UCLA Health Cardiovascular Center

“I'm sharing the experience I had when I brought my dad in for a TAVR, which is a common minimally invasive valve replacement procedure. The nurse support was great -- highly responsive and knowledgeable and kept my review above 1 star. On the day of the procedure, we showed up as instructed before noon for an afternoon appointment. We waited for over 2 hours before someone saw us, which I came to understand is pretty standard. They want you there early in case there's a cancelation of a prior procedure so the doctors don't need to wait. OK. On this day, we actually waited over 7 hours before they finally canceled and asked us to reschedule. It seems they had other procedures that kept demanding the surgical room we were to use, so we kept getting bumped. The system is very geared to physician/hospital convenience, and perhaps that's a function of supply and demand, but it's hard on patients (when they finally canceled, my 83 year old dad had been fasting for almost 24 hours). My advice is to schedule the first appointment of the day -- they have you get there at an insane hour (well before you really need to be there in case you get lost on the way, I guess), but it's better than taking your chances with a later appointment. I'm going to try taking my dad to another hospital and just hope that they do more for patient convenience.”

“Seems like these reviews are old - I want to share what a current experience is. My father is a patient at UCLA - he has afib. He got sick last week and was admitted to the ER on his general doctor’s advice as his heart rate had spiked. After 24 hours they discharged him - the ER doctor didn’t really say anything at all. We immediately called his cardiologist and the soonest we could get an appointment was a month out. My father was in the hospital yesterday for heart issues and he can’t even see his heart doctor. UCLA likes to promote itself as one of the best hospitals in the country but that is certainly not the case for normal patients on insurance - the wait times are absolutely insane and there seems to be no method to the madness at all.”

“I never do this but I’m on a roll I’ve been battling an infection since I had open heart surgery three years ago my cardiologist thru ucla referred me to dr peter downey I saw him last week terrible experience he was more concerned about why I haven’t seen the cardiac surgeon that originally did the surgery I was completely put a back about that I ended leaving in tears and very frustrated dr downey asked what I want him to do I drove three hours in traffic for that it was literally insane would not recommend”

“The Doctors and the staff at UCLA Cardiovascular Center and Ronald Reagan Medical Center SAVED MY LIFE. I had a heart transplant last year and they deserve a 100 stars.”