Kaiser Permanente

Although there are some GREAT Doctors in Kaiser they have a huge time management issue. Your appointment is at 11:30am and you sit and wait half an hour or more. But if your late they want to make you wait until they have seen all the scheduled patients before your seen. I hate Dr. Ben Chung transferred to the SF. How an appt takes 2 plus hours is ridiculous. They are getting like Highland… Good for emergencies but after care leaves something to be desired

Date: 1÷19÷2016 Time: 11:24 AM 58° Rain
Not exactly where I want to be due to the rainy weather, but I have a doctor’s appointment with a dermatologist this morning at 11:30 AM. I rather be at home watching the replay of the Warriors v. Cleveland game from yesterday.
This office building is located across the street from the old Kaiser Hospital facility of 280 W. MacArthur. It is a relatively new building. The lab is on the first floor. The doctor I am seeing is on the 4^th floor.
The ambiances of these new Kaiser facilities are modern and vibrant. I can only speculate that they want the images of these facilities to look patient-​friendly and we’re not to stress while waiting to see the doctor. If the wait is longer than anticipated, which has happened to me in the past, I have this saying, «we patients must exercise patience.» I never told the doctors that, but I can just imagine there would be a few chuckles on that comment.
The employees I have encountered are nice. I did not have to wait long to get examined by the doctor and her colleague. She was helpful and understanding. After the exam, she mentioned that a telephone call would be forthcoming for a follow up medical appointment in the near future.
For this visit, I was in and out of there within an hour. I was so glad to get out of there to head home that I did not get to check out Sprout’s Market on 30^th & Broadway, several blocks away from the hospital.

Each and every time my father has to come to this hospital, it just perturbs me. Since when do you arrive at your doctor appointment at 10:28am, the doctor sends you to the emergency room to get admitted and ten hours later you are still waiting to go to your room. I am so frustrated right now. I come to the hospital as soon as I am able at 8:40pm once I find out and begin to ask who the charging nurse and the on call doctor. Within 10 minutes he is taken to his room. This is why I left Kaiser years ago.

Kaiser Lab at this location is great. It’s organized, quick, and easy. Lab is on the ground floor near the main entrance. Everything is clean and new. I’ve been a Kaiser member for over 50 years.

Avoid Kaiser Permanente like the plague!
I signed up for an individual plan, and thought I would do the responsible thing and see a therapist to deal with my grief from family illness. What does KP do?
THEY CHARGED $ 285 A SESSION FOR AN MFT. This is a full $ 100 over what they advertise for 2015 Northern California rates. Of course, they don’t tell me this until I’ve already been five times, so now I owe them almost $ 1000 out of pocket. This is more than I would pay if I didn’t have any insurance!
When you tell them this on the phone, they just remind you that you have a deductible to meet, and treat you like they just didn’t hear what you told them. Since the insurance company is the same company as the health provider, you are just forced to eat their obscene rates. I contested it and they didn’t even address my initial concern. Just the same BS company line.
I have no idea how some of these people sleep at night. I will never recommend them to anyone.

Stay as far away from this uncaring corporate death factory as possible ! The system that our Mom had paid into her whole adult life, the Kaiser Health plan, completely failed her when she needed it the most. One mis-​diagnosis after another, a lack of careful proactive treatment for someone with A. Fib having some growing difficulties that should have been addressed with various treatments such as blood thinners, and a thorough examination after an event involving shortness of breath… neither happened… They sent her home, no ekg, no tests, no treatments, nothing…
When she DID have a stroke about a week later, we found out that she actually had one the day of the first event. Her MD completely blew it by not ordering tests, and should be fired from his job. After her re-​admittance, the new MD of the moment made a mis-​call on a UTI and the resulting bout of anti-​biotics ravaged her internal flora and allowed for the disease that floats around Kaiser Hospital — «C-​Dif» — to practically paralyze her and in effect kill her. A 3 day stay turned into a 5 week death sentence.

