Family Care Network - North Sound Family Medicine

"I’ve seen Arielle Furtado and Ana Cornea here and had excellent experiences with both. They are knowledgeable and both listened to my concerns and responded with empathy and solutions. The billing of this clinic is frustrating and not very transparent, but that seems to be the theme in America and is not any fault of the providers."

"Dr. Pagels has been my primary care physician for a long time...10-15 years. She has always taken my medical concerns seriously. She's kind but honest and straight forward. My experiences with the North Sound staff has always been positive. I've recommended Dr. Pagels to friends many times."

"As of right now, I've been on hold for 30 minutes. Despite all the things their new system is supposed to be able to do, cancelling appointments is something it cannot do apparently. I'm frequently becoming more and more disappointed by the quality of care I'm receiving not from the doctors, but from the supporting staff. Between being told that they cannot give my child their vaccines because their "vaccine fridge is broken" (not sure why either they're allowing their equipment to go so long without being fixed or why they're not being forthcoming about why they're choosing to not provide my child with necessary basic care), the longer wait times and even longer hold times on the phone, this clinic is rapidly becoming unreliable in many ways. This is disappointing to me because I used to view FCN as being an awesome organization, but lately I cannot even recommend them to anyone."

"Went to see Dr Pagels for an annual and wellness exam which are both preventative services that should be covered by insurance. They double charged me for an office visit on top of the preventative visit for “asking a question” (which they can’t tell me what the question was, and are saying it must have not related to my wellness exam, but won’t tell me what kind of questions those might be). They will not call me back to get this sorted out, will not rebill insurance to have my full preventative visit covered, or tell me what questions to not ask next time I come in. This is horribly shady and smells of insurance fraud. If you go to this office make sure you don’t ask any questions to make sure you don’t get charged an extra full office visit on top of whatever you are there for. Good luck. Would not recommend this office, and will be looking anywhere else for services. To add - just received another bill for the cancer and HPV screening that was sent out of network that now my insurance is refusing to cover because it’s out of network. Cherry on top. Edit: Guess who didn’t provide a solution! After three weeks I finally got a hold of the practice manager! Pay attention to the sheet of paper you’re now asked to sign at the beginning of your visit. They told me if you ask anything unrelated to what’s on that sheet specifically you will be charged, and too bad because you signed a legally binding document. Doctor made no mention she was coding a second visit while I was getting examined, so I had no idea. And the big question you might be wondering? Asked about medication during an initial visit."

"Absolutely terrible! My husband and I saw Dr. Brandan Stark first, which should have told us what to expect at this clinic. We recently moved to WA from TX and have been searching for a provider in Bellingham for months. We were told Dr. Stark was accepting new patients, so we scheduled appointments to establish care. Dr. Stark's demeanor was highly off-putting, and he acted as if he didn't want to be there. He was dismissive of my husband and my concerns, didn't ask any questions to help us determine whether previous diagnoses were accurate, etc. After our appointment with him, we knew we weren't returning and would try to find another physician. Again, we contacted NSFM and were told that Dr. Josh Burrell was accepting new patients. Hopefully, we both scheduled appointments with him but on different days. My husband went to the appointment, and to his surprise, Dr. Burnell was worse than Dr. Stark. He dismissed my husband's concerns, didn't want to help him understand some of the things he was being seen for, and had a lazy attitude during the visit. My husband has been having issues hearing out of one of his ears for a few weeks and now has a lump next to his ear on his head. Dr. Burnell said nothing seemed wrong. My husband then got aggravated and requested a referral to an audiologist to check it out. Dr. Burnell seemed annoyed and then agreed. A week later, he had no referral or response from the clinic. I've been searching for a civilian doctor after being seen at the VA for years. We will not be returning to NSFM and driving to Sedro-Woolley in hopes that we find a doctor who cares about their patient and doesn't go to work only to collect a paycheck. It isn't good when I prefer the VA over the physicians at NSFM. AVOID AT ALL COSTS!"