Patricia J Galamba, MD

Zero stars. If you need a prescription refilled, it will take multiple calls to their office. No one ever answers the phone. No one returns phone messages. Office is dingy/​dirty.

Even one star is too generous for this clinic. They didn’t file my insurance info correctly for one of the laboratory tests, ended up getting bills for the areas that my insurance already covers. I ask them to fix this problem, never hear any follow up and got another bill from the medical collection agency. Super unprofessional, DO NOT GO HERE.

Had an appointment today showed up the door was locked, I called at least 5 times no one answered… So unprofessional, didn’t go to my appointment and now looking for another doctor.

Do not go to her!
I had a pap and I was told to call to get a result.
They never pick up a phone and I ended up needing to go to a different clinic to re do my pap. But since I already did a pap, the insurance might not cover so the new clinic had to get a result from Dr. Galamba’s office.
They never pick up a phone call or they do not respond!!! to even official clinical request.
I finally got to talk to someone from Dr. Galamba’s answering services. Before I finished the question, because he did not want to deal with hearing my situation for me to explain what I need, he just hang up on me!
I have never seen any medical places as unprofessional as her office. It is amazingly unpleasant experience. Plus she treats you pretty rough, she doesn’t seem to care what the patient’s situation at all. Why is she even working as a doctor if she can’t provide any care? So waste of money for medical bill!
I definitely NOT recommend her to anyone.

If you’re in your 20s and looking for a good doctor, DO NOT go to Dr. Galamba. She is cold and uncommunicative! I cannot believe she is a doctor.

I had Galamba for less than a year when my prior MD left the HMO. The previous posts brought back that creepy sense of deja-​vu. She was indeed brusque and rude, not a businesslike rush but almost a bullying nature that comes from insecurities and incompetence.
I remember coming to an empty waiting area and feeling like I was in isolation. I was let into an exam room about 10 minutes later, and saw the Dr about 10 minutes after that. I went to see her about allergies, and the dust and mountains of paperwork/​charts undoubtedly made it worse. The Allergist she referred me to was equally ineffective but much more pleasant.
I dropped this HMO (through Health Net) and moved to Brown and Toland with much better results and interactions with their excellent doctors and staff.

Dr. Galamba is an extremely informative and knowledgable practitioner. She has an obvious passion for medicine and more importantly she is very empathetic. When I told her about my extreme anxiety and hypochondria around death, she was open and understanding. I did not think she was blunt, rude, or inappropriate at any time. She is honest, funny and after nearly 1 year of not seeing her after my first visit, she had a very sharp memory for who I was and what I did. In my opinion she has a very easy-​going personality and trust me, due to my anxiety, I am not comfortable with just any doctor. She takes you and your health very seriously, maybe some of the previous reviewers are mistaking her no nonsense approach as rude. As for the state of her office, who cares? She isn’t trying to be an interior decorator and she has been in that office since 1986.

I have had Dr. Patricia Galamba as my primary care doctor for a few years now, and have been very satisfied. She is one of the very few doctors that actually sits down and spends time with me. (same with my husband…) She is interested, very capable, has a great sense of humor. I would highly recommend her to anyone.

Reading the one-​star reviews of Dr. Galamba and LOLing at how similar their experiences were to mine … the rude receptionist, the locked door, the filthy, cluttered office. I saw her for a few months about 5 years ago and I can laugh about it now but at the time it was pretty traumatizing.

