UW Medicine Urgent Care at Federal Way — Local services in Federal Way

Took my son in yesterday because he was suffering from a “bark” like cough & I suspected he had Croup. He had an initial exam by one of the nurses/medical assistants and the initial ruling was possibly RSV/the flu, so he did nose swabs to send off to the lab. I was worried as I did suspect it was Croup, not RSV/the Flu, however, didn’t want to overstep the nurse/medical assistant and his opinion or make him feel like I was trying to “do his job” or self diagnose my son.

While we were waiting to hear back about results. Dr. Malone (I hope I’m getting the name right) came in and right away was concerned about my sons cough. What was really refreshing about our experience with Dr. Malone was that a) right off the back she brought up Croup which made me a lot more comfortable considering that’s what I believed it was initially and b) when going over questions like fever (I was concerned my son felt warm and she agreed even though the machine came back as no fever), she made a comment along the lines of “sometimes moms hand is more accurate than the thermometer” and just really gentle, reassuring phrases, commending me for bringing my son in and staying top of things and telling me I did a good job of reading him and seeing the concerns and being persistent about his cough.

Did take one star off for reception experience - we got multiple texts our appointment was delayed and finally decided to head out after we hadn’t gotten one in a while and it was 5 minutes before our appointment time, we were running a few minutes late so shortly before arriving I texted back to let them know we were close & got another appointment delay text. We checked in anyway and after we finished patient registration we were seen in less than 15 minutes (assured it was our first time there and I’m not sure how many rooms/how much staff they had on site so granted they could have been backed up but my son was in rough shape and needed steroids/to be seen ASAP, Dr. Malone also pointed out his abnormal/difficulty breathing so I am worried about how his health could have been affected with any more unnecessary appointments push backs).

Overall just had to comment on our positive experience with Dr. Malone. We even received a follow up call from her personally the next day even though she was in a different clinic as she wanted to deliver his RSV/flu results so she could check on my son as she genuinely seemed concerned about hoping...

Update: I was assigned to a doc here by my insurance. Decided to try this new doc in spite of previous horrible experience. He was ok, but I called the next day for an unanswered question- around 8:00AM- the message taker marked it as "urgent" because she felt it was, and I was thankful as I was in great pain awaiting advice on a med I ALREADY had (note I wasn't med seeking). No return call. I was told around 11:00 that the message was still out there. No call. I called back in the eve, they said they'd try again, no answer/no return call. Absolutely unacceptable. I called nurse line, where it says talk to a nurse or doctor on call. Nurse couldn't answer my question (which was, is this a typical medication reaction or something to be worried about), nurse absolutely refused to page a doc about it, said I'd have to make another appointment and/or talk to someone tomorrow. HORRIBLE SERVICE. Mistake to try going here again, even for a different doc. Long waits, no return calls, over a month to get referrals, FORGET IT!! Original post: Saw Dr. Fang years ago myself, didn't like her, went somewhere else. My father was assigned to her a couple years ago, but I had concerns about his treatment after he told me some stories, so I went during his last visit. She greeted us very warmly, but the rest of the visit I felt blown-off. I told her about a concern, she asked a couple questions then said, "I have no more advice for you." Really? Isn't it her job to get to the bottom of problems? He was also recently put on a new blood pressure medication at a walk-in visit with another doc and then a couple weeks later, another med by another doc. She also increased another of his medications. I asked her when she wanted us to check back in to be sure the blood pressure meds were doing well and no side effects from anything, etc. She paused then said 6 monthts. Really? No advice and don't come back for 6 months? We're looking for another doctor. It's also near impossible to get a sick visit with her unless you can wait 3 weeks. She also doesn't explain things well, if I hadn't been there, my father would have been lost and she wouldn't have gotten any straight answers to her questions because he didn't understand them. He's not stupid, just a lay person with no medical knowledge, like most people! Go...

Please go anywhere else. If you do have to go here, take a witness, take good notes, take a recorder, do whatever you gotta do to protect yourself. I have to start by saying that every nurse has been wonderful, most of the staff have been great, and I saw a trainee physician's assistant for urgent care who was fabulous!

But, I have seen two PCPs here, and as a nice way to say it, they were both suffering compassion fatigue. Both held their pens up to show me that the nodule I had was "this small" to try to convince me not to do a repeat CT (must be in the training video? and no, I still haven't had the CT ordered 1.5 years later). Both were so dismissive that I left both in tears -- thank you, other reviewers. After reading through the past reviews, I can see I'm not the only one. :)

For the second PCP, I did telehealth b/c of my previous experience. She was 55 minutes late and said her schedule was too full and she was the only one accepting new patients, but that I didn't have to "establish care" since I'd been to the clinic. It turned our that meant she had assumed a lot about me before our appt started. I believe she implied that I had been doctor and/or pharmacy shopping, asking about names I'd never heard of with no explanation as to why... It sure seemed like an interrogation and like she thought I was a criminal. She only wanted to discuss medication and that I should be on something else, despite the serious side effects I had... As a result of her hyperfixation, I had 3 important issues that were left unaddressed (and yes, I sent them in writing beforehand as well).

Even worse, she put a lot of that bias right into my record. When she added the notes over a month later, even though I had answered every (random, rude, illogical) question thoroughly and not gotten the same respect, she wrote me up as uncooperative in big red letters.

After 2 really bad visits here, I am looking forward to a new PCP system. I am now waiting for my amendments and requests to be processed, but the least I can do is issue a public warning. PCPs here don't like to / can't provide a good standard of care. I truly hope this doesn't affect my care by the UW Headache Clinic. That office has been awesome and I still drive to Seattle...