Carol Ann Read Breast Health Center

Last week, I waited 15mins to make an appointment. I called today to reschedule and waited over 30mins. When someone finally picked up the line, Chisai, she was condescending and completely apathetic about the wait. I tried to ask why it took so long, but she cut me off and asked why I was calling, then put me on hold again to get her system running. When she got back on the line I asked what her name was and she rushed through the spelling, I asked a pronunciation, she felt compelled to tell me it was Japanese as if that meant anything and when I said thank you, she said the same and we hung up. I never rescheduled or even canceled my original appointment. A strange place for insensitive staff.

Calling for appointment here is ridiculous. I’ve been calling here for many times. All of the times I called, either nobody picked up the phone or I had to wait online for more than 15 minutes. I had to keep listening to this message «THANK YOU FOR HOLDING, YOUR CALL IS VERY IMPORTANT TO US. PLEASE CONTINUE TO HOLD & YOUR CALL WILL BE ANSWERED BY THE NEXT AVAILABLE REPRESENTATIVE» Hundred times…
When someone answered, her tone wasn’t happy and impolite. Instead of asking for the person’s information in a polite way, she asked without a manner, «Name?» «Birthday?» I would be willing to write a complaint whenever I have a chance.

Since everyone seems to be duking it out between one star and five stars, I’ll add my voice to the five-​star pile. My first mammogram was in a terrifying facility in downtown San Francisco and it was incredibly weird and painful. So my doctor referred me to the CAR Center because I was basically traumatized and threatened never to get another one. I have now had four or five mammograms at CAR, and I have been continually impressed. Yes, the registration/​check-​in process is unwieldy, but I’ve never had any actual problems, and everything else about the experience is completely top notch. Last year, I had to have some followups, and the doctors I met with were all amazing. I’m sad that the front desk issues are scaring people off, but I’ve been to a one-​star facility, and so I don’t mind putting up with the extra wait; once your name is called, everything from then on out is perfect.

What happened? The place is lovely but check in got messed up. I first got processed then just told to wait. THEN All these people got processed ahead of me. When I came in I just waited and waited. I even pre processed the insurance to make it faster but something fell through so I sat through waiting n waitin until
A nice lady Delma noticed how long I was stuck there FINALLY. … So plan on extra time even when it’s quiet since the front area might mess it up

Hardly any woman wants to have her breast squeezed between cold metal plates… but, hey, we do it because it’s the best screening anyone has come up with yet for cancer. If you’ve got to do it, I highly recommend this place.
The Carol Ann Reed Center employs people who are kind and caring (that goes for the volunteers, too!) and there’s nice, soft music, a pretty, tiled walkway, gentle soft colors… all in all, it’s not at all like being at a hospital.
Aside from the few minutes of extreme discomfort, this is the kind of place where you might not mind hanging out. Way to go to make an uncomfortable experience as comfortable as possible!

Outstanding patient care from the moment of arrival with valet car service and throughout the visit. Kathy R at registration, Nicole and Yalda technicians, volunteers, doctors, support staff… you all deserve nothing but gratitude, respect and positive feed back.

I’d like to add to what others have said here about the registratio/​appointment process. Long wait times on hold on the phone, you get passed to someone to preregister you. Then you still have to go through registration when you arrive. How many people can you have involved in making an appointment/​registration? A lot apparently. It makes an anxiety experience (this exam) worse! My interaction with the doc was nice and as far as I know, they are doing a good job on the actual exam but the processes around this appointment are superfluous, inefficient and stress inducing.

It was clean, nice, friendly people… and the technician that actually did my mammogram was very nice and professional and made me feel very comfortable as it was my first time doing it and I was a bit scare of it. GREAT place.

I’ve been screened for breast cancer since I was 18 because of a lump that was deemed «cystitis». No breast cancer in my family. Had a routine mammogram there a few years ago. They refuse to do a routine mammogram — I have to have the «special treatment». I skipped a couple years because I’ve had plenty of these special screenings in my life. They are humiliating and expensive. I have written letters, made telephone calls, and they refuse to respond to my inquiries. I’m going tomorrow but think that I may just refuse to ever have a breast screening of any kind again, ever. The people you talk to on the phone cannot connect you to anything other than a voicemail as far as people are responsible is concerned and you never get a call back. They are just there to make appointments. There is absolutely no concern for patients — only for the money they get.

