Providence Medical Institute – Manhattan Beach Urgent Care

2^nd time here. First visit the wait was very short. Doctor and staff were very nice and informative.
Very busy today on NYE! Been here for two hours and haven’t seen the doctor yet. Staff is still nice. Hopefully I’m seen soon I haven’t ate breakfast.
Wait was long but seriously it looked like the dmv in there lol TODAY.
Anyway Dr. Mickey was awesome. He was very thorough and concerned. He took his time and now I feel better. Thank goodness!
My PCP is in Costa Mesa so it’s great to know I can come here! Thank you!

I saw Dr. Giorgio Sunday December 27^th for symptoms of fever blisters sore throat, rash and nasal congestion. The nurse swabbed my throat with no gloves. Dr. Giorgio came into the exam room and asked why I was there. I explained my symptoms and he reviewed what his treatment would be for the fever blisters. He did not examine my lymph nodes nose or ears for the congestion. And also the doctor neglected to listen to my breathing which I thought was normal procedure in exams. The doctor did not clean his hands when he came into the exam room nor when he left. Anti-​bacterial gel may prevent the spread of bacteria not viruses.

Their doctor’s prescription for me: pray so my health could recover.
I could have been given that prescription for free from a local church.
Thanks for wasting my $ 25.
I will never visit this urgent care again.

The wait was not long. The staff was very helpful and had a system to move each patient along. They seemed fully staffed and able to handle the lunch time rush of people coming in with all kinds of issues.
I did not feel well and did not know what was wrong with me. It turned out that I was perfectly fine but it was a relief to be able to see a doctor on such short notice. I was in and out in about an hour and 15 mins.
The nurses were very helpful and the doctor was quick but thorough when she was tending to me. It only costs $ 25 if you have insurance. All in all it was a good experience.

Came in with what I was hoping was a very sprained foot. Was seen by a sports medicine specialist within about 45 minutes. The doctor and front office staff were very friendly & helpful. It turned out to be 2 broken metatarsal bones. I received a boot & crutches. The cost was amazingly reasonable. Will definitely be coming back for a follow up.

The nurses are nice, but the wait time is ridiculous and they also let two people in front of me even with a sign in sheet. Then a nurse came out to clean the chairs (which is nice to see) but then she asked me to move so she could do my chair. I’ve worked at a hospital and you don’t do that, you go around, you don’t ask a sick person to move out of your way. Felt like this office needs a greater sense of urgency.

Dr. Raval has horrible bed side manners. She was not empathetic to my issues and wasn’t willing to understand my past. It’s a shame someone is out there willing to write prescriptions to mask issues. Karma, Dr. Raval, that’s what I have to say about today.

The last thing anyone having to go to Urgent Care wants to deal with is a rude front staff member. I went here yesterday feeling ill, and was encountered by a very rude woman working the desk. I had forgotten my insurance card, and she was so impatient with me when trying to retrieve my information. Lady, you are dealing with sick people. Have some compassion and patience! Doctor and nurse were great. That’s why I gave 2 stars.

I had a lingering cough and had to see a doctor. I never see doctors as I’m not comfortable with them (white-​coat syndrome). Every one was so helpful — the women that checked me in, the nurse who took initial information and the doctor who checked me out. The lobby and offices were clean, everyone was very professional and I can’t imagine finding another place to go if something else goes wrong. This place is great. Oh, and no wait. None. Middle of the day on a Thursday.

for the last day and a half, i had a terrible sore throat. and I mean razor sharp pain. I decided to go to where i always go, for years. The wait was not bad at all, the wonderful Medical Assistant was great. They took a throat culture, it came out negative for strep. I was told i have flu symptoms BUT just in case took another strep test, that was send to the lab. I went home with a brochure about how to treat cold and informed that the results will be back withinn 4 – 5 days. (really? what good would it do for me to find out in 5 days that i have strep??)
After hellish day in bed, my condition didn’t improve, so i called carestation asking to reavaluate my condition and perhaps write me RX for antibiotics. I was told the doctor isnt there today and i have to come back, wait my turn, not to mention another $ 45 co pay.
I understand that this is a policy but being «half dead’ from exhaustion there is something the Carestation could have offer. Maybe call in the doctor who saw me yesterday??? Maybe since its a Memorial Weekend, they could have send me with Rx for antibiotic-​just in case i felt worst?
Void the co pay?
I am very dissapointed.

