Virginia Mason Institute 1100 9th Avenue, Seattle, WA 98101

"(This review is for Dr. Ferguson, Dr. Brzana (The endocrinologist) was very helpful and recommendable. We recommend you avoid Dr. Ferguson) Recently had an appointment that was set up which turned out to be a waste of $3000 and a month of planning... I started having a problem almost a year ago that left me randomly nauseous, weak, trouble concentrating, among other problems; all of which I've been careful to keep track of, but after a year of changing symptoms it's hard to keep track of them all. I was attending college, but had to drop out because it was difficult to function and i couldn't trust my body to work when it needed to. So my parents and I decided we'd try going south (We live in Alaska) to a major hospital to try and get an answer and a direction. What was suppose to happen (As we were told), was to send down my records and a cover letter a few weeks in advance. The receiving doctor would then review them himself and get in touch with some specialist to get their opinions and set up appointments. This was all because, not only were we getting no answers from GP's, but since we lived in Alaska, it was going to be very costly for us to spend alot of time down there waiting on appointments. I also had had a lymph node biopsied which was also suppose to be requested so it could be looked at,. What actually happened is we got down there, Dr. Ferguson hadn't even looked at my records beforehand! His first question was "What seems to be the problem?" If he had read the cover letter, he would've known already, but instead I had to try and describe as many details as I could think of of something that started almost a year ago (Can you remember what you felt like February 5th of 2013?). He asked very few clarifying questions, gave little to no input, never asked what I've tried and what I should in the future, and after a little while started to tune out. He then goes on to tell me there's nothing left to check, that my workup has been plenty thorough, and asks me about being depressed and anxious (Which I've had to drop out of school and give up on a lot of things because my body stops functioning properly randomly, of course there's some anxiety and 'depression' with that, but I knew it was not the cause as the problems started without warning). I had to spend the rest of the appointment begging and trying to persuade him it isn't just anxiety or depression, to which he recommended I see a psychiatrist and to get the appointment set up. I barely managed to get him to refer me to an Endocrinologist (Who had a whole range of things to check that could be possible avenues). Being brushed off as a hypochondriac wasn't the worst part however; he never look at my records, he didn't get the lymph node sent for, and he NEVER set up any specialist! If he had reviewed everything before and recommended the psychiatrist before the appointment, along with the other specialists, then I would consider it a valid avenue, but he neglected to do so and we had to extend our stay to make it to an appointment (set up by the endocrinologist). After $3000 and a month of planning, we left with only two specialist appointments and no answers. It was an appalling lack of professionalism for a field that relies on scientific evidence for a diagnosis. I felt condescended, brushed off, ignored, and frustrated most of all; this was suppose to be one of the best hospitals around, highly recommended, and yet because of Dr. Ferguson's arrogant and lazy behavior I've gotten better treatment from a community clinic...."