Paul H Kim, MD

Would not recommend Dr. Kim, saw him on his weight loss clinic side & was very disappointed. Way to much money, terrible bed side manner, treated his staff terrible. Not willing to treat nor understand my issues.

I suffered a broken toe over a weekend and tried to call Dr. Kim but he was not available. His answering machine directed me to call another doctor that never answered his phone. So I had to wait until Monday to go see him. I kept trying to call his office early to make an appointment but nada. Finally I decided to show up at 9:00 in the morning and his office was still closed. Then he finally showed up a few minutes later and I tried to talk to him. The first thing that he told me when I mention about my injury was that his office doesn’t deal with workers compensation anymore (I am hispanic, so maybe he thought that I didn’t have insurance). Then he went onto question me about what number I called and he took a defensive position when I told him that nobody answered my calls. Then he directed his late employees to referred me somewhere else and walked out of the office. During all the time that I was in his office, not a single moment he showed concern for my injury, nor he seemed to care if I was OK or not. To me his attitude is completely opposite of what I good doctor should be. This guy was my Primary Care Physician and this was my first visit to his office. I had to call my insurance company to get a referral to get treatment. Later on I changed my PCP to a better doctor.

I was referred to Dr. Kim by my holistic doctor Dr. Michael Ruscio to get antibiotics for H. Pylori. Unfortunately I have tried holistic approach but it didn’t work so I had to get very strong antibiotics.
Dr. Kim was very nice and had knowledge about my issue. He took time to explain everything to me and what the treatment plan will be. He even called me to let me know what I’m going to be taking and how it will effect me.
The wait time wasn’t bad. Between 5−10min each time. I was a bit surprised when I got his bill for $ 178 and I thought he is charging way more than regular doctors :-(Or maybe he didn’t take my insurance??? I have to call him to find out why was it so high for regular office visit.

Dr Kim has been a great resource. His approach is different than many other doctors and it is refreshing to meet a practitioner willing to find advanced methods for people who are suffering.
Thank you Dr Kim

Dr. Kim helped my fiancée lose 20 pounds (I don’t even know where it all came from, she looked good but now she looks fantastic!). He was always responsive, and the staff, especially Carima, has been so nice and helpful. Thank you Dr. Kim!

I’ve been one of Dr. Paul Kim’s patients for about 4 years. During that time, I have seen him on 3 occasions, as I primarily prefer to see his Physician’s Assistant Dan Heany. I usually see PA Heany or Dr. Kim in the Pleasant Hill Wellness office, but sometimes I go to their Walnut Creek office.
Each time that I have seen Dr. Kim my patient experience has been either downright unpleasant or best case scenario with him is I have come away feeling dissatisfied with the content of the information I was given about my health or with his poor manner.
Before I go further and say why my experiences with Dr. Kim have been poor, let me first say that the nurses, interns, attendants, and Dan Heany are all quite wonderful! Every time I visit, the nurses and EVEN the INTERN demonstrate professionalism, politeness, prompt service, a caring attitude, and compassion when patients are in distress.
Dr. Kim’s manner, attitude, and comportment stand in stark contrast — in a bad way — to that of the rest of the professionals in his office.
1. Generally speaking, my experience has been that he’s come across as a poor listener. In his initial assessments, he seems to latch on to one or two phrases/​ideas and run with them, but fails to grasp or pay attention to other critical information that a patient might be giving. It’s almost as if he has a short attention span and only pays attention to the info that fits within the first 20 – 30 secs. This is supposed to be a key component of a doctor’s toolkit, in my understanding at least… it speaks to how well they are able to assess your condition. Granted I’ve seen him only 3 times (on purpose!) but each time I’ve come away feeling that he probably missed a good 50%-60% of the relevant information I was giving him. Scary.
2. The thing that bothers me even more, however, is that he comes off as lacking compassion. Even my wife, who is very patient and an emotive person, has commented he doesn’t come across as really caring about me as a patient. For example, I was recently in to see him twice within a three day span because I was experiencing a very high degree of acute, debilitating lower back and flank pain… having conducted tests, we and Dr. kim think this was likely caused by a kidney stone. And, kidney stones are known to cause pain on par with that of broken bones and yes, childbirth. Anyway, upon seeing me in such pain, he made no expression of compassion or care. In fact, his intern and reception waaaay surpassed him in that area! Not only that, but when asked to call in my pain med prescription to a local pharmacy, his response was that he couldn’t have his staff do that because it was after hours/​past 5pm. Mind you, the time was about 5:05pm. He said this, even when he had a patient that was in clear, debilitating pain to the point of having trouble walking! With that attitude, why become a doctor — one who is tasked with giving care to people in need to medical attention– if you aren’t willing to display that you really care about your patients and you aren’t 100% committed to giving them the highest standard of care? To me, that’s kind of like choosing to become a cook when you don’t like cooking or food in general.
Other exhibits of poor behavior include:
3. Clearly more interested in getting you out the door than spending more than 5 – 10 minutes with a patient. Each time I’ve seen him, he has rushed me in/​out as quickly as possible. This after routinely waiting and waiting, sometimes more than 30 – 45 minutes to see him… this last time, he even talked to me with the door open — he was opening the door about to rush out as he was talking to me about my condition. I even had to ask him to close the door as he was clearly still talking about my medical info and didn’t quite have the proper regard for my privacy.
4. Doesn’t brother to explain the medications he recommends, nor why he recommends them, nor what would be the expected positive/​side effects.
5. In my follow up visit (the second one in three days), he concerned himself only with the fact my condition seemed to have resolved itself because the pain went away. I even asked if we shouldn’t be more concerned given the level of pain, the location, and the fact that I have never experienced anything like this before. His response was to say «if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it» and order more tests in 1 – 2 months. My thoughts? In a word — Wow. Not good.
6. Another thing that isn’t so much about Dr. Kim as it is about the facility is: some of the patient waiting rooms have thin walls! The last time I was there (just a few days ago), I could hear very clearly Dr. Kim’s conversation with another patient… including the medical problems that patient was experiencing. Not that I wanted to… but I couldn’t avoid overhearing since the walls were so thin. Who wants others to be listening in on their personal health issues?
So, needless to say, I’d have a new Dr. if it weren’t for the staff and PA.

I went to Dr. Kim for some botox and i loved him! he explained to me everything before hand and i felt very comfortable in this office. His nurses are very supportive and adorable :) Thanks Doc! I will be back and sending others

Bad:
1. Make sure you say that you want an appointment with the doctor and not the physician’s assistant when you call to make your appointment.
2. The physician’s assistant did not evaluate my mother correctly so we had to make more appts with Dr. Kim to correct it all. This resulted in a waste of money on co-​pays, medications that she didn’t need to begin with and lab tests that were useless.
3. I got a bill that was miscalculated.
4. The person at the Billing Dept did not wait to hear my question before she interrupted and gave me an answer.
5. The person I spoke to in the Billing Dept seemed like she wanted to get me off the phone as quickly as possible.
6. After discussing the miscalculated bill, I was told that there was a new balance so I asked for an updated bill to be sent. It was marked as being 30 days past due!!! And it was only 14 days after the first one that received.
7. When calling the Billing Dept and no one answers, the phone just keeps on ringing. You can’t leave a message.
Good:
1. Dr. Kim was pleasant when I called him for the very first time to make the first appt.
2. Dr. Kim returns my calls.
Update 12÷29÷08: I changed my mind; I am subtracting a star.