Virginia Mason Sleep Disorders Center

I came here for an overnight / inpatient sleep study. My referring physician was Dr. Matthias Lee and he was great. I wish I could remember the name of the woman running it because she was amazing! It was a strangely cozy experience. The rooms are also not too bad.

Dr. Peters-Matthews is incredible. Just moved here from Oklahoma and needed to get reestablished with a provider for my sleep apnea. Back home, the sleep doctor I saw was very dismissive of me, barely examined me, and would push me out the door as quickly as possible. I was expecting similar treatment here, so I was completely blown away by how attentive and thorough Dr. Peters-Matthews was. He went through all my paperwork from my previous doctor, found how I had been misdiagnosed by my last doctor, answered ALL my questions, examined me personally, and even helped me explore possible treatments available to me. I cannot recommend Dr. Peters-Matthews enough if you are looking for a sleep doctor. The staff as well were very kind and helpful.

I’ve been a patient of Dr. Peter Matthews for approximately a year and a half now. Excellent physician takes time and thorough evaluations. I highly recommend him for any of your sleep needs. James Tierney.

Getting a sleep study appointment wasn't easy and Virginia Mason's sleep clinic was the relatively earliest one I could get (4/15). The appointment was supposed to be 45 minutes. I went in there, waited about 5-10 minutes, then they fetched me. The visit was about going through a list of questionnaire and seemed quite robotic. I tried to explain my personal situation instead of just giving yes or no answers which seemed to be what this visit was designed for. Although I guess my personalized explanation didn't add anything anyway. At the end he gave some, as I can tell, standard answers he gave to everyone, about how one's nasal structure can be asymmetric and that could obstruct airflow, and then say we can order a sleep study in 1 week and get the result evaluated for 2 weeks. I said can we expedite the process as I'm thinking quitting my job so I won't have insurance by then, he said sure let's schedule things asap. Then he brought me to front desk and rushed off, seemed like in a hurry. The actual office visit was more like 30 minutes, instead of the promised 45 minutes. At the scheduling, they told me the earliest available date for sleep study device is not until 2 weeks later, fine (4/30). And what about the follow-up evaluation? Well I said, the doctor say we can schedule for 2 weeks after the study. But scheduling said, well the only spot I have available is in June (more than one month later) because doctor Peters is a very busy man. At the end though, they found me a video visit scheduled 2.5 weeks later (on 5/18) at Federal Way's clinic, very early in the morning, for a 20 minute video visit. I agreed to that one. Now 2 weeks after the sleep study, in the middle of May (5/14), they just called me and said, oh the doctor is out now, so we need to reschedule your 5/18 appointment to June again! I asked can I get the sleep test result sent to another clinic facility instead? I found another one at UW that finally catches up in time on 5/19. BUT THEY SAY THEY CANNOT RELEASE SLEEP STUDY RESULT UNTIL I AM BEING SEEN BY THEIR DOCTOR. So effectively, I'm being held hostage by their reckless postponing of appointments with total disregard for patient needs, and cannot even just transfer whatever raw sleep study test result to another clinic! I went to Virginia Mason in the hope to get evaluated sooner but it ended up delaying everything and I would have been better off waiting on UW Medicine Center's wait list appointment! Unbelievable. In fact I already decided to switch doctor after that 20 min appointment on 5/18 and the only reason I didn't cancel was because they said I COULD NOT get the sleep study result until I see him. Assuming I get to see him on 5/18 I was like, fine I'll do it, and I'll then fetch the result to my 5/19 visit at UW Medicine. Now they are postponing this so I'll have nothing to show on my 5/19 UW visit! So again, the doctor visit comes off as cold and transactional, scheduling changes at will disregarding patients and won't release raw sleep study data so patient can go somewhere else. Don't go there, please.

I liked my doctor, who was very attentive and enthusiastic; however, my low rating is due to the lack of transparency in pricing. I realize I am responsible for shopping my own care, but I found the price of service to be exorbitant. I also would have appreciated a word of caution on my lack of coverage. I was given a home sleep apnea test, which required renting a device for 24 hours that monitors oxygen level, heart-rate, etc. The cost to rent this small device was over $700, which I later learned was often not covered by insurance. In total, one clinic visit, a virtual follow-up and a one night rental came to just under $2K, most of which is out of pocket.