Patient First

Exceptionally slow and unsatisfactory service. In the past I’d had AWESOME experiences with Patient First (Columbia.) After 2 trials of the Silver Spring location, waiting in excess of 3 hours (then additional wait in excess of 1 hour in the treatment room), I drove to the Columbia location (for faster and satisfactory service) rather than endure a repeat of Silver Spring. Looking forward to the Prince Georges county location (Beltsville) opening on June 30^th.

So I called in advance to make sure they could do an X-​Ray on our 5 year old’s arm, and was told yes, they could, and to come on over. Upon arrival, there were at most 2 people in the waiting room. Despite that, it took more than two hours to be treated. At the end we were told it did not appear to be broken, but they wanted to confirm it with a radiologist who worked off-​site. Fine (although perhaps callers should be warned about that so they could make an informed decision about where to go). However, it’s now been nearly 24 hours and we still have no final results, and each time I call the staff’s response it to «wait.» Don’t waste your time going here.

I like the quick check-​in, and getting the medications right away. The place is well-​run, efficient and clean.
I’ve had xrays done in the past, and had a lot of back pain and was cared for very well. Overall a good walk in experience. Hopefully they’ll share the visit notes with my primary doc… and then 3 days later, they called to followup and see how I was doing! Wow.

First experience was ehhh… second went a lot better. They have great staff and, at least the ones I dealt with, try to keep you cheerful when you feel like crap. Service was quick, staff is friendly, and the location is very well maintained.

Hi there this place has terrible customer service. Your better off going somewhere else. It has taken them
90 minutes just to see me. Not sure why they can’t at least tell me how many people are ahead of me. Not coming here again. The doctors are not polite and the staff seems like they can’t be bothered to help or answer questions. Not coming here again. There are other walk in clinics. Go there and save yourself the aggravation when your already sick and not feeling your best.

On the positive side the staff could not have been kinder or more professional.
The physician was rude and clearly does not care about her patients. She made me feel that I was wasting her precious time. When asked why I was there I tried to explain but instead she kept interrupting me. Then she gave me the definition of symptoms and then asked me to start over using the proper definition. Really? I was telling her why I was there to me those are the symptoms. I am not a physician or medically trained so am most likely not going to use the correct terms.
She told me that the flu, bronchitis and strep are going around. OK so test for those. I was there with a sore throat and a cough. Nope she just lectured me to avoid people who are coughing. Ummm. how about addressing my reason for being there. That was clearly not on her agenda.
Note there are no sinks in the patient rooms. The physician did not bother to use the liquid hand crap that is not as good as washing hands before she checked my breathing and looked at my throat. After looking at my throat she declared that my throat cannot be THAT bad because it did not look too bad to her.
I will go to my regular physician on Monday. While I did not have a fever when I went in I do today and my throat feels worse. However, I doubt the doctor at Patient First would care. It would really should be called patients are a pain.

Quality of care, general professionalism, and the appearance and condition of the facility are top notch. However, I am regretfully forced to reduce my overall assessment to 3 stars due to the incredibly slow speed of service. I waited 2 hours for a patient room and then another 45 minutes to an hour waiting be seen by a doctor.
The whole idea behind these walk-​in clinics is supposed to be that they’re a more efficient alternative to the ER… That certainly wasn’t the case today.
Pros:
–Quality of care
–Professionalism
–Appearance and condition of facility
Cons:
–Slow service (be prepared to wait for several hours)
–Small, overcrowded waiting room

I did not feel comfortable with my treatment. Call my primary Dr. and thank God she was back from vacation and went to her today 2÷17÷2016.

I have been (sadly) on a few occasions due to having Tricare (this is faster than WRNMMC’s ER). Customer service is so-​so but competent doctors, nurses and quick labs make it a solid urgent care.

Helpful, long wait. Nice Pt and staff were helpful.

Empty waiting room somehow turns into 45 minute wait time and rude nurses. Never coming back.

Five days before I was scheduled to move to Washington D.C., my left knew blew out, and I required surgery to fix a torn ACL and torn meniscus. I arrived in D.C. knowing no doctors or medical centers, yet I had to get a pre-​surgery medical clearance. My surgeon’s office recommended that I try Patient First. I went there on a weekday without an appointment. I was seen within 10 minutes of showing up. Everyone from the intake people to the doctor was professional, attentive and pleasant. They did what had to be done efficiently, explained to me the tests they were doing, and said that they would provide the test results directly to the surgeon’s office. They cleared me and I was out of there in an hour. I am extremely pleased with my experience and I would recommend Patient First in Silver Spring to anyone.

