The Polyclinic Northgate Plaza Imaging's Online Review Report Card

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This review isn't about Dr. Kennedy whom I have never seen. It is about the Polyclinic's indolent and uncaring front office. I had a referral to see Dr. Kennedy from another eye surgeon so I called the Polyclinic to make an appointment. The woman at the front desk said she needed the date of the referral which I didn't have. I said can't you look this up, hasn't it been filed? She said no. She furthermore said we get thousands of referrals every day and can't look them up. Really? Thousands every day? So I hung up. This is the essence of my complaint. I have been through two major medical nightmares and have been at the mercy of other big medicine clinics/mills and I will not get inmeshed in another uncaring staff that treats their customers like pieces of sentient meat; ever again. If the front office is this uncaring and callous, what would the rest of the care be like?

I have been a patient with the poly clinic for twenty years. I used to have a wonderful, knowledgeable, compassionate doctor there named Dr. Venessa Edrich. Now I have seen two young not compassionate, not well networked (meaning they don't know where there are good specialist), sort of rude or cold doctors, I am currently having kidney stone issues and was in the ER yesterday. I had to go to the ER because my PCP at ploy clinic told me to go there. I have one 5x5 stone in my Ureter and one a little bigger semi blocking my kidney. The ER sent me home with the equivalent of 222, available over the counter in Canada, thinking I could be seen by a urologist asap. No appointments available with urologist until six days from now and they told me to call my PCP for better pain medications. So I called Dr. Sara Benveniste for some anti nausea medication and a stronger pain medication to help me weather this pain and vomiting. She said I had to come see her in person (45 minutes drive) in this condition and she "might" give me something stronger. Also she. Says she can't read the emergency report as the my chart doesn't work with any other facilities and hospitals except the U.W. And Swedish. And she says she can only do over the phone with my chart. This is not true because another specialists (plural) at the poly clinic texts me a link and we talk over the phone with out my chart. This is frustrating & a feels Cruel and telling me to go to the ER is abusing the system. Currently The Poly Clinic has a 2.3 star rating. Geese I wonder why. Off to the ER and as soon as I am feeling better I will be looking for a better PCP. UP DATE. Dr. Benveniste did call me personally at the end of the day. She still "could not" prescribe anything for my pain but did offer to submit a request to my insurance for an anti-nausea medication. She gave me a phone number to call someone to possibly come to my house instead of driving to the ER and suggested that I call the ER and ask them if they can prescribe something for my pain as they just saw me yesterday. I feel so disillusioned by how the Poly Clinic works to use the small neighborhood Hospitals to be bothered with things that are a PCP responsibilities. But these could very well be poly clinic regulations and tying the doctors hands. So I appreciate the call back at least it seems like she is trying to help.

First, don't trust the hours posted on the website, they posted special hours of 9 to 5, but on arrival there was a sign stating closed, sorry for the inconvenience. Second, don't go here if you may need xrays. They can only do very limited views. After a long wait, they did the xrays, said there were 3 fractured ribs, but they lacked capacity to do additional needed views to rule out internal injury, so we ended up at the ER anyway. Third, they did NOT call the ER as they said they would, so we ended up having to wait 3 hours for a doctor instead of just having the x rays. Very disappointing experience.

I asked to be referred to an allergy specialist (for GI, IBS) from Dr. Sara Benveniste and thought that an internal referral would be a good idea. It was not.Dr. Doreswamy is not qualified to treat people with IBS. It was a complete waste of everyone's time and I walked away with a $488.57 bill. He wanted to do skin tests after disregarding my concerns and prior tests. He thought the skin test would offer something, but could not articulate what "that" was. I stated the test was not relevant and when I did this he was defensive.There was a language barrier and his staff seemed like they wanted to quit.His chart notes also did not reflect what objectively was discussed during the visit.

I scheduled an appointment here at the polyclinic months in advance to get two chronic issues treated by what I thought was an excellent clinic. Immediately once greeted by the nurse I was informed that only one of my issues would be treated today. I've seen in the reviews that other people have had this issue.I don't think this is normal, I've been to plenty of doctors before where I could discuss multiple issues in one appointment. Working frequently like so many of us do it isn't exactly easy for me to schedule a doctors appointment. Generally this place feels like an industrial processing line for patients, very cold and impersonal. Highly recommend against Polyclinic, just find someone else in your network.

I'm concerned that the care available at the Polyclinic has deteriorated since they were purchased by Optum. My guess is that they are not treating their staff well since doctors keep choosing to leave there. I just learned that my doctor left the Polyclinic weeks ago and that the annual physical exam I scheduled with her months in advance (because she didn't have an opening for months) is not going to take place. I don't know why I wasn't notified in a timely manner. It is now going to take nearly 5 months for me to get an annual exam from another physician there. I have liked the convenience of going to a large practice where I could see multiple specialists, get testing done on site, have my records available to all my doctors, etc., but the benefits have diminished considerably with this new administration. If I cannot even trust them to tell me that my doctor no longer works there, then I certainly cannot recommend them to others.I hope the Polyclinic will take the necessary steps to retain their employees and their patients and to provide excellent care.

Coming in two months later to say Dr. burns with podiatry is the best surgeon and physician I've ever met in my entire life, and I work with surgeons on a daily basis. I did my second foot with her and she is just amazing. Her care is the highest I've ever received, she truly cares for her patients and is there if I need anything. Heck at this point I'd probably trust her doing any surgery haha she's incredible, her team is amazing (Shalee) and they just make an amazing team. I'm moving to Colorado and I'm really going to miss having them a part of my healthcare team. Highly recommend if you need to see a foot and ankle specialist that you see Dr. Burns

The Polyclinic used to be a gem of a practice--physician owned, efficient, and with excellent care. These all deteriorated with the sale of Polyclinic to a for profit chain. As a physician, I have watched the deterioration with both sadness and dismay. Apparently the sale was necessary for survival. But it it is now difficult to impossible to make an appointment via either phone or by MyChart message. I have sadly switched most of my care to Virginia Mason, where the care is safe and excellent and the procedures much more accessible for something as simple as making an appointment. Were I to write a novel about Polyclinic, I might title it "The Death of a Gem," as physician themselves are now just employees rather tan owners--required to exhibit productivity measures, profits, etc. for the patient, this has resulted in a much deteriorated experience.

This is an addendum to my review from a week ago where I complained about the Polyclinic's slow response to my chest pain. I am now in Swedish Hospital awaiting heart bypass surgery. My LAD artery is 90% blocked and I am on a heparin IV to prevent a heart attack. I consider the slow response of Polyclinic to my complaint to be medical incompetence of a high order. And I am sorry, telling me to go to the ER is no response - the chest pain was only during strenuous exercise and it didn't seem worthy of an ER visit. I could have died during the wait.