Salinas Valley Health Cardiology

am adding to my review below: When one has patience to wait on hold for an extended period of time and eventually, talk to someone at Salinas Valley Health Cardiology, That person is usually great. Today I spoke with Melanie in prescriptions and she was informative and responsive. She was polite, and intelligent. She calmly explained everything and allayed my concern. It suggests that possibly I was overly judgmental in my previous review. Likely, I got them on a bad day. I should give them a break in-as-much as they've probably extended my life by a couple years. 5 stars for doctors; 5 stars for Melanie in prescriptions. Still on the fence about everyone else will decide based on future interaction rather than one bad day. The physicians are highly competent. Maybe that should be enough but the tone of ad.inistration of this facility is awful from a patient perspective. On Tuesday I was sent to a building where there was no parking available. So I parked on the street, a couple blocks away. I walked to the building with my Walker.Only to find that the elevators were out of service and they expected me, a seventy three year old cardiac patient, to walk upstairs three flights to attend the appointment. Needless to say I did not make that attempt. I spoke with them about the problem. No apology -no attempt to take any respoonsibiliy.-nothing - but i was admonished to lower my voice. This morning Thursday, I get an email about my missed appointment.They do not accept responsibility for their negligence. "Those pesky patients" it's not just admins. They are just Frontline. They are the face of the center but they act under the authority of whomever sets the policy. It's easy to be irritated with admins all saying "well that's not my job." but their attitude is indicative of the policy of the medical center itself. That getting insurance payment is primary and patient concern is incidental. Incident to walking up 3 flights of stairs in a building that has no available parking and no working elevator. Doctors 5 stars. .Medical center policy/attitude 1 star or less. 5 stars for doctors; 5 stars for Melanie in prescriptions. Still on the fence about everyone else will decide based on future interaction rather than one bad day.

I had an extremely positive experience at this facility. The staff from reception to the techs and nursing were friendly, professional, and attenative. They made me feel confident in their expertise and well taken care of. Everything was clean and well maintained. I am a healthcare professional myself and would give this place an "A".

unprofessional! My husband called to reschedule his appointment because he wasn't going to make it as he drives from San Jose from work and traffic is always unpredictable. The girl that answered was RUDE and said she would be forwarding this message to her supervisor and hung up. They act like the doctor sees you right away and not sit you in the lobby for who knows how many minutes to wait. Either way this would've been his first time and after how the person that answered the phone was rude he'll be asking his doctor for a different referral. DO BETTER. She needs some customer service training.

This has to be the most unprofessional medical facility I have ever had the misfortune to come across. It's PAs seem like they don't know what they're doing and they ask you to take the lead on your medical diagnosis as though we aren't going to them for medical advice and care. I had a couple of tests done and had an appointment for them to tell me the results. During this time I had inquired about being referred to another cardiologists for a second opinion. The PA, Jennifer, came in with an agenda and seemed insulted that I would ask for a second opinion. The first thing she said as she came in the room was "so you want a referral for somewhere else?", after saying yes, she asked why in a very condescending manner. I told her for a second opinion. She asked for what exactly and I told her for everything. She repeated herself and I told her, "maybe we can start by discussing my test results from last week". She said "oh" and proceeded to tell me what I already knew about my condition. She didn't share what the results were other than my symptoms I had and asked me if I wanted medication for it. I said "what do you think is best". Ultimately, she didn't prescribe anything new as it was obvious she hadn't gone over the results prior to consulting me. She asked if I wanted her to refer me elsewhere and I said yes. Fortunately for me, I was able to get another cardiologist to help me but not before central coast cardiology sent me a letter releasing me from their care without referring me to the cardiologist I had told them about. This was such a petty and unprofessional move and exactly why I wanted to go elsewhere in the first place. Luckily my primary doctor made the referral for me. Stay away from this place if you can. Avoid it at all costs.

Called to ask about a referral. Was on on hold for 12 minutes and then they hung up on me. Called right back, and again waiting for someone to answer for another 10 minutes. Will be asking the doctor for a referral elsewhere.