Althouse Ralph G MD Stevens Cardiology Group

I went to Swedish Hospital Edmonds at about 4:00 AM on Sunday morning with sever chest pains. The doctor on call was a Ralph Althouse. Me being the person I am, apologized when he showed up for getting him out of bed. Instead of being at all gracious, he snarled «Too late for that». My next interaction with him was a hurried explanation that they were going to do something. It was rushed and I probably should have pushed further. The took me away and did their thing. When it was done he gave a very quick, 30 second description of what they did and basically disappeared. At some point he also talked to my family. They said that they got feeling he didn’t want to waste time with them. That was the last time I saw him. The nurses kept telling me he would be up at some point during the day but he never appeared. They kept getting instructions from him but he didn’t care enough to stop by at all to explain anything. and some of them seemed to have the nursing staff (who were very good) confused. The next morning I was laying in bed and heard the staff complaining that this guy was’t doing his job and discharging patients. From what I could tell, I could have been there forever before this guy ever showed up. I gave up and left the hospital. (Again the nurses and all were fantastic.) When I got home I checked online reviews and found them to be consistent in this regard. I also spoke to a nice woman from the cardiac rehab department and she stated that patients often express concerns about this man’s lack of interpersonal skills. Honestly, if you want to be a doctor, you have to be able to communicate. No matter how technically good you are, if you can’t make the patient feel confidence in you, you are a truly horrible doctor.
If you have any choice whatsoever, do not go to this doctor if you want to feel at all like you are getting decent care. While he may have been technically good, the total lack of decent communication left me with no confidence in his abilities.