Samantha Malm, MD

Love Dr Malm! I have a physical disability and usually doctors can’t get past that to see I am just a human being too. Dr Malm has always treated me so respectfully — just like everyone else but with some extra considerations— and I’m so thankful for it.

I’ve been seeing Dr. Malm for years and I think she’s great. She has always taken the time to explain things to me in detail and she answers my questions. I have never felt rushed out of an appointment or exam. She keeps up with the My Health Online messages and I am very satisfied with her responses. She doesn’t respond instantly but I think that is an unreasonable expectation. Considering the pace of change in medicine and medical records keeping, I think she is keeping up well and continuing to provide excellent care.

Awesome. Great care for about two years, no complaints. Just remember service provider are people too.

I have been seeing Dr. Malm as a primary care physician for a year. I find her extremely professional, very detailed, caring, knowledgeable, and an excellent listener. When I see her, she takes all the time I need and never makes me feel rushed. She posts lab results and answers my questions in a timely manner using The Sutter Health Online messaging system. Samantha Malm is an excellent doctor, and I recommend her highly.

I’ve been seeing Dr. Malm for almost a year and have only good things to say about her. Others have mentioned she doesn’t seem to take concerns seriously or rushes patients out the door. I have experienced this at other practices with afternoon appointments, so I now only make morning appointments and this may be why I have avoided this issue. I feel that Dr. Malm has taken my medical issues (more discomforts than anything life-​threatening) very seriously and is an excellent partner in keeping me healthy. She is easy to talk to in person and communicates promptly over the Sutter My Health Online messaging platform. I decided to write this review because I got a message from her today asking why I hadn’t gone in for a lab test she ordered — my symptoms resolved but I didn’t get around to telling her and she just wanted to follow-​up. I was really impressed that she followed up with me to make sure everything was going well. I also credit Dr. Malm with curing the fear of flying I had for several years. She found a perfect combination of medications to take prior to plane trips and while flying and thoroughly explained the dosage for all of them. For the first time in almost five years I was able to fly without my stomach going crazy and after several trips like this, the idea of flying doesn’t cause me any anxiety anymore.

I started seeing Dr. Malm right after the birth of my first child about a year and a half ago. I was having trouble breastfeeding and got a very bad mastitis. I found her manner to be cold and unhelpful. I received so much more help and support from my daughter’s pediatrician (Dr. Wolffe Nadoolman … an absolute ROCK STAR, 5-​star review TK). Dr. Malm’s bedside manner was so lacking, I would routinely do anything and everything to avoid seeing her when I had to go to the doctor’s office. In fact, I’ve been putting off a few things that need attending to because I simply do not want to see her dour face and receive her unhelpful help.
In summary, I’ve seen worse doctors (the dermatologist who told me I was too young for routine mole screenings a month before a second opinion found a pre-​cancerous mole), thus the two stars. But, seriously, do you want to go see a doctor who’s down in the rankings with a guy who would have let a pre-​cancerous mole continue to grow?
The other doctors I’ve seen in that office have been perfectly fine, and the admin staff is friendly and helpful, though, prescription mix-​ups are fairly common.

Let me start by saying I’ve been a medical sales rep for over 10 years and have been in thousands of doctor’s office and witnessed various interactions between MD’s and patients.
Having said that I went to see Dr. Malm a couple of days ago for a persistent cough and fevers I’ve been had for about 10 days. I’ve had «walking pneumonia» before so I wanted to make sure it wasn’t that. My normal MD is Dr. Wang, however, he was out ill so they gave me her. BTW, I had to wait for 1 hour for her (no one else was in the waiting room), and pay $ 4 for parking.
When she finally entered the room she listened to me breath a couple of times, said she didn’t hear and signs of «pneumonia» and told me to take cough medicine! Wow doc really! I’ve also have very painful «sciatica» for years now, and asked her about medical marijuana, only for the pain, not to get high, and Dr. Malm replied that, «I should come back and ask Dr. Wang about that because there are alternatives». I asked, «what alternatives». She mumbled «nice to meet you» and was gone.
So here I am today with a fever and the cough is worse than ever. I guess I’ll have to ask my sister-​in-​law, who is an MD out of state to write me an RX for a Z-​Pak. This Dr. Malm may have chosen the wrong career path.

I was searching for a new doctor about two years ago, and I decided to see Dr. Malm based on the 5-​star reviews I saw on Unilocal.At the time, «great listener» seemed to be a recurring theme. However, I see that more recent reviews are less positive, and these reflect my own experience.
Dr. Malm seems like a genuinely nice person, but as I doctor, I wouldn’t recommend her.
About a year into me using her as my primary care physician, I ran into some problems getting a prescription refilled. I used the online request form from Sutter Health to have a new one written about a month in advance of it expiring… and apparently it got lost in the shuffle. I repeatedly messaged both Dr. Malm’s inbox, as well as the general customer service inbox, to no avail. When I called the office directly, I was greeted by support staff with a dismissive «I’m sure it will work out in a few days, please be patient» attitude. It was nearly two months later that I finally was able to refill my prescription. Dr. Malm apologized and said that her inbox had been blocked for a short time (two months?) and that the pharmacy I used didn’t even know I was trying to fill my prescription. I happen to know for a fact that the pharmacy faxed her office every day for over two weeks. Odd.
Stranger still, when I scheduled an appointment to follow up on a related health matter, Dr. Malm seemed to have completely forgotten the whole incident. As she looked at my chart, she asked me if I had ever taken any prescriptions of a certain type (precisely the type of medication that I had been trying to fill). Beyond that, we made arrangements for me to look into my insurance coverage, and then get back to her about making a referral for me.
About a week later, I received an irritated call from a nurse (?) or staff member (?) who demanded to know why I hadn’t gotten in contact with Dr. Malm yet. Dripping with sarcasm, her exact words were «CLEARLY you didn’t think this was IMPORTANT enough to do yet, but I’m calling to make sure you know we’re waiting.» I apologized and said I was planning on it, but my insurance was in the process of changing and I wanted to make sure I knew what my coverage was first. Before the words were even out, she interrupted me and in a loud, still sarcastic voice and said, «THANK YOU, BYE».
Needless to say, I never called to make that appointment. It’s enough that my primary doctor isn’t easy to get in contact with and doesn’t even remember my health issues while staring directly at my chart— I don’t want to have to deal with the nasty attitude of her staff to boot. Also – every time I’ve had an appointment with her, I’ve had to wait at least an hour in the waiting room, and usually longer sitting in the exam room.
All of this would seem to suggest she is severely overbooked. Fine— I’ve been seeing someone else ever since

