The Utah Diabetes Center is a large facility and clinic with numerous doctors and specialists relative to Endocrinology/Diabetes care (for both type 1 & 2). This center is a part of the University of Utah Hospital & Clinics aka University Health Care Network. For some insurance plans, this clinic is the ONLY place you can go for diabetes care when your particular need would require a ""specialist"", e.g. an insulin pump, a continuous glucose monitor (CGM), diabetes education counseling and dietician services and so forth. Primary Care Physicians, General Practitioners, Family Practice Physicians, Internal Medicine MDs, etc. are unwilling to address anything to do with specialized diabetes equipment that require calibration or more sensitive care and follow up beyond the standard 30 day prescription of pills or insulin. Also, non-endocrinologists are reluctant to provide care if you've had any history of hypo or hyperglycemic events (very low/low or very high/high glucose levels). The bottom line, is that many patients will find themselves in a monopoly-type situation where this Utah Diabetes Center is the only game in town so to speak, you have to go here whether you like it or not (Healthy U members is a classic example of this). So what this monopolized situation translates to is poor patient care, a sense of arrogance and total control on part of the staff and health care Practitioners, a sense of empowerment that goes beyond reason, obstructionist policies, practices and attitudes, options expressed in terms of ultimatums, unwillingness to attempt to obtain insurance approval for services or equipment you know you would benefit from, a rather bureaucratic/red-tape tinged series of perquisites in order to ""qualify"" for those things you know you really need and it goes on and on and on. In my experience, I have seen ridiculous contradictory statements made; lofty claims of skills and abilities from Practitioners and staff that they clearly don't possess; rush to judgments on what is ""best for you"" without taking the time to seriously weigh the options, facts, history and patient needs; proclamations on what's possible and what's not without properly evaluating and researching data, facts, information and the experience of others in the field;
Pros: Government Run Clinic
Cons: Too many to list
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