Desert Advanced Imaging – Palm Springs

I had an MRI at Desert Advanced Imaging on Fred Waring in Palm Desert. I am extremely claustrophobic, but the staff, especially the technician, eased my anxiety. The technician could not have been nicer and went out of her way to make me comfortable. A procedure I was dreading turned out to be pretty fast and easy.

My insurance company informed me that they weren’t going to be paid because they didn’t provide an authorization code. I called Desert Imaging, waited on the phone for 20 minutes for someone to answer the phone. I said that someone needed to contact Kaiser to give them the referral number. The person who answered the phone, very snobbishly replied we don’t call Insurance Companies, they call us. To which I answered, well then I’m not going to help you get paid. Let them sue me. Eventually the bill will be paid by Kaiser for a covered service, but they’ll have to go to the expense to take me to court to get any further assistance from me.

wow. just horrible. rude– condesceding when i tried to schedule– they take forever to answer the phone, clearly they hate their jobs. clearly they are just in it for insurance money and dont give a crap about human beings. i switched all my radiology to eisenhower and i highly recommend that you avoid this place. what a JOKE.

My mother in law is in terrible pain from a spinal issue. To the point where us putting her in the car is difficult and painful. After calling us in the morning to change the appointment time as they had just bothered to review her chart and realized she needed a different machine, we arrived to be told that the machine was broken and they had called us to cancel. Its pretty understandable that machines break, but I guess they bothered to call one number, no others. Front desk staff Was decidedly unapologetic and defensive. While we waited for them to call another center, we were treated to long discussion by staff about where they were going to eat lunch. All while a poor old woman is crying in pain. Management, give your front desk staff some training on compassion, and customer service. Bringing a frail old person 45 minutes across town only to be told that you tried to call us is lame. Call all the numbers you have on file, you had more than one. Treat people with respect. Act like you care. If you make a mistake, apologize with some sincerity and do a little service recovery. And remove the large door matts you have just inside the door — you have old people with walkers who could trip over them. I’m surprised it hasn’t already happened and you haven’t been sued into oblivion. We were rebooked to have the MRI done back on the side of town where my mother in law lives. After all the driving, she was in so much pain she wasn’t able to complete the procedure.

Bad Medicine
In the summer of 2012, I began to have severe pain in my left plank. It was so bad that I woke up at night to take Tylenol to be able to sleep. My physician said it sounded like muscle pains. When the pains continued for 3 months, he sent me to an ultrasound study. The ultrasound was performed at the Desert Advanced Imaging Palm Springs. The radiologist Dr. Michon Halio evaluated the ultrasound. The report stated I had a duplex collecting system in my left kidney with a mild hydronephrosis. «No evidence of renal mass or renal stone formation.»
My physician stated that a duplex collecting system would exist since birth and would not form later in life, concluding it was a false diagnosis. For expert evaluation, he referred me to Dr. Brad Wolfson (Urologist) in Palm Springs. Dr. Wolfson reviewed old ultrasounds and an x-​ray of my kidneys (over 27 years old) and concluded there were no abnormalities and no duplex collecting system. No further studies were needed, he stated in his report.
When my physician closed his clinic in Yucca Valley in December of 2012, I continued the medical care with another physician in Yucca Valley. The new physician ordered an ultrasound (January 2013). The ultrasound revealed a kidney stone in my left kidney. I am lucky that I am with a new doctor, as my kidney stone would not have been diagnosed under the care of my previous physician and his group of specialists. When Dr. Michon Halio misdiagnosed my kidney problem due to misinterpretation of the ultrasound, a new ultrasound would have been the right course of action. Consultation with a Urologist, based on old ultrasounds and ultra-​old x-​ray, did not help with the diagnosis of kidney stone, which Dr. Michon Halio had missed. BAD MEDICINE !