Mercer Island Dermatology

The billing department and front staff not so good in my opinion, I would love to keep coming back to this place but they were a huge impact and a negative experience. They ruined it for me, but The doctor is awesome! As much as I love the doctor and her experience and expertise, I would not be coming back.

Mercer Island Dermatology offers great customer service and experienced the doctors. They listen to your concerns are really understand your needs as a patient. I'll be coming back here annually.

Well, after reading the reviews (that I agree with 1-star), this may be overkill. But I feel that is important for people to know what my experience was with MI Dermatology.

I went in with what I and my wife thought was an ingrown hair or cyst growing on my chin. My wife suggested MI Derm and I made an appointment. I was told that I was correct, it was a cyst/ingrown hair. I was shot with a steriod and sent on my way. The following week the problem area was not better, it was worse. I went back in and asked "could this be something else?". I was told it was fine and that they just needed another, stronger, steriod (more $$$'s). I also asked at the 2nd appt if it was worth it to lance the area to find out for sure. I was told no and that the 2nd steriod would do it. Same result, it continued to get worse.

Following week.... I demanded that we lance the area. She did lance it, barely. Nothing but blood came out and I was told to immediately go to the emergency room!! I did just that. The Dr in the ER came out confused and asked about getting referred by a dermatologist. She stated, "we generally refer people to dermatologists, not the other way around". She then proceeded to again lance the area stating "the previous lance is not even close to deep enough to find out what we need".... Again, nothing but blood.

The Dr then ordered an immediate biopsy which eventually came back as cancer! I took 2 steriods and got my chin poorly cut from MI Dermatology. All miss diagnosed and she (Hughes) didn't even close the cut she made. Just a bandaid. ER Dr stiched it up for me.

After all of this, I get a bill for not only the steriods that were miss diagnosed but $200 to cut my chin, not close it up and send me to the ER. I have been disputing this charge as I feel the miss diagnosis and the cut (that I didn't need) were all on MI Derm's liability.

We had been speaking with their collection company. The lady there was super nice. After explaining the situation she completely understood and thought that we were doing the right thing in disputing the charges. She went on to say that she would NOT send this to collection at any time. This morning, I get a call from a collection agency regarding this bill!! We called back to the collection woman that we had been speaking with. She was agast to find out that it was, indeed, in collection. Turns out that MI Derm called her boss and specifically asked to send my account to collection.

All in all, the worst medical experience I have ever had. From start to finish this whole experience was botched by MI Derm. From diagnosis to treatment was completely wrong. And then they expect to get paid for being wrong? Please never step foot in this place!!!

This clinic is slimy. (**This does NOT apply to the wonderful staff who work here, including the sweet assistant, Dylan, and the ladies at the front desk who could not be kinder!!**)
I went in to see Dr Hughes for Botox and she wanted to put so much in that it would have cost $1000!! And that's with the cheaper Botox product option. I said I'm usually charged $600 at the other place, which totally froze my face. So she put about $600 in and my face was moving so much I had to go back and she charged me $200 more!! My face is still moving btw!THEN, I got billed from my insurance company additionally for an office visit bc I'd asked about a spot on my arm. I called the office and they said she had prescribed some creams for it, but I'd already told her I was prescribed cream from my doctor. She told me to check what the cream was when I got home and if I wanted a prescription to call the office. I never called bc I didn't need a prescription!! She put the bill through anyway! Who works like that?? Nickel and diming for every cent she can get. Gross. Imagine all the people who are just paying these bills. I'll never go back. Too bad bc her staff is absolutely wonderful and when I called to complain they were so understanding and took care of me.

Never received a bill and instead of billing me they sent it straight to collections. WTF in the 6 yrs I've been a patient this place has gone to sh*t. One time I was 10 min late, place was empty, and they said they had to reschedule because I was late. When trying to schedule appointments, I would call every day, for 2 weeks! Couldn't get through so went somewhere else. This billing BS is the last straw. I'm done.

Beware!!!! Please do not see Alicia Stark as your physician. It was a nightmare seeing her. She made all sorts of mistakes and recommendations. She recommended we send our family member to see a gastroenterologist for hair loss problems??? We talked to several other physicians, and all of them think this recommendation is wrong and unprofessional. And Alicia Stark is charging us over $200 for less than 20 min and consultation (and completely wrong recommendations!). Moreover, Alicia Stark doesn't have the Dr. title, and I don't even know if she has the proper license to see patients. Please be aware!!

