Kaiser Permanente Capitol Hill Medical Center

I really like my doctors at Kaiser Capitol Hill, and the online system for ordering refills or communicating with docs is convenient. In addition, I just found out I qualified for the MFA program, which is financial assistance that covers copays for those with high expenses or low income. It’s such a huge relief, and I’m amazed that Kaiser offers this. The only downside of the Capitol Hill location is that the pharmacy and lab sometimes seem to have poor communication with other departments.

For medical services, I had no complaints and was really impressed with the PCP I was assigned to. From an administrative perspective, I give this place a big fat zero. Welcome to HMO bureaucracy.
When my insurance transitioned to Kaiser, I had a situation come up where I needed to get my allergy shot from my old doctor before Kaiser was able to make my new serums (allergy shots have to be given on a very specific schedule). Thus, I needed to see my old allergist’s office just once to get my shot on-​schedule before Kaiser was able to transition my allergy care. This short timeline was partially due to the several weeks it took Kaiser to enter me into the system after my employer enrolled me in Kaiser insurance. Despite being told in-​person by Patient Services and on the phone that Kaiser would reimburse me the $ 25 I had to pay to my old doctor, my claim was repeatedly denied. Over and over, I was told that they were denying the claim because Kaiser has their own allergy staff (duh), but clearly nobody was taking into account the notes from Patient Services or the circumstances in this continuity-​of-​care situation. After going back and forth for a month, I gave up.
This left such a bad taste in my mouth that I got out of Kaiser as soon as open enrollment came up. I now have CareFirst Blue Cross Blue Shield and haven’t had a single problem.

Came to get blood drawn for routine tests. My ticket said I would have a 30 minute wait, 45 minutes later I’m almost half way through the que. Likely 2 hours for something that should take a few minutes.

This Kaiser location in particular has such uneven service. My Ob-​gyn here is awesome. The allergist I met with was super helpful. But when I had knee pain and saw an orthopedist PA he was totally dismissive and condescending. Parking as others have mentioned is a disaster. The valet system is a joke. If you drive give yourself an extra 30 minutes just to park. The pharmacy is slow and they never have prescriptions filled when they say they will. I just don’t understand how this Kaiser sucks so much compared to other locations.
The Urgent Care center is also a NIGHTMARE because it’s slow, understaffed, the waiting room is dark and gross, and the staff members have this tendency to forget you exist. Long story short: I had what I thought was an allergic reaction (turns out I actually had pneumonia, surprise!) and broke out in hives all over my body so went to the Capitol Hill Urgent Care. I had to beg them to give me a Benadryl iv drip while I was waiting for the dr to come in (which by the way was over and hour). Like literally begging because I was losing my mind from the itching, finally they gave it to me but the nurses were really rude.
I ended up going back to urgent care two more times over the next few days. After the crappy experience at Capitol Hill I called the advice nurse line and was given an appointment at Urgent Care in Tyson’s Corner. The difference was night and day! Easy parking, friendly staff, super clean exam rooms, they even gave me snacks and water because each time I was there for several hours while they ran tests. Capitol Hill? It’s like once you step behind that door to the urgent care you disappear into a hole and you’re lucky if someone pays attention to you ever again.

I wrote a half-​page critique on this place and deleted it — figuring I really didn’t need to bore everyone with the details to assure them of what Unilocal already has: this place is no good.
Context: I called an advice nurse yesterday morning after feeling nauseous and having a headache 24 hours after a collision while playing football. The nurse told me that I should go to the Clinical Decisions Unit (Urgent Care) to get a CT scan to ensure that I did not have any bleeding/​fractures resulting from the collision. She told me that I had a 4pm appointment and to show up at 3:50.
I arrive at 3:50, and end up being stuck here for almost FIVE HOURS. I estimate that I was only seen by Doctors for maybe 15 minutes of the five hour period. The rest was either waiting in the waiting room, or waiting (and being forgotten about) in the exam rooms. Apparently there are no appointments here and the nurse was misguided in giving me one. It would have been nice to know beforehand so I could have come after work instead of during. Luckily for me, I get to make up the time all at once (on top of my typical work day) and stare at the computer with my concussion (because this will definitely help with the recovery process). The End.

Just a generally poor experience, with exceptionally long wait times. There is no point putting patients in the exam room, if you’ll just leave them there for over an hour without any guidance or expectations for when someone will see you. This is the only urgent care location in the district for KP members, and it could do with a lot of work on improving the consumer experience.

