Foot & Ankle Center of Washington — Attraction in Seattle

Exceptional practitioner; terrible business management.

I've been under Dr. Huppin's care since 2021, and I genuinely like working with him. His mastery in podiatry, conventional approach, and dedication to educating me about my foot health are commendable. His practice alone deserves a 5-star rating.

Now, the issues here..this office is a huge mess. They severely need to improve their biz management processes. From their front desk to the patient portal, communication with them is getting harder every time.

There were many small red flags throughout my experience with them. Hardly ever picked up their phone, their appointment time management and my first orthotics order with them was also such a hassle and lengthy process. However, this last incident was the peak of it all and the deciding factor in my decision to end my foot care here.

I consulted with Dr. Huppin about getting another orthotic at my last appointment. He explained the process & the insurance coverage and asked that I call my insurance to confirm the coverage because his office no longer does that for patients. Insurance could be arbitrary & complex sometimes, so I am okay with calling my insurance myself. I gathered all the information on the clinic's form, and on 5/25, I messaged them through the portal, confirming that I would like to order new orthotics. I provided all the information asked. It had been almost 2 weeks since I sent the message; I didn't hear anything back. On 6/6, I called and told them about my order request, and the front desk, Mike, said he would relay the message to the medical assistant (MA). I asked how long it usually takes to complete the order, and he said, "After the MA reviewed it, they would submit the order, and it would take a few weeks for them to get it, so probably closer to end of June or early July. But Idk when the MA would/ could submit the order, so I'll follow up with you within 48hrs".

48hrs have gone by; no call back from them as promised. I called again to follow up, and this time, he sounded confused to see the order- like something unusual was happening. He said he'd contact the MA and give me a call back in 24-48 hours. Again, I never received any follow-ups from them. Since then, I've been calling them every 4-7 days trying to understand where we are in the process, and the answers were always the same every time - they sounded confused, said that they need to talk to the MA and would give me a callback. In all my attempts to get this info, I have been ping-ponged to the MA's office; then it went to voicemail, then it was disconnected. Their reason is: they didn't have internet, or we're short-staffed. It's either that, or the front desk would say every time, "Just give us 48hrs, and we'll call you back", and they never once did. As a small business owner, I understand first hand the short-staffed problems and the chaos they cause. But it wasn't an excuse to never get back to your clients when you promised a 48-hour turnaround time. Yesterday (7/19), 8 weeks after my initial message, I was finally lucky to connect directly to the MA. She said: "after talking to Dr. Huppin, if we were submitting this code w/ the diabetes, and it needs a prior authorization, we couldn't give you any timeline." They confirmed that the order had still not been submitted until yesterday.

After 8weeks of following up & calling them every 4 days...they had not done a single thing to the order, and the only answer they gave me was, "We could not give you any timeline."

I never ask for anything for free from anyone, but this feels like I was asking for the orthotics for free. I didn't feel like they cared or appreciated my business.

Lastly, the 48-hour turnaround time is simply untrue. I am huge at "keeping your word", particularly as a business. Please refrain from promising a callback within 24-48 hours if you cannot keep them.

I would still recommend Dr. Huppin to others for straightforward, general foot care, but not for follow-up care or lengthy processes such as...

If you are an active person and care about addressing the ROOTCAUSE of your foot issue, rather than being offered a band-aid for the pain and a cookie-cutter diagnosis I would advise NOT to come here. I saw Dr Hale several months ago because of pain in my right foot. He quicky diagnosed me with Morton’s neuroma (a nerve issue), advised me to get orthotics ($500) and wear cushiony shoes, and come back for steroid shots if the pain would get too bad, or an invasive surgery to remove the nerve (with relatively low succes rate and high chance of complications). When I asked what had caused my pain I was told “it could be many things”, and when asking whether seeing a physical therapist would help the doc said I shouldn’t bother. Luckily I did not listen, and went to see Dr. Li from Sports Mobility Plus, who very quickly diagnosed the root cause of my foot pain: my right foot had a slight hammer toe, my toes couldn’t spread out, putting most of my weight on the outer part of my foot, causing an irritation of the nerve (NOT a morton’s neuroma). The physical therapist took a hollistic approach and was able to pinpoint specific muscle weaknesses causing an imbalance, leading to improper placement of my right foot. By doing exercises that the physical therapist perscribed I was able to correct the imbalance, am able to walk again without any pain, and am on my way to having completely CURED my nerve issue! Also the physical therapist advised against orthotics and cushiony shoes since these make the muscles in the foot work less, and become weaker over time, only leading to more issues. Instead of thick cushiony shoes I am Wearing barefoot shoes, and my foot have become so much stronger. I am Very happy I DID NOT listen to the suggestions of Dr Hale as they would never have addressed the root cause of my issue, but rather gradually have made my feet weaker and weaker by patching up the pain with orthotics, cushiony shoes and nasty steriod shots. Maybe this approach makes sense for people that are not active at all and of older age? But it definitely did not make sense for me, a very healthy and active 35 yrs old. If your stituation is anything like mine, go see a good physical therapist instead to help you address the root cause and cure yourself, rather than waisting your time...

Great experience here. I visited Dr. Hale to address some pain in my second toe (which is longer than the others). He did a good job explaining the underlying issue and recommended treatment. He also did in-house x-rays on the spot to strengthen his analysis. The treatment mainly involved offloading the pressure on the metatarsal-phalangeal joint of my second toe through orthotics and stiffer-soled shoes. One of the most helpful pieces of info was the extensive list of recommended shoes, which you can get free when you sign up for their Foot & Ankle newsletter (see "FREE Recommended Shoe List" on their website homepage).

I spent a long time searching for shoes that would work for me. The list was incredibly helpful. As I browsed shoes, I started bending them all to see how much they bent in the forefoot area (the area I with the pain I was trying to offload). Somehow, it never occurred to me that too much flexion in the sole's ball-of-the-foot area could exacerbate my condition and slow healing. Now it made perfect sense.

Finding shoes was also challenging because the orthotic he provided made the shoes fit differently -- I needed at least a half size larger (so size 14). I found the perfect shoe: Brooks Ghost Max. They have stiff bottoms but fabric tops to accommodate my long toe. Wearing the orthotic, I can tell that they offload pressure to my injured toe area. Overall, Dr. Hale is a top-notch podiatrist with a solid track record of experience helping people like me overcome foot issues. I highly recommend him and this clinic.

Update: About 4 months after wearing the orthotic, I no longer experienced pain in my toe. I thought I didn't need the orthotic anymore and went back to normal shoes, even minimalist shoes. The pain returned! So I switched back to wearing the orthotic, and the pain went away again after 1-2 weeks. Dr. Hale really knows what he's doing, so...