CityMD West 88th Urgent Care - NYC — Local services in New York

Waiting 1.5-3 hrs in the cold (before going inside waiting another 30 mins) i feared getting pneumonia from waiting in line trying to get covid testing.

Seemed really inefficient for covid testing. In austin both at my primary doctor’s in March and again in Nov at CVS just before I flew to NY, you get swabbed and the whole thing takes five mins at most.

I’m shocked how little in advance things are done but CAN BE DONE (ie completing basic information) before arrival. This would save a lot of time. This is one very manageable and controllable source of bottleneck.

Second, it seemed a handful were tested proactively. That's 100% fine. It begged the question, what If someone really needed to get tested urgently? They'd have to wait 3 hours, likely covid positive and all, while we just needed the negative result to attend a dinner party that required it or shorten quarantine period, etc. Theoretically, one can get tested everyday for free for two months straight. That multiple-testing mentality would be another source of bottleneck. To encourage more responsible action during pandemic times and a more discerning decision to decide to be tested, would it make sense to step-change the cost of testing for patients? For example, if the patient can't say yes to a # of questions (ie not directly exposed to someone who had covid in the last xxx period), then for the second test within two months, the cost is $50. The third test within 2 months is 150. Etc. Why not consider reducing this bottleneck with such incentives?

The lady who managed the line was super nice and informative. The two people behind the desk had a poor attitude and didn’t want to be there. Nor do we want to get pneumonia and be waiting so miserably in the cold. The people who saw me in the room were super helpful. No I didn’t want to go through my family medical history or get my blood pressure taken. Just swap me and get me out of here. (Honestly felt more unsafe being there than on the plane - DLee delta and no one was in front or behind or next to me on the flight. Plus they use industrial grade hepa filtration.) both medical professionals in the room tailored my visit to my needs. They were attentive, sharp, and efficient. Thank goodness otherwise my overall experience would’ve been even worse. They were a delight! Seemed totally on top if it.

Seriously need to improve this somehow. It’s really bad to make ppl wait this long.

Fwiw, I’ve only done PCR testing.

The staff at this location Thursday night (starting at 730pm) were nice.

The whole chain seems inefficient. It just moves at snail speed. This was actually better than the Amsterdam/70th Street location in terms of line wait outside.

Good luck! It will be too soon before I deal...

I’m usually not someone who writes reviews, but I feel like this has to be shared. After reading this, you may want to avoid this City MD. About a month ago in mid July I got a really bad fever (went up to 105°F). I had Covid twice, and this fever felt worse than that. My mom took me to this City MD since it was a Saturday night and they were the only location still open. We get there, check in and everything, then go see the doctor. They took a urine test, did a covid and flu, however all my tests came negative. The doctor came in and basically explained they didn’t know what was the cause of my fever since I didn’t have many symptoms besides the fever (I did have a dry mouth, and got nausea and threw up once we got back home, but other than that no symptoms). My mom asked if I should go to the emergency room for a blood test, but the doctor said no and that I should just go home and take Tylenol and Mortrin. I went home and had a horrible night (couldn’t sleep for more than an hour at a time, was throwing up, and it was very hard to move since my fever was still so high). I did take medicine but it wouldn’t make my fever go away completely, just temporary. My fever kept spiking back up after taking medicine, so my mom took me to the emergency room. They did a Covid test, flu test, urine test, blood infusions from both my arms, and an X-ray. After a few hours of being on fluids through IV, the doctor came in and told confirmed to me they found pneumonia on my left lung from the X-Ray. If City MD did an X-Ray, they would’ve seen that I had pneumonia, which also resulted in sepsis. It felt as if they just want to treat me as if there was nothing to worry about. If you’re going to City MD for something minor (such as getting stitches or maybe treating an infection) then I would say go to City MD, but from my experience I would much rather stick with my PCP than go to City MD again. If I had listened to the doctor’s “advice” then my situation would have...

Edit: I went for a rapid test in 2/4/21 and the following is about that visit. I showed up around 10 minutes before they opened and the line was already down the block. Once the opened, a staff member let a limited number of people inside and the rest of us provided our name and cell number; after she added us to the virtual line she asked us to confirm we got a text from her and let us know that once it was our turn we would get a text letting us know we have 30 minutes to return back to the location for our appointment. You could text the system to receive an update of how many people were in front of you in line. I found that helpful so I could plan my time a bit better, but we warned that unless you are one of the first few in line you will likely wait a while (I waited approximately 3 hours to get the text telling me I should return for my appointment). Once I returned it was like any other visit: check in, see a medical assistant, then see the physician. I got the rapid test done and received the results via email within an hour of leaving. I went around 6 pm on a weekday to get the COVID nose swab test.

Checked in quickly at their kiosk and sat in the waiting room for less than 5 minutes. Was taken back to a room and spoke with a medical assistant before being seen by the physician a few minutes later who quickly did the test. Was in an out in less than 15 minutes. Every single person I spoke with (front desk, medical assistant, physician, front desk again) told me that the test results would take around 14 days to come back, but they were in the City MD portal within a little over 24 hours.

Place was very clean. Hand sanitizer was available, and so were masks. They taped off chairs in the waiting room to keep people apart (it was pretty...