I love this place for 2 reasons: the distance from my job and union station metro, and that’s it is all-​in-​one. I can go to my doctor’s appointment during work hours or as I am heading home to the metro or going to work. Also, I can book my appointments online and it’s all in one building: internal medicine, eye doctor, physical therapy, dermatologist, pharmacy, lab center, ultra sound, etc. You don’t have to go from one building to another to see a doctor/​specialist or get other services, just from one floor to another floor.
I hate this place for 3 reasons: you always have to wait, wait, wait, there is never any parking, and people need to work on their customer service skills. You gotta wait a long time to be called after you show up for your appointment on time. You wait some more after they called your name and take your weight and blood pressure. Then you gotta wait a long time in line at the pharmacy to drop off prescription. Then you gotta wait till they have it ready for you. Additionally, parking is a pain in the butt! The tightest garage in the history of the world and then it is so difficult to find a space, so you have to sometimes park behind another car and then the parking people move the car for you. But we trust no one, so we will go in circles until someone comes out. You will also deal with a lot of unprofessional receptionists, pharmacy techs, and nurses, but just don’t be a baby about it. As long as they get the work done for you, go do what you gotta do.
So this place is useful but it also requires lots of patience! I had them last year and I have them again this year. I’m happy with KP in general and now that I live in VA, I will start going to their Tysons location hoping I have better luck with people, the parking, and the wait time.

Literally took me 4 1/​/​2 to get out of this place. The pharmacy is so messed up. There are three lines, one for disability, two other lines. The middle line literally stopped taking people and started calling names of people who had their meds ready while the rest of us were just standing in line like idiots, like seriously, at least communicate this out so we all can get into a different line. UGH! Don’t come here during rush times.

I switched employers and Kaiser deleted 100% of my medical history — countless test results, immunizations, doctor visits etc. everything, although I remain a Kaiser member. I will have to do all tests again but with the first opportunity I will choose another provider with which I have access to electronic records (which is quite a commonplace these days, not sure why Kaiser erased all my medical history — must be some twisted reasoning behind it).

I’ve been going to Kaiser since I was a child. I love it. Filled with very knowledgeable physicians and nurses. My primary health provider is a graduate of GW– so this is a reflection of their high standards. The new 2^nd street location is so much better than N. Capitol street location. More livelier and more updated.

I would give ZERO stars if I could. I’m not even sure why they built a brand new facility and filled it with a bunch of bubbling idiots who clearly have zero customer service skills. I cannot wait until open season so I can rid myself of this place. The pharmacy is an absolute joke and some of the doctor’s are only there because no other place would hire them. Don’t go to Urgent Care unless your eyeball is falling out the socket otherwise you will sit and wait even with a check in time. I had to cancel all my child’s therapy appointments because the therapists NEVER showed up on time. We’re talking 20 to 30 minutes late here. Capitol Hill Kaiser is an abomination to the medical world. Avoid at all cost.

Ive gotten 2 or 3 prescriptions filled out here with not too much problem. Either than the DC law that Class II RX expire in 30 days if not filled and picked up. Cool not Kaiser’s fault.
FF to today. My doc in Silver Spring mails over a paper RX for me because its a schedule ii drug and electronic rx are not lawful. I call over several days to see when the paper rx has arrived. Monday. No. Tuesday. No. Wednesday. Looks like its scheduled to arrive Thursday 2 PM. Call Thursday evening. Its here. Great Ill pick it up at Lunch on Friday (today.)
I call 12pm. «Paper RX is here and we will fill it. It will be ready in an hour…»
Great. Postpone my lunch till 1:15 and get on the metro. 1:22 PM at the Kaiser Pharmacy.
«Are you dropping off or picking up?»
«Im picking up.»
«Maam I asked you if you dropping off or checking in?»
Me: «WHAT? Im picking up»
«Cause blah blah blah»
Me: «Umm Im picking up I called an hour ago they said theyd fill it and it would be ready by now»
«Well it hasnt been filled, if you have a seat we’ll call you when its ready…»
Me: *TITTY ATTACK MODE* «WHAT DO YOU MEAN IT HASNT BEEN FILLED??? I CALLED AN HOUR AGO. WHERES THE MANAGER??? GET ME THE MANAGER PLEASE!»
Apparently this facility is changing policy about automatically filling RX they receive from doctors because patients were not picking up their RX so they were having to put back alot of pills.
[IDGA] what does that have to do with me? I called an hour ago to have it filled! And how are you going to change your policy without informing patients? (He doesnt know/​have the answer to this)…Shame.
So when someone goes to the doctor and the doc says Ill send it over to the capitol hill kaiser. You anticipate its being filled ITS NOT you have to take an additional step, call them to have it filled. Which makes no sense to me cause that means more man hours on the phone with people calling in to have their RX filled.

