Seeking a great pediatrician with a good online portal
Hi, I am sadly losing my Kaiser insurance and have to switch to a PPO. I have a baby who is under 1 and I'm looking for a fantastic pediatrician. My ideal doctor would be female, with a strong educational background, and someone who is truly interested and keeps up to date with the latest medical research. Obviously they gotta love kids and be able to connect with them. I also would appreciate if this doctor had some holistic/integrative leanings. Although I hads some quibbles with Kaiser, overall it was so much easier than having to navigate a PPO. In particular their software portal works incredibly well -- doctors are super responsive, it's easy to upload and access all medical records, it's easy to get my billing info. I find with smaller independent offices, this type of very basic administrative stuff becomes a HUGE pain. (Don't even get my started on filing insurance claims or figuring out what specialist to see and whether they are in-network etc). I'm currently considering going to East Bay Pediatrics... thoughts? Other recommendations?
Parent Replies
Berkeley Pediatric Medical Group (BPMG) on Walnut St.has a portal and good billing/organization. But they do require the standard immunization schedule, I believe, not sure if that is part of what you are looking for.
East bay pediatrics, yes!
Our Dr. is Dr. Sarah Handelsman, but we have dealt with many of them as our kid has grown up (from age 1 to college age now). Absolutely recommend. Wish I could find a doctor as good for myself! We also like Dr. Damon, because we like to ask lots of questions and get detailed answers, but everyone has a different style.
I've been really happy with Berkeley Pediatrics so far. They are part of the UCSF system, so use MyChart for billing, contacting your pediatrician, etc. My baby has been healthy, so we haven't had any experience getting referrals for specialists, but am a huge fan of Dr. Michel. She is very engaging with my daughter, clearly loves children, and seems pretty up to date on the latest research (based on my googling of things, lol).
My husband generally is skeptical of people, and even he likes Dr. Michel, so maybe that's helpful?
My 5 mo sees Dr. Kalar at Berkeley Pediatrics. We are thrilled with the care she has provided our son and have had excellent experiences with other doctors at the practice as well.
Our whole family has used One Medical for years, and my three-year-old has had pediatricians there his whole life. They do a great job with virtual care and I’ve been really happy with the pediatricians as well.
My two daughters (now 20 and 24) highly recommend Dr Petra Landman, Pediatric Medical Group, (510) 204-5600, at 2500 Milvia St, Berkeley. She’s fantastic.
My three kids have been cared for wonderfully by Dr. Julia Damon at East Bay Pediatrics for over 10 years. Their portal is easy and convenient to obtain records; easy to get to their two locations in Berkeley and Orinda. Never had issues with billing or lack of responsiveness.
We are with Berkeley Pediatrics and really like them! They are connected with UCSF, and the my chart portal is easy to use. They have been very responsive with our health questions and convey between regular appointments.
I really like Geri Landman at Sutter Health. I’m not sure about holistic/integrative leanings, but she fits the rest of your description. Our 3-month old son has seen her since birth, and she answers all our questions very quickly and thoroughly, both in person and on the online platform.
We see Sarah Handelsman at East Bay Pediatrics and love her. Our daughter is almost 8 months old and although she wasn’t following her growth curve quite as expected from birth to about 5 months, Dr. Handelsman was always calming and rational, never intervening unless absolutely necessary. Turns out our daughter wasn’t too patient with nursing and her weight turned around with bottle feeding after I went back to work. East Bay Peds is not technologically advanced and their offices are not fancy, but they have been easy to work with and the care is great so far.
I can't speak highly enough of Juliana Damon at East Bay Pediatrics. Our daughter has been in her care for seven years and we have been greatly relieved to have a physician and practice that we trust and find easily accessible.
I have experience with both EB Peds and Kaiser, and I think you will probably be disappointed with EB Peds' online portal, relative to Kaiser. But it does exist, and they have improved a lot over the years. They are definitely the easiest PPO practice I've ever had to deal with (I'm 46 and have been self-insured my entire adult life, so I understand your concerns).
What EB Peds does have is terrific doctors. My kids see Tracy Evans-Ramsey, who is wonderful, caring, and takes her time with the kids. We've also had good experience on sick visits with Dr. Handelsman and Dr. Miller. I think they generally follow the AAP guidelines, so... not sure how into holistic/integrative medicine they are. But call the receptionist and ask if any of the docs are into that... it's a big practice. Good luck!
We have been very happy with Sutter on Milvia
I second the recommendation for Berkeley Pediatrics. Lisa Kalar has been wonderful with my kids (both now young adults still in her care), and we've seen most of the other doctors over the years (inevitably the day a child has an urgent issue and needs to be seen right away, it's on Dr. Kalar's day out of the office) and they were all lovely too. No one there is ever rushing us through an appointment or pushing unwanted antibiotics on us -- quite the opposite. When we were agonizing about putting a child on the intense medication a specialist recommended, Dr. Kalar helped us think it through and supported our decision to try a strict diet regiment first. I really can't recommend her highly enough.
For the administrative side of things, the office has joined the UCSF network so they now use UCSF's online interface through MyChart, which works similarly to what you're describing at Kaiser. Everything is there and accessible, and if you're seeing specialists through UCSF (as we do for one of our children) it all shows up in the same place which is convenient. But even before this change, the office was always responsive and in twenty four years I've never had trouble with records or billing or anything like that, and they only refer us to specialists in our insurance network.
Thank you all so much for all these recs! I got some good leads here and am all set. Thanks to whoever noted about the immunization issue... absolutely DO want immunizations to be required and made sure of that.