Pacific Heart Institute - Santa Monica

I am so grateful my PCP referred me several years ago to a cardiologist who worked here. The standard of care is excellent, and the staff is courteous, friendly, patient and responds to calls/MyChart/My CS-Link messages in a timely way. My original cardiologist moved out of state, so Dr. John Soong is helping me care for my heart health. His explanations are thorough and easy to understand, he listens carefully and he is willing to spend extra time answering questions. I had three surgeries prior to my angiogram, and Dr. Soong is the only surgeon who spent time with me in pre-op, reviewing again the risks and benefits of the procedure and answering questions. He helped me feel very comfortable with the angiogram and even more confident in him as my doctor. PS: I recovered well from the angiogram without any issues.

Love my doctor (who unfortunately left this clinic, but still sees me remotely), but the scheduling here couldn't be worse. I was promised a call back only to be ghosted for a week. When I called back again I was promised an MRI scheduled only for that order to never come in. Multiple, repeated calls just to get basic tasks done, complete waste of time (Jackie is the name of the assistant to be specific). I don't want to trust my heart to people who are that irresponsible and will be looking for a new clinic. Shame that such great cardiologists are surrounded by such unprofessional admin.

Pacific Heart has been great as far the physicians I have seen. Dr. Tang in particular is a very caring and compassionate physician. I can't compliment him enough. His office and staff are wonderful. So why did I give it 3 stars. I am also seeing Dr. Soong as a new patient. I've seen him once. He seems quite good although not the friendliest guy. Very professional but not the bedside manner of Dr. Tang but I've only seen him once so my final opinion is yet to come. So, 3 stars Dr. Soong's assistant is slow to return my calls. Says a tech will call me back with a report on my Loop Recorder but no one does. I had a stress test scheduled and the physician doing the test canceled. The earliest reschedule was 2-3 months out. It was explained that they have limited resources for this test. I've had stress tests before at Medical Scanning facilities and was always able to schedule in 2 weeks. Like a lot of Medical businesses profit is the bottom line which can mean limited staffing and over booking. Hence the 3 star rating rather than 5.

Tech who performed the last echo was very good. But the reception desk and scheduler are terrible. It appears to be procedure to NOT return phone calls unless you call repeatedly. More than 1 day for return calls.

Nurse Nancy and Nurse Practitioner Rachel were amazing! Both of them were caring and comprehensive. Nurse Nancy took the time on the phone to explain previous EKG results to me and then got me in that day to see Nurse Practitioner Rachel for another EKG to be sure that everything was OK. Thank you both very much!