I’ve been a patient of Dr. Galamba’s for over 15 years.
For starters — your health is something that you have to put time and effort into.
Dr. Galamba can’t do that for you.
You might have to take a few days off from work — or visit a hospital — or fast for a day before getting a blood test.
So if you don’t have the time or energy to invest in your health — you can’t blame Dr. Galamba for that.
You can’t blame her if you’re not getting better if you’re not following through on a plan.
That said…
Dr. Galamba commits to helping you with your program to the extent that you are interested in getting healthier.
In my case I mostly wanted to work on my skin. She had ideas on what to prescribe and she was open to special requests.
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She is probably more reluctant than other physicians to prescribe antibiotics.
There is a rule with her — she doesn’t like to prescribe antibiotics for a flu on the first visit.
She’d prefer to let you body work on your flu for a while.
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If you make an appointment with her she will spend an entire 30 minutes with you. (That in itself is worth several stars.)
She’ll ask you lots of questions and set out to get a grip on the big picture.
She is easy to talk to and is knowledgeable about most drugs and what to expect if you take them.
(For example she had no qualms about my experimenting with Viagra — which later I decided I didn’t like. Still I’m glad she was fine with that.)
Dr. Galamba will go beyond what your HMO will pay for if you are willing to spend money out of pocket.
So if you have extra cash to invest in your health and know how to spend it she’ll help you with your program.
Her prices are very reasonable.
Also, if doctor-​patient confidentiality is a concern to you she’s great.
It’s not a concern to me — but the fact that she is concerned about it makes me trust her.
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One thing Galamba and I have worked on — my plan so to speak — is a custom thing not paid for by my HMO — is vaccinations. I’m immunized for Hep-​A, Hep-​B, Hep-​C, Shingles and Tetanus. I’m delighted that Dr. Galamba was there for me for that. It isn’t that I’ll ever need it — but my sense is that when technology is there and you can take advantage of it — do it.

Dr. Galamba saved my husband’s life.
After 3 weeks of dealing with a skin infection in his face and 5 visits to other doctors, Dr. Galamba diagnosed his skin infection as the SuperBug (MRSA) and gave him the proper nuclear blast of antibiotics to beat the infection. Prior to his visit to Dr. G, he had seen 2 doctors twice (a different GP and ENT), had been prescribed 2 courses of antibiotics (Z-​packs) and had a visit to the emergency room before his infection was properly diagnosed by Dr. Galamba. The emergency room Dr. gave him antibiotics for skin infections and took a culture, but my husband never got the results back. He seemed to get better after the emergency room visit, but 2 weeks later the infection came back with a vengence.
That’s when I convinced him to see my GP, Dr. Galamba (Dr. Number 4 in this saga). After listening to his history (NOTE: Dr. Galamba is a great listerner.), she told him that it sounded like the superbug. We finally had a diagnosis and a course of action. She took a culture, started him on super-​powerful antibiotics, and called a couple days later to confirm the culture results. The infection was close to his sinuses… which are close to the brain. He was very sick man until he saw Dr. Galamba.
Now Dr. Galamba is his GP too.

Dr. Patricia Galamba is not only a fine physician, she is a well respected member of the medical community and is well thought of by her collegues. I would recommend her without a moment of hesitation. If 6 stars were a choice, I’d give them to Dr. Galamba.

Yes, it’s true that I highly suspect her receptionist goes home and smokes and/​or shoots something illegal. She just has that look about her. Nonetheless, she’s competent. As for the doctor, Dr. Galamba has a really professional demeaner. She’s always patient and respectful of my concerns, no matter how silly they might seem. I had a weird period where I was having dizzy spells several times a day, and I went to her. We ran all kinds of tests, and they all came up healthy. Eventually it went away on its own, but I appreciated that Dr. Galamba never implied that I’m a hypochondriac. All my other visits with her have been positive, as well.

I have been seeing Dr. Galamba for many years. One time when I had not made an appointment for over a year, she was concerned enough about me to call me up and ask me how I was doing. I changed jobs and was covered by Kaiser, so didn’t see her for 5+ years, and was so happy when I changed jobs again and had the coverage that allowed me to go back. I commute from the East Bay to see her. I like her calm personality and willingness to listen. She also helped me immensely with a referral and the HMO paperwork. She is very knowledgeable about what to put on the referral form so you don’t have to go through billing hell.

This was my first visit and after reading Unilocal reviews I was nervous. As I was walking down Hyde, I was imagining that as I approached 909 I was gonna see an old building with a falling apart door, me waiting outside for a while, finally going into a dirty old office with a smelly dog…
Instead… what greets me is a fancy building with lots of doctors offices right across from St. Francis hospital… It felt like I was going to be taken care of… you get into the elevator to the fourth floor… Yeah this floor is quite dated and as you approach Dr. Galamba’s office, you just know that this office has been around for a while. The assistant greeted me, she was nice, quick. The office was organized, clean (don’t confuse old with dirty please!) and full of paintings, magazines and toys. I didn’t see a dog.
When I met Dr. Galamba, she was nice, helpful and most importantly «not» one of those doctors who are insurance angels. These insurance protecting doctors make your worries go away with words since the insurance company does not want them to suggest extra optional treatments to save costs. Dr. Galamba wrote an x-​ray prescription that was really optional just to make my worries go away. She was to the point, no fluff.
I was very pleased and will go there again.

