Family Care Network - Urgent Care - Bellingham

munkeybiz23

It was a lengthy wait, but getting in with my primary for something emergent is not easy so.. I can handle the wait. The staff was very polite. And it's nice to be seen by medical staff that don't just dismiss your issuesbecause they're busy! I've been here a few times and it's been a good experience each time.

Kristine Duncan

I had a very positive experience with my nurse and physician. Dr. Floyd was friendly and thorough, and communicated clearly. She explained everything, was happy to answer my questions, and didn’t make me feel rushed.

Emily Goodin

I'm choosing to rate on the knowledgeable and friendly physician and X-ray technician, parking lot with available spaces, and clean comfortable waiting room, and not on the four-hour wait and the fact that my husband was told he was "lost in the system" for a while, which made his wait longer than it should have been. A monitor in the waiting room shows wait times for the Bham, Mt Vernon, and Lynden locations; this office's wait time was never lower than 3.5 hours (same with Lynden), while the Mt Vernon office was consistency 30-45 minutes. TIP: If you can drive, I suggest going to the Mt Vernon location. We plan to do that next time.

Echo Mae

Hello there, Urgent Care. Deleting reviews you dislike seems a bit shady to me. I left a 2-star review yesterday, and Urgent Care chose to delete it rather than address it. Or perhaps they had it flagged as inappropriate? There was no profanity, but certainly facts and opinions were shared. I had left a VM yesterday for the clinic manager asking to discuss my experience, and never received a call back. Moving down to 1-star for exceptionally poor communication and transparency. And now, for your education and entertainment, I recap the Saga of A Visit to Urgent Care: I have been a patient at North Sound Family Medicine, a part of the Family Care Network, for 15 years, and have received nothing but excellent care there. I expected I would receive the same wonderful care at their Urgent Care Clinic. I had heard from some friends that they had poor experiences there, but I figured that their experiences were the exception rather than the rule. That turned out to be a mistaken assumption on my part. If you visit Urgent Care, you should be prepared for an exceptionally long wait. Their medical folks are fine, but they seem to be overworked and under-staffed, which likely doesn’t help. No doubt at least part of this is due to Covid pressures but based on my friend’s previous experiences, and now my own, it left me wondering if Urgent Care is perhaps permanently under-staffed. When I arrived there weren’t many folks in the waiting room or in the parking lot. I stopped at the front desk to sign in and waited in my car. I waited little over an hour, and gave them a call to make sure I was still on the list. They seemed puzzled, asked me if I was sure my phone’s ring was on (it was), and then let me know that I was still on the list. They estimated that I would wait around 20 more minutes. At this point, I let them know that I had certain co-morbidities that could make my medical issue more urgent than it might be for others, and they said they understood. I waited 20 minutes. I waited 45 minutes. I called them again to make they understood the urgency. Time passed. Finally, I went into the lobby to the reception desk to express my displeasure (yes, I was frustrated after almost two hours), and made sure they and anyone else in hearing range had a clear understanding of why non-treatment could possibly send me to the ER instead of Urgent Care. That must have finally done it. I received a call not too long afterwards, letting me know that I could enter to be seen by the medical staff. I received my diagnosis and received a prescription. It was late, one pharmacy nearby was still open, and they confirmed that they would send it to that pharmacy. By this point, it was almost 8pm – 3 hours after I originally arrived. The prescription hadn’t arrived yet, but the pharmacy let me know that this wasn’t unusual – prescriptions can sometimes take 20 to 40 minutes to arrive. I waited 40 minutes and got back in line at the pharmacy – the prescription still had not arrived. I called Urgent Care to let them know that the pharmacy didn’t receive the prescription. They said they weren’t sure what happened and blamed it on “the system.” They confirmed again with me which pharmacy it should be sent to and said they would resend it. I got back in line at the pharmacy, and the pharmacy lets me know that Urgent Care still hasn’t sent the prescription. The pharmacy does some deeper digging and finds that not only did Urgent Care not send the prescription the first time, but they also sent it to the wrong pharmacy the second time and one that was long since closed for the day at that. Urgent Care was now also closed. After that incredibly long evening of Urgent Care drama, I judge the medical staff at the clinic to be just fine. The clinic management, however, is quite disorganized and the office staff seems to suffer from low empathy. After deleting/flagging my last 2-star review to improve their overall rating (my assumption), I’ll also add dishonest and unethical to the list. Have they done this to other reviewers as well?