Bayside Medical Group

My son has been a patient of Dr. Hong since birth. We go to the Oakland office. I’ve never had anything but great experiences with Dr. Hong and all of the staff. She is extremely patient with my questions and always respectful, never condescending. I would recommend her to any parent.

First call to Bayside was far less than impressive. I didn’t even get a chance to see the doctor yet and I already don’t want to deal with this place. The staff told me a few different stories during different calls with a bi*chy attitude.

Do not go to Bayside Medical Group in Alameda. My husband had bloodwork done and he has called several times to obtain his results. He keeps getting the run around and they have not provide him with his records. You all are a horrible organization. You need to give him his results or forfeit the payment to his provider. He has a JOB. So with that said, he does not have the time to keep calling YOU!!! Do you understand??? Also, my husband has a problem with his billing. He came for a physical and these people assigned the incorrect code. As stated before, we call Bayside and were told the Dr. will call him. She has not. So our question is, «Does she exist?» We see her name on your website. They claim they don’t have records or calls from him. Well Bayside we have phone records of us calling you and mins document for each call?

The medical staff here are fine, but the administration is atrocious. Trying to get a referral is the most frustrating experience one could ever imagine. Even with a PPO plan referrals are needed for any specialist my family has tried to see. After requesting a referral we went through a two month long process of frustration, with specialists never receiving said referral and getting the run around from the Alameda office staff. I have no idea why something so simple is made 100% impossible by the staff here. If you find yourself in the same situation, demand a written referral and tell them you will come by in person to pick it up. The staff simply cannot be trusted to complete this basic process on their own.

My daughter sees Dr. Tina Hong. She is awesome. She takes time to explain everything and makes sure all questions are answered. I never felt rushed.

It seems most people review when they have a problem so I wanted to add a positive. My daughter has an irrational fear of shots. I brought her in a couple weeks ago for the third in a series and she wasn’t having it. The male PA or nurse graciously stepped out to give her a few minutes. Twice. When that wasn’t working out he brought in a female nurse/​PA, presumably because we were going to have to hold her and he knew it was best to have a female presence for that. Having her sit on my lap and with the female nurse helping hold down her arms – after my warning that the kid knows kung fu – the shot itself was done in 10 seconds max. Very accommodating staff.

It’s practically impossible to get on the phone with a doctor and get a referral. I called about 4 times during this month left messages and in the third time someone actually answered and said a doctor will call me back. But still never heard back.
I’m switching to a new doctor beginning of the month cause I had the worst experience with this office.

I will never bring my kids back to this Bayside office. Their staff is not only rude and unprofessional but they are very impersonal and don’t seem very «kid friendly».
1.) my first experience was with Dr. Miller (I believe that was her name) my 4 year old son went in for a physical and I walked out feeling like I was attending a parenting class. The actual exam consisted of her feeling his abdomen and looking at his penis and ears. The other 20 min or son consisted of her telling me how «the people» she usually deals with put their kids to bed by 730pm (my son usually goes down by 830ish) and how I need to monitor his naps at school. Secondly she asked him if he had chores. Apparently because putting away his toys when he’s done playing with them isn’t enough responsibility for a 4yr old. «Her» kids were baking bread at 7. That’s fine and dandy but being a single mother raising two kids in «MY» world… I don’t bake bread from scratch and getting my kids to bed by 730 when I don’t get home until 630 is virtually impossible. I would’ve liked her to focus more on his development and health rather than what she feels I should be doing as a parent.
2.) My daughter was diagnosed with ADD recently and those appointments are hard to come by since there is only one doctor that specializes in behavioral health. I scheduled her appointment 3 weeks in advance and unfortunately my job didn’t grant my request off to take her so I did what any parent would do. I called in sick. My daughter is staying with her grandparents for the summer and they live an hour away. I picked up my daughter at 730am to make it to her appointment at 9. I get a call at 8:22am from Cathleen saying that the dr was running late and they wanted to reschedule my appt. for another day or tomorrow. WHAT! Um. No. I told her how I called into work and my daughter is here now she stated she could ask her supervisor to see if I could still be seen and my visit would just be cut short. I don’t know what training this medical assistant got but that’s not what you say to your patients. Why should MY appointment be cut short because he doctor is late?
I am removing my children from this office and it’s SAD! I should’ve kept them at Bayside Pinole!!!

I’ve been bringing both my kids and my wife come here. Dr Stevens is an awesome pediatrician for the kids and dr eischel is also a very good physician for adults. Every time I come it’s been smooth and I’ve never had any issues with their level of care nor their service. Front desk is always cheerful and kind. I’m glad they went from bayside to stanford now and hey have a ehr instead of paper files.
Overall I’d recommend these two doctors to anyone and this place is nearby and gives great care.

