If only SG spent more money on keeping costs down vs advertising.

[Anonymous]

My guess it would be against HIPPA policies to sell or provide email addresses to a business or individual.

SGF patient here and I get the frustrations but I have been very fortunate to not have experienced the same issues as some of the previous posters.

I have also been in their waiting rooms and have had the 'pleasure' of dealing with a screaming child and the parents quipping 'Be quiet or nobody here will want to have a kid'. I was gutted because I would have taken that child in a heartbeat (but I would have been arrested for kidnapping). I get the 'no children' policy and absolutely appreciate this option. To those of you fortunate enough to have a child but unfortunately dealing with secondary infertility this is why there is a blanket policy. I am sure you would be responsible to control your children and never be insensitive enough to make such a ridiculous statement in front of a bunch of infertile woman but clearly some people speak before they think.

What would be great is if they had a place on the second floor (which already allows kids) where people that need to have a child with them could quickly drop of a child in a day care setting and them pick them up a few minutes later after they are done with the monitoring. I know that is wishful thinking, but maybe some day these clinics will try to cater to everyone because my guess is a lot of people who are successful at an IVF clinic will think they are the best and will return for repeat business - an interesting way to drive traffic to your clinic maybe...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My guess it would be against HIPPA policies to sell or provide email addresses to a business or individual.

SGF patient here and I get the frustrations but I have been very fortunate to not have experienced the same issues as some of the previous posters.

I have also been in their waiting rooms and have had the 'pleasure' of dealing with a screaming child and the parents quipping 'Be quiet or nobody here will want to have a kid'. I was gutted because I would have taken that child in a heartbeat (but I would have been arrested for kidnapping). I get the 'no children' policy and absolutely appreciate this option. To those of you fortunate enough to have a child but unfortunately dealing with secondary infertility this is why there is a blanket policy. I am sure you would be responsible to control your children and never be insensitive enough to make such a ridiculous statement in front of a bunch of infertile woman but clearly some people speak before they think.

What would be great is if they had a place on the second floor (which already allows kids) where people that need to have a child with them could quickly drop of a child in a day care setting and them pick them up a few minutes later after they are done with the monitoring. I know that is wishful thinking, but maybe some day these clinics will try to cater to everyone because my guess is a lot of people who are successful at an IVF clinic will think they are the best and will return for repeat business - an interesting way to drive traffic to your clinic maybe...

That is a great idea. They already have the acupuncture place right there, why not a daycare? or maybe just for morning monitoring if having it full-time would be cost-prohibitive. If not SGFC, someone should start this service (not that I'm in need of it or will be anytime soon . . . sigh).

[Anonymous]

I love the term "shitty Grove" it's priceless!

[Anonymous]

So this story is on Jezebel now...

[Anonymous]

And not too surprising most people there think it was an honest mistake and it happens. Although a few people thought that us infertile people should not be allowed to have a baby because it is not a right to have kids and ART is not natural.

And this is why any normal and respectable news group won't pick this story up. To the rest of the world, including some of us that got the email and were ok just deleting it, this is not a big deal. A mistake happened and the company apologized. End of story.

And no I don't work at SGF... I just happen to think they do a decent job, provide the respect I deserve as a patient, and I will continue to use them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So this story is on Jezebel now...

Here is the link:

http://jezebel.com/fertility-clinic-sends-out-accidental-congratulations-t-1576801009

[Anonymous]

This isn't personal for me (I went to SG for one consult and then went to another area clinic instead). But it would bother me greatly that even the doctors' apology email was poorly done.

"As you can understand, within this context, the message was very insensitive and hurtful to many."

Thanks for explaining to those who were hurt why they might be feeling bad?!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:And not too surprising most people there think it was an honest mistake and it happens. Although a few people thought that us infertile people should not be allowed to have a baby because it is not a right to have kids and ART is not natural.

And this is why any normal and respectable news group won't pick this story up. To the rest of the world, including some of us that got the email and were ok just deleting it, this is not a big deal. A mistake happened and the company apologized. End of story.

And no I don't work at SGF... I just happen to think they do a decent job, provide the respect I deserve as a patient, and I will continue to use them.

Agreed.

[Anonymous]

And on jezebel I just saw the other apology email. They "feel bad"? Cripes, they can't even get emails checked for proper grammar?

[Anonymous]

And on jezebel I just saw the other apology email. They "feel bad"? Cripes, they can't even get emails checked for proper grammar?

Oh please give us a grammar lesson. Do you think this should be "feel badly"?

When you feel bad you are expressing an emotion or state of being, and you mean that you feel sorry, guilty, sad, or sympathetic.

Badly is an adverb used to modify the verb feel, it should tell how you go about the act of feeling.

So if you burn your fingertips on the oven then your burnt fingertips feel badly (i.e. sense of touch is decreased) and I will feel bad for you since you are in pain.

[Anonymous]

I disagree that SG handled it well. Some of the jezebel comments noted that they hear two SG advertisements on the radio during a 15 minute drive to work.

The problem this highlighted is that for SG marketing/profits far outweigh patient care. Great for everyone who feels cared-for there--I dealt with mistakes, a refusal to agree to things that would protect my health until I fought tooth and nail, and with friends, bad lab and surgery mess ups.

If you are going to a doctor, and they want to control what you do as if you were a patient, they should at least put your care above all. And Shady Grove doesn't. They play the numbers for profit, patients are just "widgets" in that process. I learned it the hard way.

This email incident just highlights that. Take CCRM--the clinic with the highest success rate in the country, even though they take on hard cases. While I can't imagine them sending out such an email--their profits are based on success, not recruiting vast numbers of patients--their patients would be mad but would be able to write it off to a "mistake". Because I've heard not ONE story of a screw up at CCRM, nor of people being treated like cattle, commodities rather than individual patients.

Shady Grove just doesn't treat people well. So if something this stupid sets people off, it's Shady Grove's own practices that set people off to react like that. They have treated many patients badly.

Moreover, I don't find the apology sincere at all. They only care about the bad publicity. Were compassion in the mix they would not have even considered sending out a Mother's Day email--their successful patients were already celebrating, and are unlikely to forget which clinic gave them their baby.

I saw very little respect for the very real pain we go through with failures and losses at SG. Their attitude was "we see it all the time."

So if dissatisfied patients are pissed off, it's not because the patients are too sensitive, it's because Shady Grove has not treated them with dignity in the past, and this was just a trigger for the anger about that.

[Anonymous]

They play the numbers for profit

Interesting... a business that wants to make a profit. The nerve of them...

Until infertility is considered a disease (not talking about a potential disease that results in infertility) it will continue to be a huge for profit business since insurance in most states is not required to cover it. I would place it in the realm of plastics (boob jobs, nose jobs, tummy tucks etc.) ... not an essential service (but very happy it exists - I mean IVF but maybe a boob job or tummy tuck in my future would be nice also... j/k). With any business with competition in the area we would expect them to have significant advertising. Obviously, the radio station I listen to is not the same as others because I only hear Dominion commercials daily.

If we all lived in Colorado it would be a no brainer to use CCRM.