As a relatively new KP member, I’ve had a great experience with its services and facilities. The NW DC office is my main facility and it’s been a seamless process whenever I need lab work or for general visits. I recently visited the Cap Hill location because it has a radiology department.
Unfortunately, the management and services here are horrible. I’ve had to reschedule my appt 3 times due to incorrect scheduling and 2 hour waits. My last attempt was a 10pm MRI appointment. I arrived at 9:30 pm hoping to get admitted early (which was useless because there was no receptionist at the desk for 20 minutes). I had to flag someone down to check me in. After 1.5 hrs and no acknowledgement from the staff, I was HANGRY from fasting and gave up on the appointment. I informed the staff person that I couldn’t wait any longer and asked him to let his manager know they were not providing adequate services to me or the 3 others waiting in the room.
MANAGEMENT TAKE NOTE! Staff is extremely unhelpful or unavailable, especially in the evenings. They seem poorly managed and/​or understaffed. It’s a bad reflection on KP and I do not plan to use the services here in the future.

So, my solution to the prescription problem was to place one prescription via the automated phone system. The other I could not figure out how to do, so I placed with a real person over the phone. You can reach them if you know which of the numbers to call. There are not identified. So good luck.
The prescription I placed with the live person showed up in 3 days. Not bad. The prescription I placed via the automated phone system did not show up as of 10 days later. I called the real person number and they saw the order was placed by me and also saw it was never filled and had no idea why it happened, again. No one bothered to check on this or call me.
So no blood pressure medicine until next week, assuming the live person actually sends it.
No response from customer service besides the form letter I already posted.
They really do suck.

This center offers excellent coordinated care between departments. I fell off a ladder, shattered my shoulder and got a metal replacement for my humerous. Staff in many departments handled me impeccably (Internist, surgery post op, imaging, pain management, pharmacy, physical therapy.)
Low rank reviews here must stem from problems located between seat and keyboard.

Have you noticed that the lowest ratings for Keiser Capital Center are almost all directed to the pharmacy? I understand it gets busy, and I have pharmacist and pharmacy technician friends so I definitely understand the stress and frustration that comes with this job. I also understand that it gets busy, and there is only so much you can do.
The problem is that this pharmacy isn’t doing all it can do for their patients/​clients. I called the pharmacy and the first thing the representative who answers the phone tells me is, «Can you please hold?». What else can I say? I have been on hold, and I’m STILL on hold, for over 30 minutes. That is so unprofessional. If the pharmacy is THAT busy, please train your employees to ask for a call back number instead of expecting us to wait on a phone line for so long. This might help you retain future and current patients who, unlike me, haven’t yet experienced the quality of patient services this pharmacy has to offer.
I’m afraid it might be too late for me. I am switching out of Keiser as soon as I get the chance due to the dismal service of this pharmacy, because unfortunately, this isn’t an isolated incident. It has happened 9 out of the 10 times I’ve called this pharmacy. I’m tempted to just leave my phone on speaker as I work just so that I can document how long it takes them to take me off hold.
Sincerely,
Still on hold.

I hate this place. They constantly move and cancel appts without telling me. They have rude and unprofessional staff. Everything about it is awful. I can’t wait for open enrollment so I can finally get some normal service.

Good luck getting anything from the pharmacy without waiting less than an hour. Terrible service. Main reason I am leaving kaiser.

Aside my doctor, this place is a class act. I ended up joining Kaiser 2 years ago since it’s all my company offers and definitely miss having my old company. I won’t drop names of another however the pharmacy here, no matter what time you come, will surely take at least 2 hours of your time so plan accordingly. My first visit I was one of only 3 people in line, there were about 6 staff gooding around in the back and still I was in there for about an hour and a half for a PICK UP. The medication was already prepared but with the constant distractions of jokes and conversation in the back room, the staff here losing focus of their true point in life being here.
Avoid it like the plague, and especially if you HAVE the plague.

I only use this place for a few place. Here my review for there area I go to.
Laboratory is very good. You my find a good doctor can get the blood at there first time. Some my hit and miss. Best time is on the weekend in the morning or late that afternoon. don’t come on the weekday to many people waiting.
Urgent Care I parents had to go to Urgent Care twice and had the best of care. Some room even has a tv. Some time they even stay over night. And they service food during you stay. It’s small but over all they take good care of you.
Pharmacy is the best but over all weekday to many people waiting and the weekend the best time to get it. Great staff and very helpful. But is great service.
But over all if I need any kaiser service I wood like to go to the Tyson’s Corner location
8008 Westpark Dr
McLean, VA 22 102
(703) 287‑6400
Also my doctor here. And very happy she here. Enjoy review at good health.