I really wanted to love this practice after doing lots of research while searching for a new PCP, but I was pretty disappointed with my experience.
Before I paid my membership fee, I asked how long it'd take to schedule an annual physical. I was told they had an opening the next week, but it actually took six weeks to get an appointment with a doctor and my first physical appointment was actually canceled.
When I arrived at the office, the front desk person at the building had her mask pulled completely down (she was behind a sneeze shield). Then she had to make a physical copy of my ID, at which point she started COUGHING, without a mask. I didn't want to complain about this at the time, but I'm sorry - that's completely unacceptable for a medical office. I'm very careful with COVID precautions, and there's no excuse to needlessly expose patients to COVID risks at a medical building.
Parking was $18 for one hour, which is fine, just something to keep in mind.
Once the appointment started, it immediately felt rushed. I was asked if I had any medical concerns, and when I said yes, I was told I'd have to make a separate appointment to discuss that. For an appointment that took 6 weeks to book, it was frustrating that the total time allotted was only 20-25 minutes long.
During the appointment, my ears, nose, and throat were never checked. Not sure if this was a COVID precaution, but I've had breathing problems and listed nasal valve reconstruction in my surgical history, so I'd expect this to be a standard part of my annual physical.
When the doctor went to use her stethoscope on my stomach, I pulled up my shirt and she made some uncomfortable comments about tattoos I have which aren't visible to anyone in my daily life. I hope the provider can learn that commenting on people's appearance - when it doesn't affect their health - can make new patients really uncomfortable. If she'd ask when I had gotten the tattoos (as a relevant piece of my medical history), I would've understood. Instead, she implied that I got my $3,000 tattoo in a back alley way.
I'm also a queer woman, and at no point did Dr Gregory ask about my sexual identity when they were taking my sexual history. It seems like One Medical just assumes that you're heterosexual, which seems like a pretty outdated view for a "new" startup like this.
I also have a history of trauma, and Dr Gregory was visibly uncomfortable discussing this, which made me uncomfortable (it literally made my heart rate increase, which made it difficult for her to take my vitals). I was looking for a trauma-informed provider, and this very clearly wasn't it. If One Medical is interested in including trauma survivors at their practice, they should offer training in this to all providers, and incorporate more comprehensive history-taking prior to the appointment.
I wanted a thyroid panel run because I've been dealing with fatigue for the last several months, and Dr Gregory refused to run it in the panel with my other lab work. If I had felt more comfortable, I probably would've asked her to note in her chart why she thought it wasn't indicated.
My doctor (Alani Gregory) also pressured me into getting the flu shot, instead of helping me find a pharmacy with the nasal flu vaccine. I have a diagnosed sensitivity to eggs and my brother had an anaphylactic reaction to the flu vaccine. I told Dr Gregory that I'd had a reaction to the previous year's vaccine, and she told me to get the vaccine anyway but be prepared with my EpiPen (cool...) I ended up having a histamine reaction all over my body. The fact that this wasn't even my #1 complaint about my experience says A LOT. It turns out that my local neighborhood pharmacy had the nasal vaccine, which would've been easy to find out if Dr Gregory had bothered to check the manufacturer's website, which contained a map of dozens of places in the DC area offering it.
On the plus side, they have a lab on site, and most people in the office itself were wearing N95s and face shields. Those are pretty much the only positives that come to mind, and it seems like the most bare minimum stuff. (The person who took my blood actually blew my veins - which isn't the the end of the world - but all that to say, even the lab wasn't that great.)
I've found another PCP, who came highly recommended by people in my network, but I wanted to share my experience with Dr Gregory so that One Medical can hopefully make appropriate changes to their patient practices. I'm really not comfortable sharing the above details of my medical history publicly, but I wanted to share it especially as a warning for other patients who might not fit in your standard "box" - this practice is probably not designed for you. read more