Today was my second annual visit to Carol Ann Read, and also the second painless mammogram in my life — and I’m 68, so that’s a lot of painful mashings. Last year, it was almost frightening in its painlessness. This year, when I didn’t get Ebony as my tech, I figured the pain would return. But no!
Either I’ve hit the tech jackpot 2 years running, or these ladies are amazing.
And they are almost too organized. I brought my ereader, but didn’t get through a complete paragraph. No waiting.
And parking is right across the street and franked!

This place was aggressively girly. Butterflies on the floor to direct you through a pretty area with piped in water and bird sounds, flower names for the various waiting rooms, big nice robes that had nice length and strong belts, and female mammogram professionals — mine was wearing pink accents down to her sneakers.
I guess if we’re dealing with «Breast Health» that this is a nice change from most places, but having this as my first ever mammogram it felt weird, but nice. I have to give it a high rating for the care and level of apparent expertise that the whole staff exudes. They even have free valet parking (don’t forget to tip!) with validation given to you by the radiologist.
And a thank you note for using their services. They accept ALL insurance and admitted to me that the government insurance is their biggest employer. If insurance companies are employers. It’s late and I think I’m mixing up what I mean to say.
But yes, aggressively girly, but also nice, clean, and large spa-​ish style robes to make the humiliation of having your boob squished by a machine two different ways not all that horrible.

The nurses seemed sweet but rushed. The facility was nice but that only goes so far. I have had lymphatic cancer before so when I felt a boob lump I made an appt with my gp. She felt what I did and that day I was going in for a sonogram. The tech did the exam quick n quiet and went to go talk to a dr who I never, saw for the results.
The tech comes in and says he recommends I get a mammogram and follow her. So thinking I was going to get dressed and schedule it she takes me to another waiting room and says to wait here for my test. My actual reaction was «oh now»? Ok and after that the nurse gave me results on hallway with the option to see the dr. I was In a robe not wanting to see a radiologist topless I chose to go change. From there a volunteer rushed me out the exit and never got to see a dr. Hoe the all clear results didn’t warrant and further convo. Definitely following up with a different facility.

Again, the registration process is a joke. My friend finally made an appt there after speaking with 4 people, JUST TO REGISTER FOR AN APPT. Do you need that many people to do the job.
However, the exam was great. Friendly techs and exam, quick reports.

This is the last time I use this miserable place! Yes, it’s beautiful, but the scheduling process, as several have complained, is horrendous. I have a «suspicious» lump, but after three 15 minutes holds over several days and a complaint to my doctor’s office, with a call back from the doctor to say the Breast Center would call me in 5 minutes, NO CALL from them! Since I had my initial mammogram there, I assume I need to follow up with them, but from now on it’s back to the Imaging Center on Telegraph.
(In addition, my tech during the mammogram was cold and critical about the pain I endured. The last straw!)

I was sent a letter that it was time for my annual mammogram. I have just spent 45 minutes on the phone making an appointment. This is totally ridiculous and a waste of time. Granted it is a great place to have a mammogram but the scheduling process is archaic. I have suggested several times for this process to go online however, I am suggesting this to the «Scheduler» and this may be a threat to her job. Frankly, I think this person AND the person who verifies your insurance information are totally unnecessary in these roles. Their time would be better spent updating the database or making follow-​up phone calls. ANYTHING except scheduling appointments. This is totally outrageous to wait this long to make appointment for such a vital test. I cannot understand the reluctance to update the scheduling process. However, I repeat, this is a great place to get a mammogram.

Horrible experience, will never return if I can help it.
Referred for a high-​def diagnostic screening after a mammo at Alta Imaging showed «asymmetry of breast tissue.» I knew there’s a low correlation between this condition and cancer, so I resisted when after my special mammo, the Carol Ann Read doc pressed me to have an ultrasound. She began bullying me (there’s no other word), referring to «your lesion» (I have no lesion, cancerous or not) and I ended up enduring an ultrasound, crying tears of rage and helplessness throughout. (My objection was not safety, but cost: I knew I would end up paying big time for this unnecessary procedure, and I did: to the tune of $ 1,200 cash.) Furthermore, when I returned to the dressing room in tears, obviously distraught but not saying anything, the volunteers avoided me like the plague! No one asked if they could help, or tried to comfort me. What if I had actually just learned I had cancer?
The whole place gives me the creeps. It feels to me like they are milking vulnerable women (not to mention Medicare) to pay for their fancy-​pants, valet-​attended environment, which in my case so abused me that I’ve gone 2 years past recommended period without getting another mammogram. (I have one scheduled now, but NOT at Carol Ann Read.)