We were fortunate to have Dr. Malm as our family’s primary-​care physician. She is professional and very friendly. She always called us to follow up our visits and monitor treatments. I have only superlative words about Dr. Malm.

I have been Dr. Malm’s patient for almost two years, and I think it’s about time I find a new one. I find the the doctors in the Sutter Health network tend to not be super great, so it is disappointing that Dr. Malm has now gone from superb to below par. I saw her last month regarding chest pains and migraines, and I found her to be dismissive, almost rushing me out of my appointment before I was done discussing all of my concerns. My father had cardiac issues, so I came in to talk about major chest pains on the left side and she told me I was too young to have any serious issues. For the migraines, she mentioned that I could possibly have a brain tumor and prescribed me medication to try out before they confirm cancer. This prescription required a prior auth from my insurance, to which Dr. Malm had to call directly and I left emails, messages with her office, and called almost every day for three weeks with no results. She had her medical assistants call despite my insurance specifying that only she could authorize the medication. This process was continually delayed and I was not able to receive my medication during that time. Finally after over three weeks, Dr. Malm called me back and asked why I wanted this medication in the first place. I guess she does not look at her patient files and I told her she prescribed it, it wasn’t me that requested it. She then giggled and said «oops! I guess I forgot!», and ended up calling in a generic medication that I received in the mail within two days. That is not the type of doctor I want. She apparently does not value providing her patients with the utmost care anymore, and that is disappointing. She is a nice lady, but I would like a doctor, not a friend.

I love her! She’s caring, friendly, listens well, and professional. I don’t have any complaints about her.
When I first came in for my annual checkup. She was very detail about asking me about my family history and my concerns. She took the time to explain to me about certain situations and possible issues with my medical history.
The only problem I have with Dr. Malm isn’t with her, but with her medical assistant. I don’t know if I have offended her in some way, but she is very rude to me. She won’t look at me when she talks to me. She’s very quick with her answers and always seems like I am bothering her.
But I highly recommend Dr. Malm!

I did not find Dr. Malm to be particularly helpful. I went to see her for a couple of different issues which she didn’t take seriously. When I went to another doctor for both conditions they diagnosed immediately and for one condition I was scheduled for surgery.
It worries me that a «primary care’ doctor, like Malm, did not detect these issues, or take my concerns seriously and I had to find help w/​another medical practice. I will not be going back to Malm.

Superlative doctor. I agree with the best of everything already said.

I fired Samantha Malm yesterday. The first appointment I had with her was in mid-​September, and it was problematic enough that I should have fired her then. She’s not very smart, you know. But, in this world of declining standards and increasing costs, I thought she’d be good enough. She’s totally not. The primary care doctor needs to be sharp and quick; and as the gatekeeper to more specialized health care services, she needs to know how to function effectively within that system. Samantha Malm isn’t up to snuff. She failed to get an authorization for an MRI from my insurance company because she neglected to submit all the necessary documentation. Then, she ignored two phone calls from the insurance company offering a peer review of the request. When the request was officially denied, Samantha Malm washed her hands of it and decided to refer me out. The nature of a Unilocal review doesn’t allow for much detail about the circumstances, so just know that the situation was complicated.
This was the second MRI authorization; she secured the first one easily, and then completely screwed up with the second one.
And, there’s more. A lot more. Once you scratch the surface of the Sutter East Bay Medical Foundation, you discover just how dysfunctional the whole system is. The
manager of both Sutter practices at 2850 Telegraph Avenue, Seth Ingram, is also incompetent. I met with him for over a half hour in-​person last Friday to discuss the
mess created by Samantha Malm, and he promised to intervene in order to secure
the authorization. Evidently, the guy lies. He went directly back to Malm with it, and she screwed it up again.
There was a time when Sutter had high-​quality doctors and intelligent management.
Now, they have neither. If consumers willingly accept sub-​standard care, that’s what we’ll get from Sutter. I will not, and I strongly encourage you to not accept it either!

Dr. Malm rocks. She has a clam, friendly demeanor and wants her patients to get the information and care they need to be well. She’s the family doctor for both me and my hubby. She takes the time to really listen and get to the bottom of things.

Dr. Malm is my new primary-​care physician. Having been seen by Dr. Louis Wu, in this office, over the last 30 years, my expectations are high. My visits have been only two, for my feet and for a physical. Dr. Malm’s manner, responsiveness and concern are exemplary. I expect an excellent relationship.

She’s a great doctor, very pleasant, gentle when it came time for the annual pap. Concerned and caring when it came time to discuss family history and any future implications. Overall, as far as large health corporations it was a quick and painless experience. Too bad I won’t have the luxury to go back once my health care runs out on my birthday!