App Profile: Kaiser Permanente

Frustrating Treatment

Rating: 3/5

Finally, I have a diagnosis after suffering with pain for over a year and numerous visits and messages to my doctor. He told me I had osteoarthritis. He also told me it was gout and prescribed medication which I didn’t take after researching gout symptoms myself. I didn’t have enough symptoms to warrant the strong meds that were prescribed. A physician taking over for my doctor while he was out of the office, responded to one of my pleas for help by taking me off my statin. After not being on the statin, the miserable aches I experienced mostly in the evening have diminished in my calves. However, I still have periodic aches in my shin. My stiffness in mostly my right leg has crippled my walking ability! I can’t get to the bathroom without holding on to furniture and stumbling at night. My husband has to help me out of the car and I must hold on to him for stability when traveling. I use a cane to help me off and on. I have been desperate for a solution. My doctor tells me I must lose weight! I’ve lived a nightmare with my mobility thinking this is the rest of my life with little help. That’s why I finally begged my doctor I need a diagnosis to know what I’m really dealing with. I have asked for an orthopedic referral before during an office visit and I believe in one of my former messages. I was only referred to xray. I hope this message through my experience helps others that may have my same issues!

Charisse Lee

Rating: 5/5

The app makes things very easy for me I’m not very tech savvy yet my doctor reads my texts/emails more often than they do voicemails. The provider is able to have direct contact with me and speak to me directly through the emails and phone options are always open but sometimes they may need to get back to me over the weekend or late night and when I wake up or later or that evening they’ve acknowledged the email sometimes just in a few minutes and I like having that direct access to my doctor it makes it easier. There are times that I felt like the clerk(not speaking ill will of anyone) has not delivered the message with the passion that I would’ve spoke to the doctor concerning my issue/problem and it eases the anxiety/worry that I may have knowing that my doctor is using their eyes and can hear me and my concerns versus through a third-party. The medication reminders on the app helps me to keep up with my routine refills as well as new medication list. I’m able to view my test results as soon as they come out versus waiting for a callback and what’s even more convenient is that the test results come with an explanation/understanding of the numbers or the information concerning the test and I’m able to compare notes, test results from last year versus test results from this year for better health management. Thank you Charisse Lee

Not an exciting nickname

Rating: 3/5

This app has mostly worked great for me. I like that I can view my test results as soon as they come in without having to wait for someone to call me with them. Also being able to order medication refills to be payed for and sent by mail is a huge time saver. The one suggestion I would make is to improve the reviewing past visits function under my medical record. If you want to view anything earlier then the last 7 or 8 visits you click on the bottom of the screen to load more visits. Let’s say you want to view two consecutive visits from 1 year ago. So once you find the one you want after clicking multiple times to load more visits and you view it then you have to hit the close button. However it then takes you right back to the most recent visit you had and then you have to go through the process all over again of clicking on load more visits till you get to the one you want. Instead of being able to go back to the first one you viewed and then be able to right away click on it you have to click so many more times just to get back to visits you need. There should be a search function by date or even month or year so you don’t have to spend so much time to get to the visit you want nor make it a multi step process to view multiple visits from around the same time. I just spent 10 minutes trying to find one visit from 2016 - it shouldn’t take that long. If this one function were improved I would give it 5 stars.