I have watched my wife try to use this Company for months now and I even see people give them good ratings .HOW EVER do a little CRUSING the INTERNET and you will quickly find Hugh numbers of people who HATE them! I personally think they are a sleaze bag operation with next to no real interest in anything except their bottom line come hell high water or bad patient reviews! My wife experienced being told she didn’t need a Colonoscopy even though she is 55+ and never had one! They told her the little butt smear tests were good enough? I am a man and have had Colorectal cancer colonoscopy screening several times.
This is just one example of a attitude they demonstrate of indifference to really wanting to provide service its cheaper to send out the butt smear kit.
Colorectal cancer screening helps people stay well and saves lives.
Regular colorectal cancer testing is one of the most powerful weapons for preventing colorectal cancer or finding it early, when it’s easier to treat. There are 2 basic types of Screening Tests that mainly find cancer: COLONOSCOPY given by a Gastroenterologist (a doctor whose specialty is the digestive tract) or a surgeon. Then there is the butt smear which involves testing the stool (feces) for signs that cancer may be present. This test is easier, but they are also less likely to detect polyps.
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This review is for kaiser in general, not this specific location. Let me start by saying, I should sue kaiser for malpractice.
Firstly I was very ill one day, after having a cold for over a week, and was starting to feel short of breath and dizzy, I called the phone system which was a series of automated machines until i got to a person, who sent me to a hospital that was closed. I called back and said hey, this place is closed, they said, oh it doesn’t show that on my machine, try this place. I called that place and it was closed. Called back and said, dude what the hell, why can’t you see which places are open, its a pretty fundamental thing being that you work there… she said she would do everything she could, to get me seen today and said she would call me back right away.
Ended up just going to the first emergency room an hour and a half later.
While I was in the waiting room, 4 hours later, she called back and said how about walnut Creek center. I was currently in davis. Lol, what a joke, it gets better.
A month later they sent me a letter stating that I didn’t have sufficient reason to visit the ER, and that this time they would cover me but next time they might not… WOW
Later on, I went to the kaiser ER for heart problems linked to what I thought was most assuredly strep throat, cuz I’ve gotten strep like 10 times before.
They tried to give me some pain killer intravenously, but I declined, NOT a good thing when you go in for heart problems to just give you pain medicine…
Then they ran some tests when I demanded it.
Turns out my heart was not looking good. They waited 2 hours and then told me I could go. They said my doctor would call me back if the strep test came up positive so I could go get the medicine…
At my last doctor they did a strep test in 10 minutes. I was in the bed for over an hour and they said they would call me back. NO JOKE my ‘doctor’ called me back 12 days later to say YES you have strep, your medicine is at the pharmacy, I just started laughing cuz obviously I had already spent 2 weeks laying in bed in agony waiting and finally got better on my own.
Sometimes I want to quit my job and change employers JUST to get something other than kaiser, they are as bad as Comcast and at&t…and they are in charge of your healthcare… beware!!!
Seriously I’m going to talk to a lawyer to see about a law suit.

I just started with Kaiser Oakland in January 2015 (about 8 months) because I believed in the single payor system and wanted to give it a shot to «put my money where my mouth was.» It has been a very depressing experience. I’ve been given the runaround in a number of different departments, appointments set up a month in advance and then cancelled on the same day, only to have to reschedule for a month following. I’ve been incorrectly diagnosed, which was confirmed by two second opinion docs, one at Kaiser and one not at Kaiser. I’ve been set up for inappropriate tests, and then told in one case to talk to the specialist, but under the Kaiser system you can’t talk to the specialist without a referral from your primary care doc, and she’s the one who sent me in for the inappropriate test in the first place. When your primary doc is out, you get e-​mail responses from another doc, who, at least in my case, doesn’t respond to your question but instead responds with some circular type of rationalization. Fortunately, I can switch insurance in 2016; hopefully, nothing serious happens between now and then!

This place is great everybody here is nices plus the staff is very professional here. This place looks very clean as it should. And they explain everything here in detail and they make sure you know whats going to happen next. I would have given this place a five but the parking here is bad me and my dad couldnt find parking and the cars here are pushy and habe no patience.

Such great customer service from the ladies at the front desk and our OT in the Pediatric Physical Therapy, Speech Therapy and Occupational Therapy. Thanks for always having a smile and making small talk with your customers. I’m always made to feel welcome and cared for.

