Optum - Madison Center — Local services in Seattle

I see several specialists at The Polyclinic in two of their locations. I also see specialists at another decent medical centers. I feel I’m in the best hands at Polyclinic. I have been a patient there since late 2017. It took me 4 years to find competent doctors that actively (keyword) work to diagnose and not push some kind of medication to see which works. The staff is great. There are a lot cool people who work there and make being there more fun. As many specialists as I go to now I can say the staff is consistently polite and kind. Almost all the doctors are sharp and genuinely care. I’m unsure about one, but they have big shoes to fill. ;)

It’s important to be seen by my specialists; diagnostic testing and imaging, consistently. While other providers were booked 6-8 weeks out and are sporadic for follow-up appointments, Polyclinic surprised me. Each time I called I was seen in a couple of weeks. These were not expedited referrals, so it was nice surprise. Polyclinic’s new patient appointments almost always were within 2 weeks while other medical facilities were 3-6 months (depending on the specialty), and some I had waited a year to see (like its Canada). With the majority of my doctors at other medical provider last 2 years, my experiences and the care I received there, compared to the Polyclinic’s is more than noticeable. I have been a patient at the other highly rated medical centers here. They have not been that impressive and/or well managed overall so I have had to seek better quality care. The Polyclinic doesn’t make me feel like as much of the lab rat I am. Sarcastic as it is, it fits. Their doctors consistently show they think outside of the box. And when they have looked at all that has, or has not been done, they continue to work hard to figure it all out. They don’t give up on me like I have at times. There is noticeable decline where healthcare is concerned in this State. I’ve lived where it’s not so good to return and be glad I was home. I’ve lived in other states where medical care is much better than here when it shouldn’t have been. To then return again and see a huge decline in healthcare on every level, it affects me. It’s not up to par like 10 years ago. Even then it wasn’t as good. I have seen countless specialists in the same field here and out of state. It’s been far too long here and I’ve thought of going out state. I had the chance to see the best doctors in the state in specific specialties, elsewhere. My experiences have taught me what good medical care is and is not. I have the best chance here with my Polyclinic doctors and I know it.

It isn’t helpful to give low ratings to a medical facility here when people are looking for good doctors and facilities. Their billing has nothing to do with diagnosing, treating and saving lives and healing us. Many doctors at the Polyclinic are some of the top ranked in the state. Several doctors I see are ranked the Top Specialist and #1 ranked ICU doctor in this state. It was nice to learn that when I became their patient. If Patient Accounts and Finance is messing up your bill and not managed well it’s important to know. I see many have so its an issue. But, giving them low rankings/stars for what could be the difference between top doctors saving or changing somebody’s life is what this facility does so the headaches and an incompetent billing department and other small issues here don’t seem fair of key factors Polyclinic offers. Especially when the majority of the doctors (not referring to pcp/family medicine) are specialists within their fields who have good staff from the front desk back. There aren’t many family medicine doctors there. Their labs and diagnostic facilities give good service all the way around as well and has showed consistency the last a couple of years. I am there a lot nowadays. Sometimes half a day or more, so I see it all. We all have our issues with bad restaurants, pubs, doctors and of its a mad doctor office for the medical it shows and is known. Other medical centers are known for good or bad as a whole,...

Review for Neurology:

Dr. Nago is fantastic and is the only neurologist I've ever worked with who genuinely cares. That said, this is a review of the neurology department itself. And I will never recommend this neurology department to anyone due to lack of communication, particularly from Shaheena.

For context, in neurology the medical assistants are responsible for responding to MyChart messages first instead of the doctors. This means in my case, Shaheena is literally the only person I'm allowed to talk to with any questions because it's her responsibility to escalate concerns to Dr. Nago (or other departments) as needed. Sadly, communication with Shaheena, especially with cognitive barriers, is hell on earth.

An overview of what you can expect from Shaheena:

Shaheena takes over a month to respond to most MyChart messages, if she bothers to respond at all. Sometimes you will have to send 2-5 reminders to get a response. Sometimes the message is so old that MyChart archives it and you need to write a new one. Less than 10% of the time will you get a response on a single message where you send no reminders.

When she does respond to emails expect that she won't even fully read what you wrote. She may read nothing at all or will only address 50% of what you wrote in about. It often feels like she's sending a response just to meet metrics in their system.

I've frequently asked for her help with something only for her to send me a note 2-6 weeks later saying I should reach back out if I have any additional quesitons... when the original questions were never addressed because this is clearly the first reply she's sent on the chain.