They need more providers! I understand this is a walk in clinic, but I waited over 2 hours for them to tell me I don’t have strep and I don’t have the flu, and basically just had a virus that they couldn’t really do anything about. One hour was just waiting to get a room and another hour was for the provider to come see me and for the lab to finish running my tests. The good thing about this place is it’s open every single day from 8am-​10pm, but if you need to come here, be prepared to wait. When you’re feeling sick, waiting here all day is not something you want to do.

When you’re sick the last thing you want is to wait in line forever. When you’re sick what you want is to be seen by a doctor as soon as possible, a diagnosis, drugs and to be on your way back to your bed. Patient first gives all that in one stop with a few extra conveniences.
I’ve come here several times when my primary care doctor is no where to be found and it is indeed the best experience I can imagine other than a doctor coming to my home with pharmacy in tow (I can dream, cant I?). In addition to seeing the doc, getting drugs (yes pharmacy on site) and heading home in less than an hour, but I’m pretty comfortable while I am there.
There’s cable, wi-​fi and plenty of outlets. The secret to my success is I call ahead and ask how many people are in the waiting room, so I know when to arrive. Thankfully this place has never has more than 2 people in the waiting room.
If you’re sick, forget your primary care, forget the ER, come here and you’ll be on the mend quickly!

Although Patient First bills itself as an Urgent Care facility and can be counted upon to see you same day, you should think very carefully about using this clinic, even if they’re recommended by your insurance provider.
I recently took a very serious fall down my home’s interior staircase, and although I made it through the night, it was clear that I required medical attention which basically means go to urgent care or go to the emergency room. Since any trip to the emergency room is an invitation to fiscal disaster, the Frogette and I decided on urgent care and called our insurance company to get the names of approved facilities. Patient First was our insurance company’s recommendation.
Now, when it comes to medical care, I don’t trust anybody… least of all my insurance company. So before we headed up to Silver Spring, I called Patient First to ensure that they would, indeed, bill my insurance company as urgent care, which is covered 100% by my insurance, rather than as an office visit, which is covered at a lower rate and is subject to deductibles. Patient First confirmed this.
Now I don’t have much to say about the facility and care. Although I was processed quickly and taken to an exam room within 30 minutes of walking in the door, I was left to wait for 90 minutes before a doctor even saw me. After that, I became a training subject for a new x-​ray technician who clearly had no idea what she was doing. But, in the end, after about 3 hours, I left with a diagnosis (sprained lumbar, bruised kidney, tons of back trauma) and prescriptions for top-​flight drugs. No emergency room would have seen me any faster, so I considered the situation to be about the best I could have hoped for.
Fast forward a couple of weeks: I’m healing… slowly, and the Patient First bill arrives, but rather than billing the visit as urgent care, they billed me for an office visit, and I was stuck with non-​covered charges and my yearly deductible. A call to Patient’s First customer service department uncovered that they, despite their assurances to the contrary (not to mention the requirements of their contract with my insurance), bill based on the diagnosis… not the «urgency» of the visit. In other words, Patient First will engage in fraud, in the form of misinformation delivered to the patient, to ensure that the patient pays a higher percentage of the cost. (I can only presume that somehow they get a part of this through higher capitated rates.)
At least Patient First agreed to a 45 day hold on my account while they investigated the issue. But… as that account hold was expiring, I called again to determine the status of my billing reevaluation request. This time I was told by Patient First that, not only had they concluded the process – with the same result – but that they were under no obligation to inform me of the results or even that the review was complete. They also informed me that, with no new bill or notice of any kind, they’d marked my account as «overdue».
So here’s the takeaway: Forget Patient First’s level of care… it’s irrelevant. This company simply cannot be trusted to give patients accurate information. They cannot be trusted to keep their patients informed, and they will fraudulently violate an insurance contract for financial advantage. Although this little debacle didn’t cost me all that much, in the end I would have been better off in an emergency room with its astronomical costs (…at least to my insurer).
This is exactly what’s wrong with our health-​care system, and Patient First is part of the problem.

