Intermountain Sleep Disorders Center

At first, I believed my negative experience with the Intermountain Health Sleep Disorder Clinic must be an outlier since almost every other experience I’ve had with Intermountain Health has been good. However, after reading the 2.7 rating on Google as well as other patients’ negative experiences, it is evident the Sleep Disorder Clinic staff is consistently underperforming and fails to deliver an appropriate level of patient care. I am reading others have had similar issues where multiple calls and messages go unanswered, leaving patients without the medical care and support that is needed. In my instance, after an in-person meeting with Rick Smith, P.A, on July 31st, he submitted an incorrect prescription to my pharmacy after we clearly discussed the only medication my insurance would approve. When attempting to pick up my prescription several days later, the pharmacy conveyed that my insurer had denied Smith’s requested medication. I was quite shocked because I had spoken with my insurer prior to my visit with Smith; they assured me this particular medication would be approved for me. When I asked the pharmacist to confirm the name of the denied medication, it became clear that P.A. Smith had in fact prescribed the incorrect medication, not the one single option I had carefully and specifically conveyed to him. The pharmacist directed me to contact the Sleep Disorder Clinic for them to resubmit a correct prescription. It is now August 31st. Over the last month, I have called four times and left messages for both Rick Smith, P.A. as well as his assistant, Heidi, regarding the situation. At no point in time has anyone bothered to return my call. When speaking with the receptionist, I have shared my concern about the lack of communication from Smith and Heidi regarding the prescription error and the need for a new, correct prescription submission. The receptionist has stated that their in-office policy allows 3 days for patient messages to be returned. 3 days? It is now 31 days…….and still nothing. My in-person appointment on July 31st with Smith was my second (the first was virtual). In both meetings with him, I got the impression that he had a cool and distant demeanor, seemed disinterested, and spoke over me before I could finish statements regards my questions and concerns. The prescription mistake reinforces that Smith had little interest in paying attention to me. After 4 weeks and 4 unanswered messages, P.A. Smith’s utter lack of support and follow-up regarding correcting his prescription error leaves me questioning both his, as well as his assistant, Heidi’s, competency as well as their commitment to patient care. Where are their professional ethics when correcting mistakes are needed, especially when patients’ wellness is at risk? My experience was no outlier. The 2.7 rating Intermountain Health Sleep Disorder clinic earned seems quite generous given the chronic high level of dysfunction, incompetence, lack of response, and low-quality care patients continue to receive. Is there anyone at Intermountain Health willing to advocate of on behalf of patients? If so, please evaluate this clinic and staff.

This department of IHC needs a serious overhaul. Everything takes weeks or months. If your PCP sends a referral, it will have to be sent 2 or 3 times before they "receive" it, even if your PCP's office got a confirmed receipt. Then, it takes a few more weeks to get your equipment. Then, if you need anything additional (like O2 or machine settings changed), be prepared to wait more weeks/months. You could be not alive by then. Customer service picks up, then puts you back on hold immediately to make it look like hold times are shorter than they are. That happened to me today. When I immediately called back, the phones were conveniently off for lunch, but it was past their lunchtime, as stated in the recording. So frustrating! IM Cardiology put me on hold, looked for my referral, and found it immediately. Sleep Medicine needs to hire some more or better people. Wish I could give zero stars... GRRRR!

Not off to a good start. Had to wait several weeks for a consult. Had a video appointment and no link was sent until after the appointment was supposed to have started. The early morning appointment was convenient, then I was told I needed to pick up equipment for an at home sleep study. Was just told that there are no early morning slots and I have to wait another week and a half just to come pick up the equipment (since they close before my work hours end). The only reason this isn't one star is because the person I saw this morning was terrific. Would have been more stars if they would have been.able to work around my schedule like the NP did. If you're referred here, be prepared to wait and be informed of lack of options. Edit to one star: Communication (or clear instructions for the at home sleep study - we had to figure it out on our own) is not their strong suit. After finishing the at home test, it dropped it off as instructed. For almost two weeks, I hear nothing (not a "thanks for returning the equipment" or a "we're working on it"). When I try to call my "Sleep Navigator" I get no return call (I just sent and email, so we'll see how that goes). I called the main line and I finally got confirmation that they have the equipment I returned. However, I was told that it takes 3-4 weeks to get any results back. When I asked why it takes so long, the response I got is "I don't know". These folks may be great doctors/nurses and such. But their communication and customer service skills are severely lacking. This has not been a good experience.

This place is a joke. The sleep study was fine, but once you get the results, they can't explain them to you. The provider I saw literally told me he had no idea why the numbers didn't correlate (and he even noted that in my medical record). I'm a medical professional and would never treat my patients that way. Whatever department I work in, I make sure I understand the information for that department, and if I don't know, I tell my patients I will find out and then I do and get back to them in a timely fashion. Clearly, they do the sleep study, and then just go with the results the computer spits out. If you have sleep apnea, they prescribe a CPAP. That's it!! No other help interpreting the data - you're just told you have sleep apnea. I asked for the raw data so that I could take it elsewhere to get some real feedback since they weren't able to help me. I was told no which is a clear violation of HIPAA. In addition, the provider asked me if I thought I could interpret the data better than the doctors who'd gone to school for years to learn to do so. Well, given that there were inconsistencies and they couldn't explain them, maybe I can figure it out. I'm certainly smart enough to do research and try to figure out what is going on. In addition, if I could get the raw data, I could take it elsewhere for evaluation. In addition, they refer you to Intermountain Home Care and then tell you it's going to take 30-45 days for them to get in touch with you. Seriously??!! Nothing else. Just wait for them to get in touch with you. I've been happy with most of IHC up until now, but I would not recommend them for sleep unless you just want the study and can figure everything else out on your own!! Please note that the positive reviews have comments from IHC, but not the negative ones. Interesting!! For those of you who've noticed that IHC responded, please take note of the following. I emailed the patient feedback email. I then received a call back from a very nice lady, but that was it. IHC has no desire to make things right. They only want to make it look like they do. The nice lady who contacted me is basically to placate me and that's it. Find another place to get your sleep study done. This place doesn't know what they are doing!!

My experience here was bad. The children running the sleep study made noise, all night. It was impossible to sleep being that we are all there with sleeping issues. They were very slow to get my machine. I had to call and complain . When I finally got it, the "prescription" for the machine was the factory default. That might be possible, but my expensive machine had all kinds of comfort features that were disabled. These were very important in trying to get comfortable with the machine. I would have saved thousands and had the same prescription if I bought a CPAP machine on eBay. The ijc home health is very expensive for supplies, even with insurance. Again, eBay will save you money. If you need a full mask, use the memory foam mask for a few months. It's comfort is awesome, but it doesn't last. Use 3-4 of these, then move on to the plastic mask and it won't bother you. Their hospital at 5400 and State is amazing. My dr's there were awesome, but the sleep doctors I saw were bad and the department feels like an insurance/Medicare scam. With that said, force yourself to use your machine as it's life-changing after a few weeks. Just be sure and use online support to help you. They will claim it's illegal to modify your machines settings......I promise no one at the clinic would ever put out the energy to do anything about it. Once you own your machine, it's game on. Let them try and enforce this poclicy/law