CSU Health and Medical Center — Local services in Fort Collins

After 3 years on the graduate student health insurance plan, I've used the CSU health center & their services a bunch. (The health plan makes going anywhere else for medical treatment exorbitantly expensive.) Every time I've met with an actual doctor, RN, physical therapist, or counselor, they've been attentive and helpful. My problems have been with the people who answer the phones and screen folks. By phone, I have been bounced around on hold to multiple people in different departments telling me contradictory information more times than I can remember. It seems to happen every time I call them. The first time I called to make a counseling appointment, the employee asked me if I wanted to meet with a psychiatrist or a counselor. When I said I didn't know, she asked me if I needed medications. I said I didn't know, and she got exasperated with me and told me to call back when I knew. I had to do some googling and call back, which is ridiculous (and unethical?) given that they were basically asking me to self-diagnose before even seeing a professional. They also won't let you leave messages for your doctor (there's no way for you to call or email or message a doctor directly), even after your doctor has specifically requested that you leave a message for them. I've been interrupted by the admins multiple times and told "we actually have a procedure for that and can't let you leave a message," only for them to bungle said procedure. It's infuriating, especially when your request is time-sensitive, as many medical issues are. I have made appointments both in-person and over the phone only to receive a phone call later informing me that actually that appointment time wasn't available and I need to reschedule. This has happened to me twice in 3 years. I have lived in several cities and had several doctors/PTs/therapists over the years, and I've never been treated so poorly so consistently by staff. This place is beyond disappointing. If you can afford to go elsewhere to get your prescriptions filled and your treatments...

I went to the CSU Health and Medical Center after experiencing vomiting and nausea. They gave me some tests and said they couldn't rule anything out and prescribed me some fiber and laxatives. The next day, I went back because I started throwing up liquid, and they just gave me an anti-nausea medication, which at that point was only preventing me from throwing up liquid. I told them I hadn't eaten in multiple days both times I showed up and they didn't even seem to care. They told me it might just be constipation. I told some random person my symptoms and they advised me it could be my gall bladder or appendix, and I should've gone to the hospital days ago.

I went to the hospital and my blood sugar was so low I was at a risk of a seizure. Sure enough, they checked and I had appendicitis. I was literally starting to starve to death because my body was refusing to eat. I was taken to surgery within the hour. I am shocked and disgusted that the doctors here so blatantly ignored me and dismissed me. I told them I was eating literally nothing and they didn't seem concerned at all. When I told the same thing to the hospital, they made my case an emergency almost immediately. Please, please, please do not go to this place if you're experiencing severe symptoms, they are SO dismissive. They didn't even give me a CT scan and only gave me an X-ray, then said they only found "constipation" and seemed to treat it as the cause rather than a side effect. So neglectful.

Edit: After writing this review, the doctor messaged me to praise herself for following "her instructions" to go to the hospital. I checked her notes and not only does it back that she did NOT tell me to go to the hospital with my current symptoms, but that she did not believe I was ill or in pain. To make this clear: If you are from the CSU Medical Center, do NOT contact me. You already almost let me d!e, you don't need the last laugh. I know what I went through and you can't trick me out of my...

The amount of time I waited in both the waiting room but mostly the exam room was ridiculous. My parents are in the medical field and I've been to many other urgent cares and never waited so long. I even asked the urgent care downstairs how long their wait was typically and it was about 30 minutes. Meanwhile upstairs I waited 45 minutes in the waiting room then over 45 minutes in the exam room waiting on my provider. While I waited in the exam room I had to go find someone to make sure I wasn't forgotten about. That lady was very kind and said she would talk to someone. The lady that came in after that was very rude and was saying that every urgent care is like that. Also her solution for the fact that I had classes I need to leave for soon was to write a note and I was expected to miss my classes. As a university health network I would think that they would value our education and not just go right to missing class as a solution. After this the provider come and yet again tried to say it was typical of every urgent care which if I would've gone to any UCHealth urgent care I never would've waited as long from all my previous experiences. She then continued to say that I could've waited and I really didn't need to go to urgent care and I could've waited a few days for a scheduled appointment even though I was there for a possible fracture and I was in a lot of pain. This was blatantly rude and made it feel as if she didn't care about her patients. Although the check in staff was very nice their kindness and my overall experience was completely ruined by the long wait and the blatant disregard for the patients. I will not be recommending this place or visiting...