Columbia Gorge Family Medicine - Hood River, Oregon

Mali S.

Have been here with my dad on 2 occasion. The doctors have been good. What they need to replace is personnel at the front desk! There is one specific blonde that is just a pain. It's like your asking her for a d favor. She has told me one both visits that my dad and I are yo wait outside for 445pm to come around when we are here for acute care. Which in any other circumstances it would perfectly fine. But when I'm dealing with a person with ALS...I honestly think this is bullshit! It takes me close to 15min just to get him in or out of my car to go to appts. To just have this person think I'm going to stand at the front door with him in the cold. She is sadly mistaken!

Cinthia A.

If I could give 0 stars I would 🙁
I’ve never felt the need to leave a review for anyone, but this one really got to me. I was a patient at Columbia Gorge Family Medicine for 21yrs and I never felt so dismissed until I got assigned a new primary care doctor. I’ve had the same PCP since I was born, and one day I was informed that she retired, and I had to establish with a new provider they had already chosen for me. It turns out my prior PCP did not retire but had walked out and began working at Summit Family Medicine because she too was done with Columbia Gorge Family Medicine. I was nervous to establish care with Audrey Howarth since I had such a great relationship with my previous PCP, and I was right to feel that way. From my first interaction with Audrey Howarth, I felt that I was diagnosing myself and telling her what to do instead of being guided by a medical professional. After that first visit, I returned hoping to get some help with reoccurring health concerns. In the span of 3 months, I got nowhere and once again I was doing all the work myself with no idea what I needed. I was desperate and in pain trying to get answers I even ended up at OHSU’s ED for almost a whole day just because my PCP would not advocate for me. After many failed referrals I finally was able to get an urgent referral sent out to the “correct location,” but when I called to schedule, they let me know my referral was received but never authorized and it was not sent to the correct department. All I needed was to be sent out to a specialist who would better diagnose me with their expertise. Unfortunately, CGFM was never capable of doing that.
Thankfully I was able to establish care with a new clinic within a week of my last interaction with CGFM. That first visit with my new provider did more for me than CGFM did in the last 6 months. I sent a MyChart message regarding the same referral CGFM couldn’t process correctly and within less than an hour I received a call from his team letting me know they were already working on it and the referral was being sent out urgently. My new PCP sent me a message to let me know the referral had been placed and if I had any issues trying to get scheduled, he would call to get me in as soon as possible. To this day, I have yet to receive a response to my last message I sent to Audrey Howarth that was sent 2 weeks ago about my urgent issue. Columbia Gorge Family Medicine wants to pass you off to be someone else’s problem, no efforts were made to ensure referral was sent correctly or even verify coverage through insurance.
I am thankful to have experience in healthcare or else I’m not sure how much longer I would have had to wait with so much pain and stress. Unless you’re established with one of the original providers, I’d recommend you go elsewhere because I have yet to hear anything good about Columbia Gorge Family Medicine and its staff.
Do better Columbia Gorge Family Medicine, especially you Audrey Howarth, everyone deserves to be heard and given medical guidance when it comes to their health.

Kandy G.

Dr Sperry was great, I thought! He was meant to work with my son's endocrinologist in Portland. This connection was lost and his thryoid grew & grew unchecked. The first and most important part of his check ups are to check this along with his T-levels. Later, I tried to bring my son into an after hours clinic time as advertised online. I called ahead to be sure of times. Eventhough my son was a patient there for years, and went away to college, they turned him away! The front staff people were very rude, asking lots of personal questions in the middle of the lobby, not even at the desk or without pulling his file. I was forced to take him to the ER. Which also did NOT work out. His needs went ignored there as well. These attitudes lead me to believe he was not as bad off as I was fearing, so I drove him back to start the new school year. He died 2 months later because his clinic down there ignored his needs as well!!!
I feel you are partly to blame because you were his primary care for years and turned him away when he needed you the most!
So sad you are part of the broken health care system in this country!!!!

Rye K.

Good(ish) when when they decide to work...

As a person who's been on the patients side quite a bit in my life, I've noticed they're not great at helping unless you schedule your injury/illness weeks in advance. Even when you do manage to get into the doctor's office they do the "bare minimum" to get you healthy. This is probably one of the worst experiences I've had at any medical facility 🙁

William B.

Madisen Robertus, PA-C was great! Super helpful and knowledgeable. Nurses and staff were also amazing!

Dena

I’ve been a patient of CGFM for many years now. My primary care physician is Dr Sperry. He’s been really amazing! Very kind & compassionate!

The reception staff, however, has really declined. They’re not warm or friendly at all. They have lost all of their long term staff members.

I don’t feel welcomed there like I used to. I’m hoping things improve.

Andrew J.

Edit: they seem to have changed their after hours acute care service policy drastically. In spite of showing up at 4:40pm, there was already a line of about 7 patients. After waiting in line to be registered for probably 15 minutes, I was informed they had hit “capacity” for the evening and was turned away. I understand there are limits to how many patients they can see, but it’s laughable to advertise the service as going to 7pm when I showed up early and was turned away.

I’d been seen here two times prior and they never previously turned away patients, particularly not after having registered and queued so few people.

Harleigh K.

I’ve been a patient here my entire life and I’ve always been impressed. The reception staff has been kind, greeted me with warmth and has always remembered who I am which goes a long way in customer service positions. My PCP is Dr Sperry and I have been thoroughly pleased with his, and his teams, care.