Well, it is to me anyway. I was curious to see if my terrible GAL had been run out of town on a rail yet, and lo, UW Medicine is employing her! As some kind of “pain consultant.” I found this yelp review on her (I REALLY don’t think she should have MD appended to her title), and it all sounds very familiar.
Choice quotes from the reviewer:
I spent hours painstakingly copying my medical records and I even made a late night trip to a hospital to get a copy of a medical imaging report for this visit, yet Dr. Ballantyne didn’t even glance at my records.
Even the forms that I was asked to fill out with all kinds of personal questions about my family and whether or not my parents were alcoholics or iused illicit drugs were not reviewed. These forms are copious, and a waste of time if you ask me if they are just going to ask you the question again anyway in person because apparently they don’t want to take the time to read.
Sight unseen of course, but this sounds a lot like my GAL intake forms.
When I researched this woman further, I found that she is a clinical social worker and owns a company that does parenting evaluations in divorce and custody court cases and reunification therapy/supervised visitation. How does this qualify her to do Pain Management? How did this woman get this job? Why is this clinic masquerading as a bona fide Pain Management Clinic? This is the University of Washington? Apparently.
A quick skip over to the staff page shows that the clinic employs another Ballantyne. What an interesting coincidence.
Truth is truly stranger than fiction.
Truth will out, always
I am bringing the truth out, how about that? :D
Oh you’ve got to be fucking kidding me. For real!?!
My mom is a patient at UW PM, and now I need to make sure she stays far, far away from this human trainwreck.
Ugh. She’s preying on people at their most vulnerable – when they are fighting for their kids or in physical pain. Are you planning to pursue it at all?
Hi Lucy, I am pursuing it. I’m taking her to small claims court next month, and I submitted a complaint with Seattle’s GAL licensing board. I’m also trying to bring what I know to light via google results. I’m not a Dateline producer (is that still a thing?) so I don’t know what else I could be doing. If you have any suggestions, I am open to hearing them.
If she’s truly advertising herself as a medical doctor (MD), then report her and UW PM to the state board of health. There’s no record of her on file with them.
Or just call Jesse at King 5. Fame! Shame!
I’m with Hovy on getting this on the local news.
Maybe The Stranger would pick up the gauntlet.
It totally seems like something The Stranger could run with.
So she’s an impostor? Like the guy in Catch Me If You Can?
This is fascinating! Keep us posted!!!
Now you’ve got me interested. I’ll bet there is so much web dirt on this chick.
I’m sure you saw this:
http://www.merchantcircle.com/business/Indaba.Center.206-860-3133/review/read?cid=1806683
Oh yeah, I’ve seen the bad reviews back to 2011 or so.
I’m sure you’ve probably seen this too, but someone else out there is trying to organize some action against this lady
http://m.rateitall.com/i-3746113-indaba-center.aspx
Hi bec, I was not aware of that. I see that the comment is over a couple of years old. It sounds like this person didn’t get anywhere with their campaign.
Sorry SJ, I only just came back and saw your response. I didn’t mean my comment to imply that you weren’t doing enough, or the right thing, but reading it back I can see it easily could have.
I’m just so appalled that someone would prey on people like that, and angry that she made what seems like such an unfair and shitty situation for you even worse.
I was thinking along the lines of maybe reporting her to the medical board or contacting U Washington to find out if they know a social worker is working as a pain management specialist, or something like that. I’m Australian, so I’m not entirely sure how reporting stuff like this works over your way.
Hi Lucy,
This is when I wish we had sarcasm marks, or “no sarcasm” marks as in this case. I never assume people have read every post, because people be busy, so I was attempting to apprise you of what I’d done already to see if you knew anything more. A lot of people’s advice isn’t worth a jolly bucket full of dead rats, but I always ask, because lots more people know boodles more than I do. So I always ask!
Thanks for commenting.
Ah, I get it! No drama. I just like your blog and didn’t want you to think I was a rude commenter, heh. Good luck with slaying the evil GALdragon.