Irvine Urgent Care — Attraction in Irvine

My visit today was downright bizarre. The wait was quite reasonable given it was so crowded but once I was called back the young woman who took my vitals (she never introduced herself) was not friendly and did not inspire much confidence in the care I was getting ready to receive as it was the most painful blood pressure read I have ever had. I don't know if the machine was not functioning properly but the cuff remained tight far too long then as the pressure began to release it filled up again; when I looked to the young woman she appeared as if she did not know what was going on. She then left and told me the doctor would be with me shortly.

Within minutes a young man charged into the room without introducing himself and began to say "so it looks like we have a sore throat and congestion. Let's start out with intravenous antibiotics and then we'll give you some oral antibiotics and a breathing treatment in order to clear up your lungs." I was quite surprised he suggested intravenous antibiotics without even examining me or hearing more about my symptoms. When I asked him how he knows antibiotics would be helpful if he hasn't even done a strep test or anything to determine if it is a bacterial infection, he then replied that they are going to do a strep test (I wonder if I hadn't said something if they would have done a strep test or not?). He then listened to my lungs with a stethoscope (he went so quickly I did not even begin to take a breath in before he moved the stethoscope to the next location). He then swabbed my throat for the strep test and left the room.

Not even two minutes later (as I was googling on my phone if intravenous antibiotics are even prescribed for this sort of thing) Dr. Risser came in and introduced himself. He repeated symptoms that someone had written down about me (they were not accurate) and then listened to my lungs, looked at my throat, and checked my ears. He then stuck his head out the door and found out my strep test came back negative. He said that many times it will come back negative but should be positive for strep. He told me he would write a prescription for antibiotics but said "if I were you I would not take them yet." When I asked under what circumstances should I take them he stated "if it starts lasting a long time and you feel like you are getting worse then I would take them." When I repeated what I said earlier that I had now been sick two weeks and felt as if I was getting worse he then stated I should take them and just "go by how I feel." He then wrote a prescription for cough syrup and began telling me what the typical course of a cough looks like and I repeated to him that my cough was mild and not the symptom I was most concerned about. It was an awkward interaction where he made little eye contact and seemed nervous. He inspired no confidence that he knew what was going on.

I was told the front would have my medication for me. A young woman gave me a Z-pack and Motrin (which Dr. Risser never even mentioned). I told her I did not want the Motrin and asked where I went to pay for the Z-pack antibiotics. She stated "it's included in the visit" which I found odd. I have never been to a doctor where they gave me drugs and I was not required to pay an additional amount than my copay for my office visit. I am now concerned what exactly they are billing my insurance for.

The fact that no one who worked there was wearing identification was also concerning to me. Everyone is in navy scrubs but I did not see any identification (names or qualifications) which made me wonder who was treating me and what qualifications they had. In no way am I claiming that any employee is not qualified to be practicing at this facility, I am merely stating it was unusual to see and made me uncomfortable. As I am required to wear identification with my credentials in my workplace (which is similarly related to a medical facility) in order to be in compliance with our accreditation boards, I would imagine in a primary care medical facility identification would be...

Edit: I wrote my first review influenced by a lot of pain, so I wrote a more careful review below. Please note this was written after staff reached out to see how my situation could be improved, so other negative reviews may have been similarly edited and Irvine Urgent Care's rating may be consequently inflated.

The Good: The doctors seem knowledgeable about collision injuries, and front-staff process patients quickly.

They were very helpful when they learned I had been unhappy with my treatment. They called to ask how they could help, and were very solicitous during my next visit.

They didn’t charge me for my second, superfluous visit and waived my wife’s copay for that visit upon my request.

The bad: They probably game the Google reviews system. Perhaps 7/8ths of the five star reviewers have fewer than five total reviews, and many have only one.

It wasn’t easy to learn about my condition or my treatment plan. While I went into my first visit suspecting I had whiplash, I was never told "You have wiplash, this is what that means, here are some pathways your recovery could take”, so I wound up leaning heavily on internet research and prior experience with spinal maladies.

I made a superfluous visit. While apparently it is standard to get an MRI after a collision like mine to check for soft tissue damage before making any recommendations, my initial doctor did not order one, delaying treatment for my wife and I by about a week.

Conversations with doctors were extremely brief. I accidentally timed one my second visit, and it was only three minutes. This likely contributed to the above two problems.

Sometimes I came away from conversations with receptionists misinformed. When I called to inquire about making an appointment, I was told they don't do appointments. This is generally true but not of MRIs.

Receptionists aren’t knowledgeable about some insurance minutiae They hesitated to schedule my wife for an MRI prior to authorization from her health insurance, but, upon further research, her insurance has a standard subrogation clause that passes any costs through to the liable party's car insurance during a collision, so that's not relevant. They also bill health insurance 25% more than out of pocket, so in a scenario where the liable party was underinsured, going through health insurance could cost more. This is a minor detail, but some offices excel at this, and certainly it’s a good-to-have.

Mask rules aren't epidemiologically coherent. They require masks but do not require the masks be of any particular quality or worn in a way that prevents covid spread. This sort of incoherence is fairly common, so it may seem unfair to ding them for it, but given they're a medical practice I think a higher coherence standard makes sense.

Old Review:

I went the day after being rear ended and was treated without a diagnosis. Doctor suggested I come back Wednesday but gave no guidance as to how not to exacerbate neck pain. On Wednesday a different doctor said they could provide no guidance until I had had an MRI. They were all booked, so I should come back Friday. So my Wednesday visit was... entirely superfluous. $150 of...

I've been using this place for a decade for anything from urgent things (family medicine places often have availability a week out - and these guys bill walk in visits as family medicine office visit) to annual wellness visits (one time our primary care physician group went concierge on us and new ones had 6mo+ waits for initial visit).

From memory they do follow up calls to check in on me after every visit - nice touch.

They certainly seemed fast during their exams which i contribute to "no bs" efficiency rather then cold bedside manners - but yeah, everyone perceives other people behavior differently.

One time they did prescribe zpack and medrol to which i thought "hey my expertise in this area clearly flashes the alarm bells for this combo based on avid watching of 8 seasons of dr. house tv show" - only to find that google search seems to indicate that multiple recent studies show better outcomes when antibiotics and cortical steroids are administered together for sinus infection which i get every damn time i have a flu or cold.

when they offered an IV, I ask politely "what will this do for me" and evaluate the doc's suggestion before saying yes. I am lucky to have a copay only for family visits (or urgent care) otherwise I would absolutely ask for cost profile before making a decision - so that I could divine if deductible + coinsurance would make sense to get an extra service - but then anyone who has become a insurance billing expert in our country knows exactly how this works - its your job as a consumer to understand this and act accordingly, not whine about it post-fact - with maybe a good feedback that you got to let patients know that their visit will be billed as office visit up front.

ultimately, if you do not trust doctors in any group, do not go there - its clearly your choice - but its odd to complain about lack of trust after you went there, for you already made a decision to trust them by virtue of making a visit.

for me, the experience over the years has been excellent with optimal outcomes for the whole family - with maybe a tad bit annoyance that they "age off" my records unless I show up frequently enough and I have to re-register. other then that, this place is certainly getting "vote with your wallet" signals from me - I've been a repeat customer for a decade and plan to be one...