I agree Tracy is the best and most wonderful office worker there ever was. She has received numerous awards but can’t put them up in the office. I was there many years ago when she didn’t know that she could not put the award up in the office, and one was up. I congratulated her and agreed that she should get it, unfortunately she had to take it down. I have been going to Urgent Care there in Manhattan Beach, for YEARS. I moved to Torrance and still go to that facility. I have been going there since Dr. Jamie Lewis was the Director. I have been Dr. Ravals patient for over 25 years, if I need something Urgent, on a weekend I go to this office I have always been treated with respect. I can’t understand why this facility only has 3 ¾ Stars, the staff is awesome.
I do know that the only time people write reviews is usually when they are upset about something, but you can’t please all the people all the time, epecially when they are sick or under stress. To have just a few negative reviews out of the thousands of patients that come to this facility is awesome. I wish more people would just submit their wonderful experiences, but people are just too busy. People just take this location for granted because they always do a good job and that is what is expected.
So one more comment: I read the negative review on Josephine, and that is pure BOGUS comment. She is sweet and does as much as she can to help people, she is at a very busy desk and has many jobs to do. Get over it, lets see you in that position dealing with sick people or folks in a stressful situation. You can’t please all the people all the time. If I could give this place 100 stars I would.

Dr malachowski was great — really thorough

I am surprised to see the negative reviews. I went here last week for an eye infection. The staff were very friendly and compassionate. Yes, it was a bit busy and there was a wait to see the doctor, but that’s just part of the deal at an urgent care. But things went smoothly and efficiently, and I was given good treatment.

5 stars simply for Tracy — she was a beacon of sanity in an otherwise Kafkaesque medical experience.
When my PCP couldn’t give me an appointment within 4 weeks I went to the nearest urgent care listed on my medical group’s website. It turns out that location was only covered by PPO. I called my insurance and, after some run around, learned there were only 2 urgent care locations covered by my HMO. I drove the 50 minutes to the nearest where they explained my insurance only covered urgent care after 5pm. I don’t know what I would have done but certainly did t expect Tracy to go above and beyond to get in touch with my PCP and get permission to treat me.
The rest of the front desk staff was compassionate and friendly and the reception clean. More than anything, though, I’m just grateful I was able to see a doctor.

These people might be happy they have jobs but they don’t pretend to be happy caring for you.
Rude reception area will make you feel like you are at the DMV.
Nurse drawing blood moved the needle around so much I was bruised for days.
Facilities like this should routinely survey patience for feedback to train staff to offer the best, caring respect for their patience who have a choice of where to go for medical services.

We have had two major mis– diagnosises here. First I came in with a sinus infection and was given a prescription for an anti-​biotic that does not even treat sinus infections… my regular doc was horrified that I spent 10 days on an anti-​biotic that was wrong. Because of this extended sinus infection– I lost my sense of smell permanently!
The second time, We took my 1 yr old daughter and he told us that she had Viral Strept throat… There is NO such thing!!! Strept throat is Always bacterial! Both times we had that «good– looking» Dr. I forget his name. I would never recommend anyone to go here. They clearly hire incompetant Doctors.

So here’s the bottom line, we have been going there for at least 5 years both my husband and I. Dr. Hariri is great! and really haven’t had any bad experiences there but as other people have said (but never really paid to much attention to it as well until here recently)
But Josephyn (the receptionist at the front desk) is RUDE!!!, always checking your cell phone and unprofessional as it gets… she exudes terrible grammar when speaking to you and has a bad attitude. I swear, I don’t know how half the people in LA get jobs even with college and technical degrees having some of the worst grammatical skills and over all bad attitudes I’ve ever been around.
I never really thought about it until we needed to go recently and decided to read Unilocal reviews (even though we had been there before) and saw there were negative posts regarding Josephyn and her bad attitude. Then I thought, I remember that but never paid to much attention to it until we went a couple of weeks ago and she was still as rude as ever so in front of everyone we just told her we were going to find another urgent care and walked out.
We are now going to try and find another urgent care facility that we like in our area.
Even though we really like the doctors, we don’t want to have to deal with Josephyn and her attitude anymore.