You may think maybe it's a good idea to call in and see if Shaheena is getting your messages. Good luck. When you call, you're just advised that responses should be expected within 48 business hours. You can push for them to ping/remind Shaheena, but you'll only have a ~25% of actually getting a call or MyChart message if you do. And, if so, it'll most likely happen over a week later.

If you're lucky enough to get a call from Shaheena, the thing you're hoping to resolve will never be resolved. She'll always say she is going to check on something with someone else and will get back with you (she will not get back with you). Plus a lot of the time she's not listening to what you're saying so, when she does her follow up, she does the wrong thing. She will also leave no notes about the call itself so when you talk to the administrative staff, they will tell you there's no record of the conversation ever happening.

Everything above has happened constantly for me since Shaheena started working for Dr. Nago. I've been a patient of this neurology department for 6 years and while I've never gotten immediate responses, it had never been this challenging to just have basic communication.

Here's an example of just one situation:

It took literally 6 months, 15+ phone calls, and 10+ MyChart messages for her to correctly submit a ONE prior-authorization. I had to explain at least 7 times that the prior-authorization needed to go to my insurance company. Every single time, she said yes she would contact them, and then would call back to tell me she spoke with the testing facility (NOT the insurance company) and that prior authorization is not "allowed" for this test. And of course they would say that—a testing facility isn't responsible for processing insurance claims. Which I explained repeatedly.

It got so bad I had to call the testing facility myself to advise anyone who speaks with Shaheena to disengage and tell her the exact phone number she needed to call for my insurance. The testing facility also shared with me that hey were exhausted explaining this to her and couldn't understand her confusion. Over the course of just this one request, I had multiple messages that were ignored for months and were completely unread/disregarded when she finally replied.

I'm posting under a pseudonym because I don't want her to hold a grudge and...

I made an appointment with Dr. Judy Han via my health care service last November, scheduling for mid January. (I never met Dr. Han so this isn't a review of her as a doctor.)

I have been to this building before, but this time, I was on time to my appointment but took a wrong turn that took me back onto the freeway. This was going to make me 10 minutes late (according to Maps). I began trying to call the doctor's office and that's where things really went sideways.

As other reviews note, speaking to a human being at the doctor's office is virtually impossible from their phone system. I called the office number and got a lengthy phone tree, no option for "speak to the actual physician's desk". I stayed on hold for 5 minutes with the 'general' line before giving up on it, then called back again and chose the scheduling line. This time I got a very nice and sympathetic person in Northgate who talked me through the directions.

By this time I had passed by the building again but for some reason Google Maps gave me the entrance on the far side of the building, which isn't accessible. And from the north side of the building if you pass the building, one-way streets send you across the freeway again.

Despite all this, the person on the phone was able to contact the front desk for me, and got a response from the medical assistant saying that I had until 3:15. Once I came by the building again, I saw an ambulance in front of it, which might be why Maps sent me the wrong way? Who knows. I made it to the garage at 3:13 and said I hope I can make it upstairs in 2 minutes. She said "I believe in you!" and thus ended by far the nicest interaction I had with Optum.

I did make it upstairs by 3:15 (I checked my watch AFTER I had greeted the assistant at the front desk). She seemed confused and did something for a few minutes at the computer. She said "I'll have to check with the medical assistant" and left.

The OBGYN office is quite large with maybe 20 chairs in the waiting room. There was one other patient in the room.

The assistant presumably spoke with the medical assistant who had said I had until 3:15 to arrive. Nonetheless she came back and said "we'll have to reschedule your appointment". I didn't argue with her, because at this point I was determined not to come back. Did the medical assistant know I had in fact arrived by 3:15? I have no idea. Did they know I actually had been there (within 100 feet) at 3:00 but unable to access the building? No idea. Had I been able to reach the desk by phone myself at 3 maybe all of this could have been avoided, but the phone system doesn't allow it. Oh, I HAD gotten a text message asking if I was there at 3:45 -- and I clicked the button saying I was "nearby" and would be there in 15 minutes. It said "we'll check back at 3:03". Nothing ever checked back (was someone supposed to call me? Again -- no idea).

I took off work and waited two months for this appointment. The next available appointment was at the end of February. But at this point I'll find another doctor. An office that can't adapt to emergent situations from patients is going to drop the ball in other ways, and I didn't want to find out how. Dr. Han clearly has plenty of patients and won't miss me, but in case this can warn anyone else away from the system -- if you can avoid it, do.

Edited to add: "Patient Experience Team", replying to my message with a form response asking me to contact another department in your overly complex system is an example of why I am seeking care elsewhere. I gave a lot of detail above, including enough to identify who I am. If you would like even more of my time your office...