We started using the Barrows Institute March 2015 after my wife had an unexpected full seizure. We thought it would be the gold standard of care. It's now three months of frustrating poor care that has left us baffled as to how they received their reputation.
Having been in healthcare administration for my career I'm in tune with patient care and customer care excellence. In my opinion, their is a negative corporate culture apparent the minute you talk to the disinterested front desk staff. Nurse staff for the doctors in our experience don't return calls or fill out insurance paperwork timely. The clinics work on only antiquated fax systems that are always busy and not HIPAA compliant for transfer of patient data. Get yourself a personal fax machine if you plan care here.
Today, we reported to the MS clinic. That is once we found it. We were only told a building number and then found no directory upon arrival. We stopped at each floor and asked the sad receptionist where to go. All gave us their guess. Once we reached the proper floor I felt it my duty to point out to the sad receptionist there that there was no signage. She didn't blink an eye when she said she knew. I guess we should have received a packet directing us. All I can figure is that they keep the doctors hidden for safety reasons. We even observed a lady check in after U.S. Who had the same confusing experience finding them. Unbelievable.
It took my insistent tries to reach an administrator to get our first MS appointment moved up from two months to today instead just so we could see what is happening with my wife after doing 2 MRIs and a spinal tap weeks ago. In the meantime the clinic's lack of follow up and timeliness cost us our continuation of disability coverage since no medical conclusions have been given to her employer or insurance carrier. She is no shape to pick up her job but we may be forced to push her back out there with epilepsy AND MS. Thanks Barrows for caring.
Be warned that Barrows works on their own time and not yours. Departments and diagnostic centers in the healthcare system do a poor job of communicating with each other so order your own copies of MRIs, labs charts to carry with you.
My advice - go to Mayo. We will switch.