Visiting Patient First as a result of a friend’s ski accident at Liberty Mountain in Pennsylvania (see that review). The staff seems to be very attentive with all the walk-​in patients. It’s a Sunday night and not very busy so that’s a big plus. While waiting at the lobby, it seems as though all walk-​in clients have been seen by their nurse/​practitioner/​doctor rather quickly and no patient has had to wait with us in the lobby for more than four or five minutes.
As an added bonus, this facility looks to be brand new and very modern. Nice, clean waiting area, and the staff all seem to be very friendly and courteous. While I can’t speak to the medical care or the medical rooms/​equipment, I am confident that this place would be my go-​to place in the event something happens to result in the need for non-​emergency care. They’re also open until 10:00pm on a Sunday, so that’s pretty nice.

I’m sure everyone understands how such a headache it is to find a decent healthcare facility, or simply a friendly doctor; that’s especially if you are a FOREIGNER in this country (NOT because I don’t speak proper English but you should know by how that both the healthcare and insurance systems in this country are disastrous).
But my experience with Patients First was sure more than decent. The intake procedure was efficiently done on an iPad-​like machine; the long wasn’t too long, maybe 10-​ish to 20 minutes (even provided high quality reading like New Yorkers in the waiting room); the guy nurse who did the vital thing was nice and meticulous.
And then not so long after that the doctor came, who was a very nice, well-​educated and –mannered African American lady (she was also from Manhattan!). She really cared and would ask question and listened so as to understand my situation and everything. Unlike some other doctors who couldn’t care less or just rushed and pretended they know better than you, this doctor I met was very professional and treated the patient right.
You know sometimes how a nice caring doctor could already make you feel better just by having a good conversation with you? This is it — healthcare made simple by this urgent care clinic — their name «Patient First» was proved legit.

Waits were short — I was in and out of this place within 30 minutes.
Check in & Check out was very quick and efficient.
The reason for the 2 stars is because of Dr. Rebekah Vallejos, who came off as a cold, condescending, and uncaring individual. No eye contact — she just brushed off my medical problem like it was nothing. She didn’t seem very knowledgeable either from our conversation. Her answers were short and snippy, «yes» or «no» answers. I didn’t really get an explanation for what was happening to me or any kind of advice.
This will not prevent me from coming back to this Patient First, but I will definitely be selecting to come on a day when Dr. Vallejos is not working in the future.

I was REALLY excited about this place. I was completely sick, throwing up with a migraine. Awful. I called them, they told me no appt. necessary, so I just came in. 10 minutes from my house, I was so overjoyed. Friendly staff and didn’t wait very long. Really clean and modern.
First thing that made me skeptical, the nurse asked me some questions and wrote them on a scrap piece of paper… then another nurse came over and asked me what the scribbles meant…
All my lab work was taken and in within 10 minutes — big plus.
The biggest minus? I WAITED FOR TWO HOURS. There were three people infront of me, I was told, but I waited. I even called the nurse twice to see if this was real life. Yes, it was. I asked if the wait was normal — it was a Monday at 2pm… she had no idea.
Finally, Dr. Prest walked in and I have to say she was SO dismissive. I absolutely was annoyed with her. She basically didn’t ask me anything and saw that I had a migraine and prescribed me some random medications. THAT WAS WHAT I WAITED 2 HOURS FOR? Hell no. I was furious. I said «no» and she just referred me to a neurologist after telling me she has expertise in the emergency room with this.
I’m completly disappointed. Reading all the reviews, Im tempted to try again, but that experience was horrific. Probably not going back unless I’m desperate.

I have health insurance. After three days with a fever (102 degrees this morning) I finally decided to call my doctor, and I was blown off! She wasn’t in the office right away, and the receptionist said they’d call me IF they could fit me in.
Finally at 3PM I call the office and told them I was going to urgent care. Luckily Patient First is only a mile away. With a $ 20 copay I got more specialized care than my doctor would have given me. I was swabbed to check if I had the flu (negative), given a pulmonary function test, nebulized (helped me breath easier), and had chest x-​rays. All for my $ 20 copay!
Everyone was very friendly, and Dr. Prest didn’t rush me out of there. I only wish I had bought my Rx prescriptions there. Turns out their amoxicillin price was $ 8.00 cheaper than stinking CVS.
I may consider going here all the time, considering how my primary care physician blew me off. (She did finally call me twice, but I was already at Patient First.)