Virginia Mason Sleep Disorders Center

I have been a patient of Virginia Mason general clinic for over 7 years, so this review is not placed lightly. I have a primary provider at VM, and have always found that she is a very good listener, tries her best to give great advice, and has always given me what I consider to be top notch care. I was having recurrent bad dreams resulting in waking up with my heart beating really fast and scary that eventually put me on high blood pressure meds. so she was adamant about me having a sleep study to see if I had sleep apnea causing me to have these dreams. So I scheduled the study through Dr. Darby in VM/​Lynnwood. I have to disagree strongly with Ryan D. I did not have the same experience he did…
I found Dr. Darby’s receptionist to be a little uninformative — for instance, I was not told that when you show up for your sleep study in Seattle, there is NO ONE THERE until right on the dot of 7:30…so if you show up early at all, you are in for an unattended wait. There were no female nurses or attendants… I only saw two males. The attendant that hooked me up was uncommunicative in a kind of a standoffish way, like you were keeping him from doing something he’d rather be doing. This is already a sort of spooky experience, being hooked up to a cajillion wires and observed while you sleep… and if you have sleep problems the chances are you might have a little trouble sleeping in a strange place in the first place with alien space probes attached all over your head, straps around your chest, and cameras and microphones aimed at you. In an empty hospital wing. With nothing but a couple very large male attendants — mine of which did not seem very happy to be there.
It took him an hour to get to me, and he was extremely perfunctory when he did come in… and did not ask if I needed to watch tv, have a cup of warm tea, milk, something… yes I know its not a hotel, but the receptionist that checked us in that night told us even DINNER was available if we wanted it, so I figured that milk and tea was not really a long stretch. When I told him I usually had to go to the bathroom a couple times a night, he was downright grouchy. I had a lot of trouble getting to sleep… about 40 minutes! Usually I drop off immediately at 7:30 at night! …When I awoke a couple hours later and pressed the button to go potty, he came in, kind of roughly pulled the wires up over my head and unhooked me… never turned the light on… didnt say a word. I tried to say a couple things, but he was out the door. I went potty and came back and when he came in he said «do you need something to make you sleep» but it was not in a nice way, and at this point I sort of felt afraid to take anything from a grouchy person, so I said no. He was out the door before I could ask if I could maybe read or something until I got sleepy again. and I was afraid to push the button again. Needless to say, this was NOT a «normal» night, and I only got about 4 hours of sleep, total. I woke around 2:30 I think, and tossed and turned for about 45 minutes before I finally just gave up and buzzed to go home. He was not happy about that either. …
So then the day comes to see Dr. Darby about the results. Dr. Darby is a young, very thin, very nervous– seeming woman. She has a «speech» prepared… and she delivers it as fast as she can. The bottom line of her speech is «the bad news is we only had a few hours of sleep to evaluate, but the good news is we had enough to evaluate. You don’t have enough sleep apnea to actually cause loss of oxygen to your heart so the probability of cardiac issues is very low… BUT we can still give you a CPAP.»…I relate my above experience to her and admit my frustration of the study probably not being accurate. I ask her a couple questions related to sleep disorders that have to do with bad dreams and she repeats the above. I ask her if she has ever worked with anyone whose sleep disorders center around recurring bad dreams. She repeats the above. Finally, I specifically ask her if there is a reason she is not answering my question — she replies that she feels I am aggressive. I reply that I was sorry if I was making her feel uncomfortable, but it seemed a simple question that only needed a yes or no answer. Finally she answered «no. I send those to the psychology something or another»…All I needed to hear was «no». I thanked her and left. Waste of time, money, discomfort…

After suffering from a pretty severe sleep disorder for well over 2 years and not receiving adequate care at Swedish, I made an appointment at VM with Dr. Darby. By this point I thought I would most likely be forced to go on disability.
I met Dr. Darby and she was very nice and spent well over an hour going over numerous questions, examined me, went over my sleep study results and discussed medications with me. She wasn’t overly eager to prescribe me meds, but she also understood the severity of what I was going through and took it very seriously. After my appointment, she called me twice that same week to see how I was doing with the new medication. Unlike Swedish I am able to get in for an appointment easily and can now work a full 8 hours without falling asleep !
Dr. Darby changed my life and for the first time in years I can do things like drive a car, read a book, have a job or go to a movie without worrying about falling asleep all of the time. If you have any need to see a sleep specialist, she is amazing! Also, the staff in her office are all very friendly and thorough. I’ve never had any billing issues or insurance problems and what took my doctor at Swedish 4 months to accomplish with my insurance, Dr. Darby was able to do in 1 week. Her dedication, compassion and intelligence in this field are unmatched by any other doctor I’ve met.
Thanks Dr. Darby!