Dr. Vernon Dewaine Potter, MD

I have been a patient of Dr. Potter’s for many years now. I always find him to be kind & caring. His staff are also very nice. He takes his time & is not rushing through the visit. He listens. I was out of town & needed a prescription refilled (one that other docs might have insisted on an office visit first just to make the office fee) Dr. Potter was so accommodating to refill this over the phone. I greatly appreciated this kindness he extended to me. I will definitely keep him as my doctor!

Every time I went in for just my Thyroid issues, he seemed to make up other diagnosis for things I don’t really seem to have just to upcode his billing to make more money. This doctor and staff seems to be really money hungry. He can no longer take care of my thyroid problems ever since he had his stroke and heart attack. He just seems like he is not capable of practicing medicine anymore according to what his nurse keeps telling me. She states that she would not recommend anyone to him what so ever due to his incompetence. He did a removal on a family member and left some of the mole still intact. According to the nurse she would highly recommend a dermatologist. Do not ever let this doctor do a removal on you what so ever and just run as fast as you can.

Dr. Potter is very interested in his patients and keeps very good track of patient's taking of prescribed medicines. I trust his advise and council of how to take care of myself between visits.

I recently recommended a friend to Dr Potter and in looking up his address saw the ratings which I was surprised by. Let me first state that I am a UT transplant. I grew up on the East Coast and started having a multitude of problems upon moving to UT. I have been to at least 10 doctors in the UT area and have been infuriated by all except for two. Dr Potter has been my favorite. His front office staff was a bit brisk at first, but they have since rotated out. The nurses and PA are great. Dr Potter awards those who show up on time for an appointment with in and out service. If you are late, you will wait until everyone who showed up before you are seen. I find this method refreshing for those of us who are on a tight schedule and are punctual. He has always been willing to discuss and come up with new strategies on how to approach my treatment. For those with thyroid issues that are complaining about having office visits too often...it comes with the… territory. And once I was stable he reduced the frequencies of my visits. But I felt in control of my treatment at all times. When I've had issues with getting refills when traveling they have been most accommodating. Copay complainers --- you knew the drill when you picked your insurance plans. I've never had a situation that required me to deal with any collection threats, and frankly if you're not paying your bills, I don't think that's dr Potter's fault. I have had excellent service and care. I love that I do not have to play telephone tag with the dr or the staff as I have a printed and annotated copy of my results in 2 days of my visit. This has been invaluable to me. I have seen dr potter for a severe thyroid disorder without the treatment of which I would be a shell of myself. He's treated me for illnesses picked up abroad as well as your run of the mill illnesses. All without the drama that so many have listed here. I truly appreciate Dr Potter's thorough approach. I appreciate his dotting his i's and crossing his T's. I appreciate his careful consideration of the things I say. And his probing deeper into symptoms that I've presented. I always feel validated and enlightened. And I have always improved. I am truly shocked by the comments I've read here. I know that it will take 2-3 weeks to get an appointment unless I'm suffering an infection. But I make a point to make that appointment at the time I am refilling my last refill. It's an orderly operation. A culture that is rare in Utah. Again. I'm a transplant. And I did pick him as a doctor because he went to schools outside of utah.

He is rude, condescending, and rushes through the appointment. He doesn't ask probing questions-just "what did the previous doctors prescribe? " . He doesn't know names of medications without looking at a book of medications. He also got offended and became condescending and dismissive when I told him that my specialist doctor told me to go off of the medication Dr. Potter had prescribed because it was harmful to me due to a surgery that I've had (and Dr. Potter knew that I have had). He did not take into consideration my medical history when prescribing medications to me, or how they would interact with my other medications. He was offended that I called my specialist to double check on the prescription instead of him, and immediately started rushing me out of my appointment even though I was in tears and trying to inform him that his rude attitude had hurt my feelings. I would not recommend my worst enemy to Dr. Potter. A member of his own staff informed me that she does not… go to him, she wouldn't refer anyone to him, he's lost an extreme amount of patients, and she will be quitting... All because of his incompetence and beside manner.

Horrible experience! Always had to wait in the room for at least an hour if not way more. He bursts into the room, flings open the file and talks so fast while twitching and itching the whole time, every time. Goes on and on about how he had to leave his last place of employment (in research I believe) because he found too many cancers. So very odd. Never felt at ease. He has you come back over and over again. We had to leave. When I asked for my files I was told it was too much paper to print out copies and would cost too much. I asked they be sent to my new doctor electronically and the documents were never received. When I questioned where they were sent they would only say that they sent them where I told them to send them and their part was done. His office staff is very rude, especially the receptionist who is only interested in filing her nails. I would never recommend Dr. Potter to anyone. He had me on so much medication for my Thyroid and when I stopped taking the meds and… went to a new doctor after about a year had passed I asked to have my Thyroid tested again and was told I was right, my Thyroid was NORMAL! Sketchy practice in my opinion.

Dr. Potter doesn't seem all there. He was treating me for thyroid problems and over time I didn't improve. I had problems with getting on the right dose of medication and the last time I was in his office one of his nurses yelled at my very unprofessionally. I will never go back and can not in good conscience recommend him.

Problems with this office and practice1. the Office Manager talks really fast, interrupts you, talks over you, and won't listen to you. She is the only right one, ever.2. The doctor does not prescribe the correct dose for thyroid medication. After this awful experience with him, I went to my OB who prescribed a dose 50 micrograms lower than he did. That's a lot!3. You cannot talk to anyone about lab results. They don't check their messages, and they won't talk to you. In fact, I was told that I would need to make another appointment if i wanted to go over lab results.4. When I tried to talk to the office manager about this, she said "Where did you want your records sent to?" Then I received a nasty letter in the mail stating that they couldn't treat me for "Verbal Abusive."Very bad experience. Don't waste your time and money.

I really liked Dr. Potter years ago, but it became increasingly difficult to work with him. By the time I left, I didn't feel like he gave my opinions fair consideration. As of a year ago he was still using paper records which seemed to hurt his ability to provide optimum care. His office staff, while friendly, had to hint and give advice about how to work around the doctor's inflexibility. He lost two excellent PAs--at least one by firing. He refused most follow-up without an appt, sometimes just to confirm normal test results. He refused to refill without an appt. He seemed to hint he was the only dr who could properly treat my health issues. He brings religion into patient care and has LDS pictures hanging in the halls between patient rooms.I really would have liked to provide feedback to him directly and resolve some of our issues, but he really didn't seem interested. The one time I tried--he would only communicate by fax. So one attempt was enough for me!My only regret about… leaving Dr. Potter was that I waited so long. I'm really happy with the doctor I have now.

I'm done with Dr. Potter. When I first went to see him for Thyroid stuff, he seemed brilliant - and maybe he is - but I'm sick of all the nickle and diming me for copays. They 'force' me to come in to get prescription refills every 3-6 months. What others have said on this site and others is all true.