Faye Lundergan, MD

Love the staff! Love Shalene! Very nice and helpful. Dr Lundergan is nice and patient with me and my kids. Always seems to have extra time to explain or recommend things.

I’m thrilled. i wasn’t happy having to leave our long-​time Pediatrician but new medical insurance will do that to you every time.
1. They’re up-​front. They believe in western medicine and they believe in vaccinations and if that’s not a science that fits into your reality, you’re probably not going to be happy there.
2. My son’s disabled. She addressed HIM, let HIM finish telling her what he wanted to say, and then, when he was completely done, THEN she turned to me and asked me to translate. She put my son first.
3. She really listens. my son gets aspiration pneumonia about once a year. We went in, she checked his vitals, heard me out, and took his entire history into consideration when making her decisions. I appreciate that.
4. Her staff are CHAMPIONS, dealing with complicated and irritating paperwork with a flick of the wrist and a «no problem, gotcha covered».
i miss our previous physician greatly, but Dr. Faye and her staff really did make it a lot less painful. I recommend them with enthusiasm.

Dr Lundergan is wonderful, she is the best pediatrician in Petaluma for sure. She is very thorough, listens to your concerns, doesn’t make you feel rushed. Our kids love her too, she is very funny and warm.
She was so wonderful when our daughter had really bad pneumonia at age 3 — she was on top of things and thank to her our daughter was able to be admitted to Oakland children’s hospital in a heartbeat to get all the necessary treatments that she would not be able to get here in Petaluma.
The whole office staff is great too!

I love Dr. Lundergan. She’s funny and makes my kids laugh, which is a great quality for a pediatrician. And I love her staff. They’re kind, they listen and they care –all of them! I’m thrilled they were able to move to the new location. The atmosphere is warm, fun and inviting. My two-​year-​old son enjoys the new waiting room so much, he never wants to leave. We’ve had to visit a few times over the past month, so I really appreciate the quality care provided with the good experience for my kids to look forward to going back.

I’m over it. It’s in my wife’s hands now and she will make the final determination, but I’m done. The problem is that there are only two pediatricians in Petaluma: Dr. De Pala and Dr. Lundergan. They currently share an office, but Dr. Lundergan is moving at the end of this month (March, 2013). I told my wife months ago that I wanted to switch to De Pala, but her argument is valid to stay with Lundergan.
My (well thought out and lucid) Argument:
I want an answer. I’m a real estate investment broker and I understand the value in having a client make up their own mind, but I still whittle it down to a «I would» or «I wouldn’t» answer to the inevitable «what should I do» questions. Dr. Lundergan went to Stanford. She did her residency at Children’s Hospital of Oakland. That’s pretty darn impressive. So give me an answer. Give me the short answer. I’m not litigious and I understand it is a judgement call. Hell, just qualify it with a «In my opinion you should…» and I’ll be happy. I don’t want to hear war stories, I don’t want to hear the hippie-​crunchy version, and, take note here because this is important, I. Don’t. Want. To. Hear. How. You. Normally. Wouldn’t. Prescribe. This. But…
Just frikkin’ prescribe it and if it doesn’t work bounce it over to a specialist. My baby had ear infections for a year. First time, a round of antibiotics. Yeah, those suck. Second round of antibiotics, well… uh…okay. THIRD ROUND OF ANTIBIOTICS: GIVE US A REFERRAL TO A SPECIALIST, CAUSE THE DAMN THINGS AREN’T WORKING. By the fourth (or was it the fifth?) round it was clear that he needed to get his miniature butt in to a specialist. At least to the doctor it was (I was all for it the third go-​round). And I’m pretty sure it was Dr. De Pala who made the referral because by that time I was over it.
Now Dr. Lundergan is moving. She told my wife she is keeping her office manager and a couple of staffers, so now we touch on the staffing issues in my wife’s thoughts below.
Dr. Lundergan gets four stars. The staff gets negative two. Hence: Two Stars.
My Wife’s (incredibly valid, not to mention supported by other reviews for Dr. De Pala’s office here on Unilocal) Argument:
FIRE THE ENTIRE STAFF. EVERYONE. EVEN THE CLEANING PERSON WHO WE’VE NEVER MET BECAUSE THEY ARE GUILTY BY ASSOCIATION. ALL OF THEM.
We are so sick of showing up on time for a 9:45 AM appointment, watching other people wander in at 10:20 and get seen before us, and wondering what the heck is going on here. If the short dark-​haired lady is the office manager Faye is harvesting, pffffft. Case closed. Gone. They are rude, they ignore you, they scowl at the world in general, and they clearly don’t belong in a family practice. In fact they belong in an emergency room. A military emergency room. In Afghanistan. I don’t know what it is with these people, but there are plenty of kind folks looking to obtain gainful employment who have a medical background.
My wife is an ER Nurse. After a rough day of dealing with the dregs who wander in off the streets to her (inner-​city) hospital, she has the bedside manner of a brick dropped from three stories up. But on her worst day, she is more pleasant to deal with than this crew on their best. Rude doesn’t begin to describe it. Unprofessional just touches on the matter. Self-​absorbed is sugar-​coating it. Not Worthy of Employment and Subject to Restraining Orders Against Society might pretty much encompass it.
I can deal with the hippy/​crunchy Dr. Lundergan (though I would prefer the professionalism of Dr. De Pala), but I want a straight answer and I want to remove the guess work. She is a pediatrician and a point of contact, so I hope she has no problem referring stuff out to specialists when needed. So it is going to come down to who moves with her and who doesn’t.