ok so I have an allergic reation to something that makes me break out in hives… OMG they itch. The receptionist takes my information and tells me that I have no insurance… uhmmm wrong, I’ve been coming here for years. 30 minutes later… yes I have insurance… now please wait to see the doctor.
Doctor and staff after that was very good and got me done quickly. but come on…

Took forever just to have simple tests done. There were people that came in after me and were seen before I was. Wait for over 40 minutes and about 5 or 6 people were seen before I was, including an employee.
I definitely don’t recommend coming here. Very lackadaisical approach to professionalism here. No respect for the patient’s time.

(Warning: some mildly graphic bits follow… pun may be intended.)
My husband had the bad luck of cutting a large chunk off the tip of his middle finger while prepping veggies Saturday night around 5 pm. Worse, it turns out, was his timing. He clearly didn’t need an ER — the bleeding was impressive, but not life-​threatening, and the all-​flesh tip didn’t look hopeful as a replacement part (or perhaps not worthy of the $$$, even if possible.) But, as I hunted on Unilocal and Google for «urgent care open now near San Pedro», everything came back as closing at 5 pm. It seems to be a nearly-​universal rule for UCare fax (?) I also noticed a fair number that weren’t going to be open on Sunday for us either. I eventually found one that closed at 6 — but by the time I had convinced him that it WAS worth the effort (etc.) to go and we’d packaged him and his tip up for transport AND prepped the house for vacating — it was too near 6 pm to make it, so I thought we should call and talk to them before we made the trek. Of course, this next effort included a dropped call with a human (due to a bad Skype connection on our end, rare — but of course it would happen now…) After finally getting thru on the cell, I heard their «we’ve gone home now» answering message. ARGH! We almost gave up — but I turned the laptop back on and was thrilled to find that this practice in Manhattan Beach was open until 7!
The Good Bits: good Google directions, plenty of free parking in lot behind, very clean and professional reception area, friendly and genuinely caring staff in same, painless and speedy sign-​in and authorizations from insurance, quickly ushered into the back by a very friendly, efficient and informative tech (PA? RN? didn’t catch it). We were soon joined by the really nice Dr. Relan, who treated us like (shock!) intelligent adults.
Every single person we interacted with was genuinely friendly, professional and efficient, exuded competence and was very willing to answer all questions and laugh at all feeble attempts at humor on our parts. Neither of us having had an «avulsion» in MANY years, we were both really glad that they have so many new ways to clean, deaden pain, stop bleeding and then fix-​up a nasty knife bite. I.e., instead of the expected injection of deadening agent into the finger (even more painful than it sounds, which always seems ironic given the purpose of the shot) — it was soaked in a combo coagulant/​anesthetic solution, while I clamped on his wrist arteries for about 5 min. Then they swabbed on some stronger styptic solution (which still stung, but just a bit after the numbing), applied a sort of cellulose bondo, and then used a clever cage-​like device to quickly wrap the offending appendage in gauze — sans pressure! Soon after, yet another cheerful, very nice young guy came in and gave one of us a tetanus shot that was quick, painless and in the arm — all three NOT like the last one I had around 10 years ago…
The unused tip was safely disposed in the handy bio-​waste disposal, and we will go back Monday for the unveiling and re-​wrap. They told us we don’t even need an appointment. Also, I will attach some photos of our adventure after I get them uploaded in a few.
Oh yeah, the Bad Bits? The only thing I can think of was my mistakenly parking in the adjacent back parking lot of the neighboring Cuban restaurant (Versailles? with a crazy sign on top) — which smelled heavenly. The staff affirms that the food rocks and we plan to try it out on Monday, if they are open.
What a relief to now have a 7-​day, late hour Urgent Care within a reasonable (30 min.) drive. THANKS TO ALL!