Here's the detailed experience:
My family member is having several hair falling issues. The first time, we saw them mid-last year, the doctor seems to care much our the patient and said everything was fine, and told us to leave. However, after several months, the hair loss problem got worsen. We went back to her again, and she said everything was fine. Nothing needs to worry about. We insist to do a test. The test result came back with severe issues, but she again said everything was fine and gave us a cream to put on her head. However, after applying the cream, not only did the hair falling issue was not resolved, it got worse again. We saw them again, and Alicia Stark told us everything was fine. Not a big deal. They refused another blood test. We questioned several times why the hair falling issue worsen, and we insist on a blood test again. They finally agreed and when the 2nd result came up, there were even more severe issues with the blood report. Then they told us that they will refer us to the gastroenterologist at Seattle Children's Hospital. They told us that the referral will be processed immediately, and we can contact Seattle Children's Hospital in a few days. It was 2/2 when the referral was sent, and it has been 25 days and we kept calling Seattle Children's Hospital, but in the end, no referral was done. They are just very unprofessional and irresponsible. After calling them several time and waiting on hold for over an hour, their staff Dylan Nelson was able to help me and check with Seattle Children's Hospital. However, the gastroenterologist doctor at Seattle Children's Hospital told us it was "strange" that they would refer a hair loss patient to them, and refused to see us.

We went to see another physician, and the new physician said the recommendation provided by Mercer Island Dermatology was completely wrong and unprofessional. After spending almost 6 months dealing with Mercer Island Dermatology, we are left with nothing but a more severe hair loss problem.

Worst experience ever. I schedule an appointment because this place was the only available dermatology clinic for my urgent needs in a short timeframe. I drove all the way from Seattle and saw Jennifer Hall for skin rashes.

1- This place is like a spa with not much of a professional medical clinic vibe.

2- Jennifer Hall was in a rush and spent less than 5 minutes explaining things to me so fast and not even letting me ask questions. She didn't even test my skin and scalp but surprisingly, I saw a full report of all the examinations in the portal which she never did.

3- After 5 minutes of an anxious talk, she ran outside and printed the prescription, and stood outside of the room so I can leave the room asap! I had more questions but she was so in a rush to go and I had to ask a question in the hallway in front of the other people. What a joke!

3- They sent a prescription to CVS that needed pre-authorization. This caused me an extra trip and multiple calls to my insurance and their office that resulted in no prescription because of their lack of support. Her assistant said I have to pay cash but my insurance and pharmacy said it's all their work to send pre-authorization that they are missing to do.

Stay away and go see a real doctor.

Thank you Alicia and Dylan! You are knowledgeable thorough and made me feel at ease! The appointment making process was a breeze, the forms were on an Ipad which made them so easy to complete. Wonderful experience from beginning to end. Thank you so much!

I'm the patient for one year and half. But there is just nobody is answering the phone call. They have some issues to sent out the prescription to the CVS PHARMACY which caused me go back to the office for extra 2 times within the same day from woodenville to Mercer island.
Really bad experience and waste time

I am honestly shocked this place is still in business. Beginning in January, I was never able to get through to the clinic by phone. This was a real problem but became more acute a few months later, when my son had an allergic reaction to a topical medication prescribed by the clinic and I couldn't get though to them by phone despite repeated attempts. When I asked about this at my next appointment, the staff didn't seem to think it was much of an issue. Instead, they said their phone systems had been down, which they had been for several months, and that they were in process of hiring more staff for the front desk. However, they also told me that the volume of calls was just impossible to manage and left me with the impression that they didn't consider answering phones to be much, if any, of a priority. Then, after I left the exam room and was standing in the lobby making my next appointment, I could hear them down the hallway making fun of me for raising the issue. Completely rude and unprofessional. Now, after seeing the rest of these reviews, it's clear this is a systemic problem and one that I do not expect will be fixed anytime soon. If anything, the whole experience made me feel like they do not care about their patients and I no longer trust them to provide even adequate care. I will be moving on as soon as I find a new provider.