Vincent Chan, MD

I went to see Dr Chan because he is closer to where I live and I wanted to try to avoid driving downtown. (I had seen Dr Calvin Knapp for many years, and he is AWESOME — but downtown.) Dr Chan on the other hand was horrible.
1. He came into the tiny exam room with an entourage of people including a Scribe, and a Physicians Assistant. I did not appreciate having all these people just standing there staring at me.
2. He was very brisk and rushed. I have a chronic problem that I have been dealing with for over 10 years, and he did not ask or want to listen to any of my history. He just gave what sounded like a canned speech about «sinusitis,» and ticked off the standard list of remedies — all of which I have had over 10 years of experience with — I know them by heart and I know what works for me and what doesn’t, and I am already doing or have done them all. BUT he wouldn’t listen to any of that because he just kept going with his prepared script.
3. Eventually he decided to prescribe an antibiotic, and we had a discussion about which ones I had tried in the past, which ones were effective or ineffective, and which ones I had an ADVERSE REACTION to. He told me which one he was going to give me. I questioned whether it would be OK since is was in the same family as other drugs I had reacted poorly to. He INSISTED it would be OK. He also said he would print out a handout for me with all his recommendations.
4. As he was rushing for the door, I asked a question. Silly me. His response was an incredulous ‘are you kidding me ???’ I don’t have time to answer that !!!, and then he told me to «look it up on the internet» !!! Then poof, he disappeared out the door.
5. Now I am sitting there with the PA and the Scribe. They are just staring at me sitting there, so I ask if I am supposed to leave now (as opposed to wait for the promised handout.) They told me to leave, so I did. I never did get any handout.
6. I stopped at the front desk to ask if a follow up appointment was recommended after the course of antibiotics, she told me NO.
7. Next stop the pharmacy to pick up the antibiotics. The RX they had ready was NOT the drug we had discussed and the one he had told me he wanted me to try !!! Not knowing if an error had been made, I asked the Pharmacist to call his office. But he could not be reached, so Ieft the RX rather than come home with the wrong thing. His office never called the pharmacy back, and never responded to their inquiries !!! I finally got a message 2 days later through the Swedish online MyChart — Dr Chan had «changed his mind.» Period.
I do NOT recommend DR Chan, and am going back (downtown) to Dr Calvin Knapp.

I first went to see Dr. Chan starting in June of 2014 for a mass that I found on my neck. After having an ultrasound done on the mass, I was referred to Vincent, and saw him for my first biopsy within a couple of weeks. As it turns out, that mass turned out to be a tumor on my thyroid gland. Dr. Chan worked with me from start to finish with this, and was very clear with what was needing to be done, and made sure that I understood what was going to happen. He answered all of my questions, and some that I didn’t even think to ask. In addition to the biopsies, he was also the surgeon who performed my total thyroidectomy. As I lay in my hospital bed surrounded by family after my surgery, Dr. Chan came in to check on me personally, and to introduce himself to my family who were happy to thank the man who brought me through a successful surgery.
In addition to my surgery, Dr. Chan’s follow through with checking in with me to make sure the healing was going well was wonderful. I seemed to be a case of rarity with the fact that my mass turned out to be cancer, and then I was part of a small percentage that had hypertrophic scarring (this occurs when your body produces too much collagen). Because of this Dr. Chan referred me to a wonderful plastic surgeon, who was able to correct the healing of my scar be re-​opening the incision, and then injecting steroids during the healing process to keep the scar from inflaming again.
To continue with my already bizzare rarity with side effects, I started to develop clogged salivary glands as a side effect from my radioactive I131 therapy. Dr. Chan is one of a small handful of doctors in the Seattle area that has performed a procedure called a Sialendoscopy. It is a fairly new procedure from what I was told, but I was pleased that I was able to keep seeing Dr. Chan for these issues, since he had been working with me from the start. A little over a year later, I am still experiencing some side effects from losing my thyroid, and I still have to go back every year to have a body scan done to make sure the cancer is not coming back. But I am so very grateful for the attention and care of Dr. Chan, and the other professionals with Swedish. I would highly recommend Dr. Chan if you are in need of an Otolaryngologist. He’s definitely a busy guy, but he does care about his patients.
Thank you for cutting the cancer out of my neck!!! :)

Perhaps there are good reasons that my experience with Dr. Chan was characterized by brief encounters, rushed appointments, inconsistent diagnosis and poor follow up. If there are, they were not made apparent to me other than that he is a very busy man. I had to incur months of scheduling challenges to get to a diagnosis and that may not have even happened if I had not done significant research on my own to ask the questions that lead to the «likely» diagnosis. An attempt to reach via mychart messaging, were left unanswered. On the other hand the Audiologist in the office Dr. Hazelwood was the polar opposite; responsive, patient, and helpful leaving my utterly confused how to rate this experience.

Super staff from front desk to nurse who takes patients back. Went in for a right ear problem after the Seahawks and Saints game — doctor Chan was so kind, asked lots of questions, explained options, and made his recommendation. Took time with me and was super personable — got to love a doc with a smile and bedside manner! He is part of Swedish Ballard Otolaryngology clinic on Market street.