Best Friends Veterinary Center - Oak Harbor (WA)

AAI Instructors After driving 45 minutes from the south end of the island for an appointment with Labcorp for a blood draw, only to find them closed for the day with a paper sign, and no electronic notifications, I came to the walk-in clinic at Whidbey health. Lovely experience and would highly recommend! They took my registration quickly as a new patient, and the front desk lady was so kind and cheerful for Friday morning. The phlebotomist was equally kind And efficient and I was out the door with my blood work sent back to my doctor for my appointment next week. Five star service!! Thank you for being here.

Stephanie M I absolutely love Dr. Thorpe, he’s been my PCP since I first moved here a few years ago and I’m grateful for him. I have had no problems getting referrals to all of the specialists I have needed, he’s gone above and beyond to get my insurance to cover medications I’ve needed that they denied, and he’s just an all-around personable and friendly guy. He has no problem explaining things in a way that are easily understandable, which is hard to come by in a doctor.

GEORGE ACFALLE I have Five stars because I only had one little issue with a staff member. I have nothing but great experiences with my PCM and the medical staff here at the Whidbey Island naval clinic. I am not surprised of how many bad reviews on this website. I believe I have an answer. First, it’s the military and we PCS every 2-3 years so there’s always that issue and with that, there’s always good and not so good leadership in the lineup. So what is the fix? Leadership. Leadership needs to hold their people accountable. I am not sure what the clinic’s mission statement is; but maybe it should be treat people with respect and dignity. If indeed it has something along those lines then it starts at the top, the Commanding Officer is not holding their staff both active duty and civilians accountable. Second, there’s a paper called the comment card, I am sure Sailors fill that out. Is the leadership really reading them? And if so, what are they doing about the not so good complaints. Lastly, and perhaps the most important one. Get Real Get Better policy the CNO put out. As an XO, I believe one of the first GRGB Triad training was take care of people. Again, leadership problem not the patient or in this case the Sailor. Example: I was checking out my medical records last year and witnessed a female Sailor massaging a male Sailor in the records volt. Remember the saying? If you see something say something? Well, I reported it to the clinic CMC, because that is not professional and not in line with military standards. Not so sure what happened with that. Another example last year, I was looking for the lab and stumbled across a Chief, I said excuse me Chief, where can I find the lab? She quickly said read the sings shipmate! Then she quickly looked down and saw my rank device and quickly was apologizing and said Sir, I didn’t know you were a LCDR. I’m so sorry. I then quickly said, Chief, you need to slow your role and attitude. I asked her, is this the way you treat Sailors? No Sir, she said. Again, common practice lingers and festers and gets fed down the chain of command to the junior Sailor to adopt. Now this medical clinic becomes toxic in patient care. Our jobs are like our home front, our kids will 90% of the time do what we as parents do. Nothing changes at the work place; our Sailors see what their seniors are doing and believe it’s okay. At any rate, we could all do better when it comes to treating people the way we want to be treated. I want to put this thought in your front pockets. Notice how I didn’t say back pockets? Because people will just sit on it. Every command has leadership issues, people skills issues, and sometimes, bad clinical practices. Take it upon yourself to make your command the best no matter where you are stationed. Mentor those who are struggling with or having a hard time with leading. And I will tell you, it works every time. V/r, LCDR Acfalle

A. Handley If you are new to the area and are looking for a new Dr. this is the place. I see Barbara Simons. She is amazing. She diagnosed me, when no other Dr. could and that is because she actually listens and cares for her patients :)

Tom Morio Had asthma issues and was seen immediately. Was impressed with their care and their concerns in seeing my condition improve rapidly. Dr Matthews and her team were the greatest!

Adrienne Walker My name is Adrienne Walker. I have been to see Dr. Fisher 2 times and, both, times have been wonderful experiences. He is very knowledgeable and professional and he listens to his patients. I have had chronic pain for years and Dr. Fisher is the first doctor to alleviate that pain. It was a beautiful thing! He is the best doctor I have ever had. I highly recommend Dr. Fisher, to anyone looking for quality care and compassion. You couldnt find a better doctor, anywhere!

Jack Alexander I went to a doctor appointment so I could establish care with a new doctor in freeland. Since they get a new doctor every 6 months for some reason. They work with the walk in clinic and share information in the system. to preface this off, I wannan say I have Been calling them, sitting on hold just about an hour every time, listening to the same two hold music songs so i could ask about how they said Id be getting a call about a consultation for my collarbone since I went in there over a week ago. First time I called, they said "Ill send you your x rays on email" and I said "I already got my x rays when I went into the walk in clinic 3 days ago" then they said, "well what do you want?" I said "I wanna know who they are referring me to." They said "I dont know yet. Is there anything else you want me to help you with?" I calledtgree to four days later and they said the same thing, then, I actually went in there foe my therapy appointment and talked to my therapist. My therapist and I talked to a lady who worked there, and said "hey he has a displaced broken collarbone and they said they were gonna get him a referral for a consultation, can you get Nancy to let him know about it?" The lady said "I dont work with that department and Nancy isnt here, referrals usually take 10-14 business days, unless theyre urgent." My therapist said, "yeah, but hes in a lot of pain, can you at least let them know" the lady said "I know, but if its been a while since the fracture, its not urgent but ill write it down". she wrote my name and birth date on a paper towel, and probably threw it away because the new doctor I was seeing just started working there and didnt even know I had a broken collarbone. I told him about it, he couldnt find any record of it, when he finally did, he said that "well, I just started working here 2 weeks ago, but on behalf of whidbey primary care, I am sorry, your fracture report got lost, we dropped the ball" I said, "well I tried calling like 2-3 times and talked to someone face to face and they said it would take 14 business days" he said "what? Thats crazy? Maybe if youre getting a colonoscopy! Wha- thats crazy! It shouldnt take that long for a displaced fracture with little pieces broken. You shouldve gotten in right away!" He said I would be getting a call today or tomorrow from an orthopedic surgeon. I would rate them 4 stars before this happened because my only problem at that point was they had a med doctor who they had working in freeland primary care for a week but moved her all the way to oak harbor. I also would have given them more stars because of the new therapist and new doctor was helpful since he finally got notified about my broken collarbone, however, its unbelievable the amount of excruciating pain Ive been in BECAUSE of freeland primary care. I honestly think some people should be fired and some legal action should be filed against them with stuff like this going on

Dawn Shumate We’ve been clients of Best Friends for decades and have always received top-notch care for our beloved pet from their team. This afternoon we had to put our precious pup down and Dr. Quinn and her assistant Ty came to our home and made the experience so much better with their concern, patience, empathy, and knowledge. We highly recommend this clinic and thanks again for supporting us in a difficult time. We are very grateful.