I also had a weird Dr. Galamba experience. I went to her office and tried to open the door. It was locked. I was a bit perplexed, so I knocked, gently (there is no sign to tell you what to do or if you are in the right place) and then sat down. I had a short conversation with the woman next to me about whether or not this was Dr. Galamba’s office. She agreed that it was, and that it was weird to lock the outer door.
Finally, someone else walked out and I stood up to go in. The receptionist said «oh, I didn’t know you were out there.»
I said «I knocked, but maybe you didn’t hear me. Why is the door locked?»
She said «oh, we don’t want sick people waiting in here.»
The office doesn’t look as if it is cleaned all that often (there are hairs on the floor and it’s kind of dusty — more dust that you would normally see in a medical services office, that’s for sure) so I guess that’s why they don’t want sick people in there. But I couldn’t help thinking «you are in the wrong business if you don’t want sick people waiting in your outer office.»
I had an ear ache and the doctor came in to see me. She prescribed some medication and then we proceeded to talk about my general health. «How much do you weigh?» she narrowed her eyes at me suspicious.
I told her, and then I told her that I was running about 10 lbs over my normal weight. She did some little tricky trick where she kicked the scale out from under her chair and said «well, you look like you weigh more than that — let’s let the scale have it’s say.»
I had just weighed myself that morning, so I had no problems with getting on dirty snotty fat lady’s scale (and she really shouldn’t be commenting about other people’s weight if you ask me), and what does it say??? My my, exactly what I said I weighed even though I am FULLY DRESSED with SHOES ON.
I don’t mind quirks. I’m quirky. But rudeness and locking your office door? That’s just too shady. I have a MUCH better doctor now, a very nice and sensitive lady with a clean office. CLEAN. NO HAIR. And they let you wait in the waiting room — quite a treat.
I’m glad that some people are happy with Dr. Galamba, but once was more than enough for me.
And Doctor, if you’re reading this, please clean your office. It’s really disgusting.

The best Doctor I have ever had —
*She referred me when I needed a referral (which if you have HMO is GREAT!).
*I was able to get an appointment within 2 weeks.
*She explained everything and gave me the most complete physical I have ever received.
*Plus, she really seems to care about your concerns, even when they are probably quite minimal (e.g., «sometimes my knee kinda hurts, what should I do?»), there is something very maternal about her demeanor, which I liked.
BTW, anyone who thinks they can just «get an appointment» stat with a Doctor is out of their minds. A good Doctor will be booked. A good Doctor will probably have other patients with pressing issues. That said, take care of yourself and should you need a Doc., Galamba is the
.

I picked Dr. Galamba for my doctor because of her proximity to my apartment. Only later did I think to look her up on Unilocal and I was shocked by the split in reviews. Needless to say, I was a bit apprehensive to go see her when it was time for my annual exam (WHICH I HAD BEEN AVOIDING FOR 5 YEARS).
Trust me, I was a complete doctor-​phobe.
Well, not anymore. I found Dr. Galamba to be simply wonderful.
She listened to me with care, she was gentle and professional, her front desk staff were attentive and friendly.
I feel like people on here have gotten too caught up with the trivial surface of things (like the fact that her waiting room is small, and she socializes with her patients and staff).
The facts: she is a competent doctor, she made me feel comfortable, and I will not be afraid to go see her again and again in the future.

I visited her in June ’06. She diagnosed correctly and prescribed antibiotics. So that was fine but frankly speaking, so would a first-​year nurse do.
However, DIRTY DIRTY place. They should send the restaurant inspectors after her :)
And be careful of Woof — he might bight if you don’t agree with the doctor!
Finally, it’s fricking cold.

As someone who has been on this site for 18 months, with more than 120 reviews, I felt the need to chime in on Dr. Galumba. I’d actually forgotten about her until I saw a review when I logged into Unilocal.Perhaps a more appropriate word choice would be «blocked her out»
When I first moved to San Francisco in ’99, she was my general practioner, selected by her proximity to my home. It was short lived. I found her to be brusque, and she did not recognize my symptoms as asthma and referred me to an allergist. I could not refer her as a doctor.