2÷14÷13 demanded driver’s license, all medical cards and told in no uncertain terms they would be returned to me when I had the mammogram.
I said, please make a copy and return them to me now. they refused. After waiting to be called for almost 1 hour, I asked a woman when her appt was. and she said 11:00 AM.
I was there for a 10:30 AM I was not called because they lost all my cards.
My Medicare, Blue cross, social security number, driver’s license were gone and they could not find them. they claimed they asked everyone who was there is they had mine instead of theirs, they said.
I am a 82 year old citizen who will now have to spend hours at the DMV obtaining new license amongst the coughing, sneezing public.
The Carol Read Center has no right to take my cards and keep them for the hour I had to wait for the exam. They had at least 20 women’s cards thrown about while I was there. I want the hospital to pay me for my time and aggravation. This is 6:30 AM and I have been up the entire night changing bank codes to avert an identity theft. and frankly worrying who has my cards and what havoc they will do to my credit.
Dont you think I should be recompense for their sloppy work. I will never get a mamogram there ever or do I think I will ever have one again period.
I intend to take this matter up with CEO Chuck Proster of the hospital
Lillie Braudy

One stop shopping for breast care. You can get your yearly mammograms here. They are very efficient and will send you letter in about a week to tell you your mammogram is fine. Or… If you need a biopsy, they do it here also.
It is wonderful to listen to the rain as you enter and take in all the wonderful décor.
You get real robes to wear, NOT paper ones while you are undressed.

I love this place. I seriously wish they would add in spa services because the environment is already so very soothing.
I literally look forward to my yearly mammogram because I love it here so much. It’s not just that you walk through a calming waterfall feature on your way in… it’s that they’ve thought about all the things that make it easy for you. Free parking in the lot directly across the street OR free valet (of course tipping the valet is appropriate but small price to pay to just drive up). When you go to change, there is a woman quietly handing you your (waffled-​spa-​quality) robe and giving you instructions on what to do. And then the women actually doing the mammogram are so good that they yak at you about stuff to distract you from the fact that they’re manipulating your boobies from here to there and back again. And they’re always on schedule.
Love love love this place.

‘Twas the weeks of the health scares.
I should point out that I have lost my ability to sleep through the night. I normally wake up around 3 or 4 a.m., for no other reason than my work thinks I need to think about it, my cats need to run the halls, or the sounds of Oakland want to permeate my dura mater.
Last week, I woke up and apparently was fondling my boob. I assure you that this is unusual, or the first time I’ve woken up to it. Lo and behold, I feel something. And freak out. It’s 4 in the morning, I found an odd shaped lump (best I can describe it is a «slug»), and there’s very little I can do but pop a half a Xanax and go back to sleep.
Wake up in the morning, and call my OB/​GYN. Thankfully they can get me in the next day. This is one no-​nonsense woman who holds her cards close to her vest– sure she found a lump, but she wouldn’t tell me if it was atypical or not.
So she referred me to get an ultrasound with a possible mammogram. Again, freak out. Freak out more when I learn they actually have to SEE the orders before they can schedule me. Whaaaa? Like I’m going to lie? Anywho, the next day I faxed over those damn orders myself, called, and got an appointment here the next day.
So I don’t pass out, my mom came with me. And we couldn’t get over how this place was decorated. I’m not going to cover what Sara already said, although I did find that rainforest room could make you have to go pee with all the water running sounds.
Get topless. Put on robe. Get ultrasounded (with heated gel!). Chief of Radiology comes in to tell me that I’m too skinny and I need to eat more cookies… oh and that it’s not a tumor.
If you’re going to freak out about lumpy boobs, you should be sent here. The staff from start to finish was great (although the intake woman could have been a little warmer).
It seems they have great outreach to their patients, which is much appreciated.