This review is based on a mammorgram and ultrasound…read more
Pros:
The space is very nice and upscale, clean.
The people are nice.
There is free parking available. CAVEAT: if the parking lot is full, you will be directed to park across the street, where there is apparently a $5.00 flat fee. I can't verify the fee, because I did not have to use that parking lot. The information is from the parking lot attendant at the Center for Women's Health.
They send directions in an email to you so that you know how to find them. In case your GPS goes out with all of the tall buildings downtown.
Cons:
These are cons based on my experience today. I may have just gotten them on a bad day.
Excessive wait time. (I was there for 3 hours)
Poor communication
NO MAGAZINES. And no place to recharge my phone, which would not have been an issue if I had not been there for 3 hours.
The experience:
I had an appointment a week ago. I went in, filled out my questionnaire and was told 2 things:
Based on my answers, they would want to do an ultrasound, which they couldn't do that day and they did not have my "film" from my last yearly exam at a different facility. So I had to be rescheduled. This was not happy making, but ok, fine, I understand. (Though I had 3 or 4 forms emailed to me and it seems that the questionnaire that led to the conclusion that I should have an ultrasound could have been emailed to me as well, but that isn't what was least pleasant to me.)
I go and pick up my "films" (what do you call mammogram images?) from my previous facility and show up for my new appointment a week later. I check in. I wait about a half hour and they take me back. My mammogram is done and then. . . I'm told that the ultrasound technician called in sick and they're waiting for the relief person to show up. Ok, I can handle that, things happen. There is a person ahead of me waiting for an ultrasound, so after some discussion, I gather that I may have an extra hour of hanging out waiting for my ultrasound. Cool. Like I said, things happen.
This is where I get unhappy. We're told when the relief technician has arrived, but it takes about another half hour to 45 minutes for the person ahead of me to get in to the room. And she's in there for a very, very long time. And I'm waiting and waiting and no one comes by to let me know what's going on. I decide to go ask someone and cruise up to the front in my silly pink smock. I'm told it will be 5 to 10 minutes. Nope. about a half hour later the woman ahead of me gets out and then is called back in the room. (I don't know what was going on with her, but it can't have been good and I am wishing her all the best and hoping that things work out.) I finally get called in and am in and out in 15 minutes.
So here's what I would have liked to have happen: I really wish someone would have checked in with us regularly since we had to wait so long. Also, they really, really need to get some magazines in there for the times that things like this happen: I had a choice of Arthritis Today, People en Espanol and Better Homes and Gardens which I had read the previous week. Seriously, get some of the $10/year professional rate subscriptions and add some for men as well, since I saw quite a few of them there, waiting for girlfriends, wives, daughters, etc.
I don't want to take away from the previous 5 star reviews who had very good experiences with the breast cancer specialist there, because I'm not reviewing for that, I'm reviewing for what was probably a bad day for them that I thought could have been handled a little better.
Lastly, i want to say - get your yearly exams, ladies. Whether it's here or somewhere else, just do it. Don't wait until you can see something for feel something wrong to go in. Just schedule it annually and go. Because at the end of the day, taking 3 hours out of my day to know that I am protecting my health is worth it.