UCSF/John Muir vs. Stanford Emeryville
Anyone familiar with these two newish medical care centers in the Berkeley/Emeryville area? After being a Kaiser member for years, I needed to switch, and joined One Medical because I was looking for integrated care. I was disappointed with the difficulty of getting appointments at One Medical, with the hassle of going to lots of different places for x-rays, specialists, etc., and when my 2nd PCP in two years left the practice, I decided to switch. I have Medicare, so I can go pretty much anywhere, and I’m interested in hearing people’s experiences with either of these facilities. How hard is it to get appointments? Are you able to get referrals easily? Is it easy to go from a PCP appointment to get labs or x-rays? How have you felt about the facility as a whole? Do you have a doctor you love and would recommend?
Thanks!
Parent Replies
My primary care physician is now at UCSF/John Muir in Berkeley (office building at 3100 San Pablo Avenue). I just checked, and she is not accepting new patients. She's terrific, which is why it's always difficult to get an appointment with her for something urgent (this was also true at her previous practice, from which I followed her to UCSF/JM). However, there is an Urgent Care facility on the same floor as my doctor's office, and I have always been able to get an appointment to see someone the same or the next day. In fact I was there yesterday (day after Christmas) with a bad cough. The doc I saw diagnosed bronchitis, but because I have a history of cancer, he also ordered a chest x-ray to rule out anything besides bronchitis, which gave me peace of mind.
My husband has Stanford in Emeryville. Mostly it’s been ok but for certain specialists we’ve had to go to Palo Alto, or to negotiate with them for someone in the area. Also his PCP is good but the practice is not well coordinated and another doctor we saw in Emeryville when she wasn’t available seemed pretty clueless.
I wonder if "Stanford" in Emeryville is really affiliated with the real Stanford in Palo Alto other than their accounting/billing system. I know of an independent medical group in Oakland that is now renamed Stanford, yet all the doctors are the same as before for many years. Check their credentials and see if any of them attended Stanford or is in anyway affiliated with Stanford in their actual medical practice.
I think in recent years, Stanford bought out a lot of independent medical groups around the bay area, and thus changed their names.
I don't know if it is the same with UCSF.