My doctor, Sarah Pontell has been very helpful since I’ve been seeing her. However, the staff here is incompetent and rude. Whoever answers the phone 1) sucks at it because it usually takes 20 calls before one even gets picked up. 2) I finally got a hold of someone, and he rudely hung up on me when I wasn’t even finished.

Ugh. I have called and left 3 messages to try to make an appointment. 7 days has gone by with NO return phone call. How do they stay in business if they don’t even return calls?

I hate to write this but the service here has declined in a major way since the Stanford acquisition.
First – good luck getting someone to answer the phone. Once, I left messages for a week and finally had to walk in to make an appointment. The second time, I couldn’t get through, and the doc had called in a prescription to the wrong pharmacy (in San Francisco!) so my kid couldn’t get his medication when he needed it. I finally had to call the Oakland office who was kind enough to call the prescription into the right pharmacy. After I got it resolved, someone from this office called me back (72 hours after the appointment and 48 hours after my first message).
Mind you, my son is chronically ill and immune suppressed so delays like this could put him at real risk. Needless to say, I spoke to the office manager who did exactly nothing. Most recently, I tried to get a flu shot for my daughter & was told that they had none. They were out for over 6 weeks and had no idea when they would be coming. I finally called the Oakland office, who did have shots & was happy to see my daughter the next day. I was shocked that the Alameda office didn’t refer us to Oakland, especially because it is in my son’s medical best interest that our whole family is vaccinated (and they know that). Plus, no one ever takes responsibility for the poor customer service – it’s always «shortage of phone lines» or «short staffed». Well, if you can’t answer your patients calls, they you’re probably not going to have much of a practice. Business 101.
Lastly, I really like Dr. Stephens & Dr. Eichel but Dr. Hong, not so much. There have been at least a few times where she’s seen my son (the one with the medical issues) and has dismissed my concerns OR told me something that was flat out wrong. Now, I’m not a physician but I have been with my son since the day he was born… I have been to every appointment and have seen every complication that he’s had. I KNOW MY KID and when I tell you something because I have experienced it with him before, it’s not acceptable for the doctor to dismiss it and say it’s not possible. The last instance, she didn’t want to treat the condition (cellulitis) because she thought it was «probably allergies» and I had to tell her I wasn’t willing to play Russian Roulette with my son’s health before she gave him the prescription he needed. What do you know, the problem cleared up with antibiotics (and if it was allergies, antibiotics would have done nothing). The combination of factors has made going to this office completely undesirable, even if the medical staff are mostly great (which they are).
Try the Oakland office – they are much better, in my experience.

Update #1:
After posting my negative review last week, I was contacted by Bayside Medical Group. They are now putting forth a good faith effort to resolve the issues with both follow up and billing. It’s unfortunate that it took a bad review to get their attention, but I do appreciate the effort they are making. Plus, my usual PA will be back in the office for my December appointment, so I’m feeling hopeful for better times ahead with this office.

Avoid this place like the plague. This office is horrible came at 240 for a well baby, 413 still here. He completely skipped over my kids who has been here for over an hour to help someone white who came in after me. I have been coming here with both my kids for over 7 years and I will not be coming back. I am or aged at the blatant racist behavior. The one star is for the nurses stuck working for the irrisponsible company.

Wow, have their services declined since being purchased by Stanford Children’s Health. Not only that, front desk staff is rude and too lazy to correctly input patient/​billing information with insurance card in hand.
Our billing information was so screwed up that my insurer won’t pay yet their billing dept claims it’s been sent thru (invoice shows 0.00 from Insurance side). BTW, a 8 min visit to listen to coughing child’s lungs was $ 203!!! No meds/​no prescriptions.
Interestingly when calling their billing dept a second time with insurer rep on the phone, they get the same shove-​off too! SO unprofessional that even the Blue Shield rep was ticked off, asking them to resubmit their invoice with correct data to BlueSh.
I don’t care if they have just received a new EMR system (actually that was a month ago), it can’t be that you can’t find my child’s records who has been coming to you for years! They are so screwed up right now, best to avoid them or take meticulously notes esp. you, young parents with immunization records.
Additionally, when calling their office number, I’ve now experienced twice that the phone rings for 1:55 seconds to then be disconnected.
I ask you: Is that the kind of physician office you want as your first point of medical contact when your kid is actually sick?! I

