 |
| Evergreen Medical Center / Redmond |
It was Friday afternoon around 4:30. This wasn't an emergency; no reason to phone the Evergreen "Healthline Nurse" for a free consult. Our Virginia Mason family doctor was off for the weekend. Oh! the new Evergreen Medical Center at Bella Bottega has urgent care, 9-5, all week. Let's go there. Click the blue link to "Read More">>
Upon entering the first floor lobby at 5:07, the young receptionist said Urgent Care is closed at 5pm, "but would you like to go to the ER"? NO. For patients with full insurance it's a no-brainer to say 'yes' to the convenience of ER and avoid Urgent Care altogether. Unfortunately, we're privately insured and the ER fee and diagnostic tests could cost thousands of out of pocket expenses. I asked about the new Evergreen Urgent Care center in Woodinville. The lobby receptionist showed us a flyer giving the urgent care address and hours for Evergreen Medical Center in Woodinville. It was open. Off we drove.
The new Evergreen Woodinville urgent care center is open 8am to 8pm on M-F (and 9-5 on weekends). I once went to the Overlake Urgent Care in Issaquah. It's open 24/7 and only 11 miles away. My last visit there was for a crushed nail (including cauterization) and the service was okay. (List price: $159) But, the new Evergreen Woodinville urgent care was closer - about half the distance, and we wanted to try it.
It's a new building but more spartan on the exterior than the attractive, brick Redmond/ER. The friendly clerk took our insurance card and the $35 co-pay. She said the main difference between Urgent Care and Primary Care is you don't need an appointment for Urgent Care but the wait is usually about two hours!
So, I clocked it: 1) sign in - 5 minutes, 2) lobby room wait - 20 minutes, 3) Triage nurse -10 minutes, 4) lobby room - 5 minutes, 5) exam room workup with Medical Assistant - 5 minutes, 6) exam room wait for doctor - 21 minutes, 7) TIME WITH DOCTOR - 4 minutes. Total time: 70 minutes, not counting the inconvenient drive from Evergreen Redmond/ER clinic.
The doctor was professional and efficient. It took her 4 minutes to diagnose sinusitis (first visit list price: $188), prescribe the antibiotic and computer entry. She didn't spend "personal time" getting to know us because she specializes in ER care and never follows-up with urgent care or primary care patients. There was little basis for a patient-physician relationship. We liked the clinic's close proximity to Bartell Drug. They guarantee Rx fills within 15 minutes and sell generics for $9. Evergreen has the most board-certified primary care physicians in greater Redmond so there's plenty of choices for a family physician. All you have to do is make an appointment.
Review by Bob Yoder
Updated, 5/15
Well, in today's health care situation, urgent care is OK, unless you need urgent care. Not so sure about emergency care either when you manage to drag yourself in, because you will wait along the wall with other patients who use the ER as their primary care facility. Triage works ok, but getting the insurance info down seems to be the major priority.
ReplyDeleteIt's weird how the ER is on the second floor because they never intended to have one until Swedish decided to open one up in Redmond. I hear they had to scramble to get one put in after the final designs were completed. I wish there was an initiative to put an end to public district hospitals since they don't really need that money anymore. They should've opened an ER there a long, long time ago based on growth patterns. They only did it so Swedish didn't get all their business. Sad. [This comment was anonymously posted on an entry unrelated to Evergreen. I moved it here for the benefit of the reader and commenter, B.Y.]
ReplyDeleteI had my first experience at the new Redmond building today to see my primary care doctor. The building looks nice, but I strongly dislike the new system - being required to go to the 3rd floor to check in so they can send you to the 4th floor where someone tells you which color waiting room you're supposed to wait in.
ReplyDeleteIt had a hospital like feel to it, which triggered some anxiety. I also dislike having my vital signs taken out in the open including my blood pressure, temp, and weight. The exam rooms have an ER appearance and aren't very sound proof. I appreciated my doctor as usual, but I didn't see how the new set-up was a great benefit to me.
FROM EVERGREEN HOSPITAL:
ReplyDeleteBob, Thank you so much for sharing this information [from Sarah]. In order to continue to provide service excellence, we appreciate receiving all comments [such as Sarah's]. This information will be shared with our Board, Administrative Council and Emergency Department. I would also encourage the person that shared the information [Sarah] to contact Evergreen directly, so our staff could respond to her directly. In the meantime, I will share this information with staff and provide you with any feedback I receive. I will be out of the office until August 2nd but will respond as soon as I have any further information. [by email]
- Laurene Burton, Administrative Director of Governance and Public Affairs, Evergreen Hospital. 7/28
EDITOR'S NOTE: I'm posting Ms. Burton's email in hopes the anonymous commenter, Sarah, will read this and contact Evergreen directly. Ms. Burton can be reached by phoning "Patient Relations" (425-899-1000 or 425-899-2267)or emailing her at: lhburton@evergreenhealthcare.org
I encourage my Readers to send their feedback (positive or negative) directly to Evergreen. B.Y.