Eisenhower Urgent Care - Palm Springs — Local services in Palm Springs

Review of Eisenhower Urgent Care – Palm Springs

I’ve had numerous experiences with the Eisenhower health system—ranging from emergency room visits to extended hospital stays—and unfortunately, they have consistently fallen short of acceptable standards. Most recently, due to a change in my insurance which no longer accepted Desert Oasis Healthcare for urgent care, I found myself at Eisenhower Urgent Care in Palm Springs.

Let me be clear: I’ve never chosen Eisenhower’s services willingly. Every visit has been out of necessity, and each time, I’ve been disappointed by the quality of care and the limited medical insight of the physicians involved.

To give more context, I happened to visit the Eisenhower Emergency Room just a week prior, accompanying a friend in need—and I must tell you, the ER was packed. There is absolutely no excuse for people to be sitting in that room for 4 to 8 hours waiting to be seen. It is disgraceful and utterly shameful. This tells me there are serious issues within this healthcare provider’s system. The solution seems straightforward: properly staff the facility with two, three, even four times the personnel currently on hand to alleviate this unacceptable backlog and improve patient care. It’s a management failure, plain and simple.

That trend sadly continued during my urgent care visit. Upon arrival, the waiting room was empty—a rare and hopeful sign, I thought. I was quickly brought into an exam room, where a kind and attentive nurse carefully reviewed the reason for my visit: severe lower back pain. She listened, took notes, and showed genuine concern.

However, the experience took a sharp turn when a doctor entered the room. Without any indication that this doctor had reviewed my chart or the nurse’s notes, she simply asked, “How can I help you today?” I explained my symptoms, including that I’m under the care of a neurologist at Cedars-Sinai for ongoing neurological issues.

Without taking a single step into the room—literally remaining in the doorway—she said I should probably just go back to Cedars-Sinai. I reiterated that I came to urgent care in Palm Springs because I was in Palm Springs—not in Los Angeles—and was in serious pain. Her response remained the same: there was nothing they could do besides prescribe ibuprofen.

Not only was this dismissive and unhelpful, but it also ignored critical context. Had she taken a moment to ask, she would have known I was already being prescribed medication for a previous diagnosis. Instead, I was left feeling brushed off after a mere three-minute encounter—with no patients in the waiting room and no excuse for the rushed and cold approach.

Given my repeated experiences with Eisenhower, I believe this system is overdue for scrutiny. I would strongly urge both state and federal health regulators to investigate the standard of care being provided—not only in the ER but across the entire Eisenhower network. Patients deserve to be treated with dignity, respect, and at the very least, a basic level of professional attention. Unfortunately, that was not my experience here.

I’m sure I’ll get the standard Eisenhower response: “We strive to meet our customers’ needs and we will continue to improve.”

OK. Fine. Don’t just say that. SIMPLY DO IT.

UPDATE: As I said, Eisenhower ALWAYS makes excuses. Let's be honest, your records are the worst in the nation let's start...

Being new to the area and very sick past urgent care clinics can be a hit and a miss, mostly miss. Very sick coughing, lungs hurt I ended up at this clinic The receptionist was good, the nurse preforming the initial intake was very good kind and generous with compassion, the doctor (Dr Paul Levitan) was better than excellent (wish he could be my primary care, seriously ). His greeting was personalized with a out reached hand shake, smile and his expression, body language, voice tone expressed sincere compassion. A complete examine he determined I may have pneumonia,, ordered an injected antibiotic,, medicated oxygen treatment which began within about three minutes (staff is on top of their game) the medicated oxygen treatment takes about five minutes to complete and before it completed the xray technician was standing at the door waiting to take me back for a chest xray which took all of about 4 minutes. The technician explained he sent the xrays online for analysis . Thinking I would have a wait to see the doctor... I was wrong,, less than 10 minutes Dr Paul returned verifying his initial diagnosis,, pneumonia showed up in the xray. He prescribed me 10 day supply of antibiotics, cough syrup with codeine (which I desperately needed) and a spray to help open my lungs. Dr Paul's diagnosed spot on before seeing the xrays,, has a spirit of a very good man, kind and compassionate.. Having full career teaching businesses "how to do business right" and having an accident 5 years ago that requires many doctors and constant visits somewhat of an expert, the staff I experienced this day was as good as anyone can hope for.. The best of the best. Over 80% of the companies I taught ended going from 3 star ratings to 5 star ratings, there is nothing I could do to improve the customer experience.. If you need to be seen by a Doctor,, you must call ahead to see if Doctor Paul is scheduled, if not and you can wait a day or even two you will be glad you did. I cannot speak what your experience will be with one of the other Doctors, I'm sure they in all likelihood...

Visiting Palm Springs for emergency trip. Had bad sinus infection and it was not getting better at the speed it should with the current antibiotics I was finishing up. Went to the clinic and at the nurse's request, explained what was going on (started with a bad virus 3 weeks earlier, etc.), then moved into a very bad sinus infection. Dr. came in and I had to entirely repeat my story and symptoms. He was in a big hurry and spent less than 5 minutes with me. He was also trying to walk out the door when I had a couple of questions; and was irritated he could not move on to next patient quickly. It was a total "cattle call". In with one, out with another. The faster you go and more patients you see; the more money you make. He prescribed an incredibly high-powered antibiotic, and called it a "big gun". This is despite my request for an additional amount of my current antibiotic (just needed to be on it a bit longer). He also said to take ibuprofen to keep inflammation down. My body did NOT like the "big gun" antibiotic. After reading up on the antibiotic, the side effects I had were listed under severe, and it said to stop taking and call Dr. It also said NOT to take NSAIDs like ibuprofen, while on it; due to serious CNS reactions!!! I called office next day and left 3 messages. No one called back. At the end of the second day, they told me to call another facility as the the Dr. was there. Spoke with him and said he wouldn't prescribe me anything different. I would have to come all of the way back in to be seen again?!!? I explained that it was too potent and I needed more of my original medication; or something comparably. I also told him I would be traveling next day so couldn't just come in again. He knew my problem, and knew it would be very easy to call something different in. We spoke personally on the phone, yet...would NOT help me....