YUP YUP YUP. Infusion nurses on the 3^rd floor, both male and female… COOL PEOPLE, who understand and feel what truly matters. I must say, they’re all a group of just fine classy people. True people, without the bs, who will give those in need, what they desperately require, to live on with their current situations of OUCHIES!
Love is precious here, because it comes from the heart. Straight up GOLD STATUS!
NURSES ARE THE BACKBONES OF EVERY HOSPITAL. GIVE THEM THE CREDIT THEY RIGHTFULLY DESERVE! :)

These guys really took care of me. I was recently diagnosed with Crohn’s Disease, and everyone at Oakland Kaiser is great! My GI doc, Dr. Valadao has been in constant contact with me throughout this ordeal! When I got my first immune suppressant infusion, by nurse Robyn checked up on me and really showed just how compassionate nursing should be.
Overall, the infusion center is pretty great. Power recliner chairs, cable tv, and wifi… not a bad way to spend 3 hours of your day with a needle in your arm…

This review is for the newer facility on Broadway St. I routinely order my allergy meds online and have them ready for pick up for me at this location. if you wait for the weekend (you time it just right) you dont have to pay for parking. So that’s my ‘insider’ tip.
I’m usually in and out within 5 – 10 mins. The staff are nice.
Am I the only person who has ever been stuck at that light to turn left into the garage though? what a nightmare that is sometimes!!! ugh.

Scratch that. The lab allegedly didn’t spin my blood before testing, so I’ve been told I’ve got to go back and have my blood drawn again! Are they really that unprofessional or dumb or did they just use my blood plasma and platelets for another purpose? Who cares if the lab has great hours if you’ve got to go back repeatedly to give up some of your life source due to their incompetence or other nefarious reasons? I’m not going to have my results in time for my scheduled appointment this Friday after already securing time off from work. I’m going to have to rebook my appointment with my doctor and re-​figure something else out with work. Way to go, Kaiser…

I never got my records transferred over because that system is disorganized and should be condemned. If you only need some minor meds and are reasonably healthy then Kaiser works well. I don’t have much confidence in their specialists though.
One plus is that they are on the cutting edge of technology. I was able contact my doctors via video conference and email despite being overseas (with a huge time difference).

Kaiser is like any other medical plan in my opinion. there are pluses and minuses and good and bad employees every where.
As is true with most of life, you must me a good self-​advocate to get your needs met and not worry about offending anyone and change doctors as needed.

I don’t like hospitals.
I don’t like them one bit.
My mom was a nurse and I was at the hospital all the time visiting people growing up so you’d think I’d be comfortable in such a place. No, not really.
The first time I had an appointment here at Oakland Medical Center was over the summer for a sprained ankle. Usually my appointments go pretty smoothly without any discontent. The CNA or medical assistant was rude to me while asking me questions about how much I exercise and what now. Sorry we can’t all be stick think like you! Some of use are made of mean muscles!
Other than that, my recent visits have been fine.
I went to the ER and was treated for dehydration. My nurse was awesome! She was really fast yet gentle when placing my IV. However I do feel bad for the older lady that was getting stitched up in her head next to me. But it was awesome to see a procedure!
The ER staff is very friendly. The only thing is that its really inconvenient to go in and out of the ER. My PIC went to go get himself. Snack and had to go out then go around then go back through security. So silly.
My primary physician Dr. Gail Martin is great! What’s also great about kaiser is the classes that are included with the membership. Do try them out! There’s yoga and Pilates, classes on stretching, and classes on exercise and healthy eating!
Kaiser offers its members a lot so remember to take advantage of all your resources!
Until next time, stay healthy!

As a young person, I have very rarely been satisfied with my care at Kaiser and have heard the same from other young people.
As a teenager, I had a psychiatrist list a number of anti-​depressants and ask which one I wanted to try (not giving any explanation of the pros or cons of any). When my randomly chosen anti-​depressant started giving me anxiety, the psychiatrist wanted to prescribe me an anti-​anxiety medication.
I have had pharmacists and doctors start to walk away while I’m asking questions about various treatment options and have generally felt that Kaiser is too busy for me and is not interested in taking me seriously.
In my experience, Kaiser is not interested in finding the root of the problem, but rather masking the symptoms.

During the 12+ years that I’ve been a Kaiser member, I’ve had a baby, various surgeries and successful breast cancer treatment. So it led me to make up this slogan:
«Born at Kaiser. Live at Kaiser. Die at Kaiser.» Hope they can use it! :-P
In all seriousness, though, the new building on Broadway, and its amazing oncology facilities, gorgeous wall art and beautiful garden, the whole thing is a very positive and healing space.