Alaska Urology — Palmer

I had excellent care with Dr Berrry! And all the office staff was fabulous. Highly recommend them.

Both my husband and myself have received excellent patient care from Dr Lund and all of his office staff. They are caring and compassionate, I say this after receiving decades of patient care and support there.

My provider sent a referral to Alaska Urology right after Thanksgiving. I called several times to check on the status, but it took five weeks for the clinic put me into their computer system to contact me. When the scheduler finally called this morning, she immediately demanded my insurance policy number. I told her I didn’t have it memorized and needed to go upstairs to get my purse. While I was climbing the stairs and out of breath, I asked her if she had her own policy number memorized. She responded by accusing me of yelling at her. I told her I wasn’t yelling — I was winded from climbing stairs to get my purse, and reactive because she was clearly cranky, and I didn’t feel comfortable with how she was speaking to me. When I asked if the clinic was affiliated with the Mat-Su medical group (due to recent concerns about two of their doctors getting charged with possession of c-sam), she said she needed to speak with her supervisor and then abruptly hung up on me. I called back and spoke to the operator who handles calls for all other reasons to file a customer service complaint. I explained that seeking urology care involves exposing intimate parts of my body, and being treated with hostility at the first point of contact feels dehumanizing. It’s akin to emotional abuse. Patients deserve to be treated with dignity. Rather than demanding insurance information, staff should kindly ask and be patient — not act like corrections officers talking down to inmates. Because of this experience, I chose not to continue care with this clinic. Respectful communication matters, especially when patients are vulnerable and seeking help for serious kidney issues.

I give them a big fat 0. They were unable to let me know that they somehow did not have the equipment to do a biopsy when the appointment was scheduled months in advance. They also are unable or unwilling to help with questions concerning insurance issues. Completely unprofessional in every aspect of the process. I am appalled that they are still allowing this kind of service in the medical profession. Complete failure when someone is possibly facing cancer you would think that they would be able to take the time and effort to make this process easier for the people facing this. Also the people that are paying for their facilities to operate.

Early indications are that this practice, and specifically the urologist Tristan, are excellent. I’ve only had one appointment so far but my vast experience with doctors and people lead me to believe that this doctor is excellent, values his practice, and cares about his patients. He’s easy to talk to, looks you in the eyes, and listens to you. I’m duly impressed with him and look forward to him helping me overcome my issues.