I’ve been coming to Bayside for over 7 years now. You will meet good people here and not so good people. All of the doctors I’ve seen have been excellent. The LVNs and other assistants — not so much. Some of the receptionists are extremely helpful. Others have attitude and are rude, even when it’s clearly their fault. If you care enough, read on:
I filled out all the documents at Bayside and gave them all contact information to send my medical records to another hospital. They took 3 weeks to do nothing. I called the recipient hospital multiple times and they never received anything. I called Bayside only to get the message that they are closed and would open at 2 PM. Keep in mind I called at 2:10, then 2:20, then 2:30. It’s wonderfully annoying to hear their opening at 2 PM message at 2:30.
Finally, I get through at 2:40. The receptionist proceeds to put my on hold for 20 minutes. Finally, someone else gets on the line and puts me on hold for another 20 minutes. It took 40 minutes for someone to tell me they lost all my documentation for the transfer of records. Then, they ask me the recipient information again, even though I already gave it to them. Then, the person has the nerve to get attitude with me even though I remained calm and friendly despite their unprofessional actions.
I understand they’re going through a transition right now but when you’re in healthcare, there are no excuses. You are held at a higher standard. I’m thankful I can go to another place for my health.

Sad that I’m making this review, Welp here it goes.
Let’s start with the positive, Dr. Stevens is wonderful. Bedside manner is amazing and knowledge.
Yet, I have to say the negative. Their staff is really unprofessional and rude. I first went there and they were great but when it started to come to immuzations for my daughter that’s when this place became a problem.
I scheduled an appointment for the first 2 month shots. Which is 4 shots and liquid the baby must drink. First made an appointment for 11am, when I arrived they said my appointment was at 10am. I said okay and rescheduled. Went home and on my appointment card it said 11am.
Next appointment I came in 2 weeks later I came in and they weighed her then the doctor said our refrigerator broke. So I came in the next day and they said they ran out of shots and referred me to their oakland office. I went to oakland and recieved her shots a week later.
Now, I called today to make an appointment for shots and a checkup 2 months later and they said «We haven’t recieved shots for your insurance» (my daughter has medical). So basically they didn’t run out of shots or their refrigerator broke. They just didn’t order shots for medical when they accept medical patients.
Now, they wasted my work days, money, and time. I don’t think I’ll be returning. Sad because the doctor is amazing it’s just the staff is BS!

I have been to this practice twice since my insurance changed and my amazing old doctor retired. The first time, after waiting about an hour, I was seen by a Physician’s assistant named Pontell, who told me that she could not recommend an OB/​GYN, because that was a «Specialist,» and Bayside does not like to refer out to specialists, especially if you — like me, have an hmo. I called my HMO later, and confirmed that it is ILLEGAL not to let women self-​refer to an OB/​Gyn. The assistant was so combative during the entire exam that I knew I never wanted to deal with her again. Aren’t healthcare providers supposed to be welcoming and kind? She also gave me some strange, consistently combative advice about ingrown toenails and allergy shots that the «Specialists» I was ultimately allowed to see (after she admitted she couldn’t help me and begrudgingly made the referrals) cocked their eyebrows at.
I also gave Bayside all my old medical records, which they promptly lost for several weeks. Only after calling numerous times did the file reappear. After that I still had to call and remind them to fax my medical history to the requested «Specialists.»
The second time I went to Bayside, I asked for a real doctor. I was told I had an appointment with «Dr. Ivy.» I had no way to research this doctor ahead of time, because Ivy was her first name. How unprofessional. After waiting an hour, again, Dr. Ivy Lorilla came in. She was nice, but so timid that I didn’t end up with any real medical advice to walk away with. I have some kind of metabolism issue that I am no closer to figuring out, and I feel it may take until open enrollment time, when I can find a new Family Practice to dig beneath the surface.
Until then, Bayside is not horrible, but leaves much to be desired.

After more than two years, I returned for a routine immunization that was covered by my insurance. The doctor that mis-​prescribed an anti fungal (after talking me down/​refusing to issue a referral to a dematologist) is still there, but the staff has improved dramatically. I was seen by Dr. Pontell and had a great experience. I was just in for a shot but, like Dr. Daly, she took note of my overall health and recommended a few things to check into considering my history, age and the fact that I haven’t had a general physical in years. (I feel okay, but hey, if things can be better I’m all for it!) Of course, I always have an annual with my gyno but she made me aware that they can now do routine gyn exams and paps in office! This is something to consider since they are so close to home and way more convenient than pill hill.
Overall, everyone who took care of me was prompt, considerate and knowledgeable. I didn’t have anything weird going on or need special attention but they made me feel cared for as a patient and appreciated as a client.

I recently saw Sarah at Bayside Medical Group. Normally I see Sabra, but she was not in that day.
Sarah was awesome. She was (obviously) really well-​informed, great sense of humor, and gave me some great practical advice on supplements, diet/​lifestyle, etc. so that I would lessen the likelihood of a recurrence of the same issue that I had come in with. Like Sabra, Sarah really took her time with me and I left feeling really good about the whole experience.
Bottom line: Nothing but great experiences here, and the fact that they are on the same block as LabCorp makes getting bloodwork done a breeze (and then you can head over to Tuttimelon and reward yourself for being brave).