changes at Kiwi Pediatrics
We are longtime patients at Kiwi Pediatrics, specifically with Dr. Elizabeth Salsburg. Today I was scheduling an appointment and learned that the Albany location on San Pablo has closed, and also Dr. Salsburg is no longer listed as a provider at Kiwi Pediatric's remaining location on Alcatraz.
I am a bit surprised that we did not get any communication from them about either of these changes. I admit I don't know how recent they are. In my experience when a physician is leaving a practice for whatever reason I have received a letter informing me of the change. Is this an indicator of other issues at the practice? I'm not sure what to make of this.
If Dr. Salsburg has moved to a different practice I'd like to find that out, but my intial searching has not turned up anything.
Does anyone know what's going on?
Parent Replies
Hello!
My family has not been in Kiwi Peds care for over a decade, but I received an email that the building was being sold or had been sold (can’t recall) and they were consolidating into the other office. There was no mention of Staff changes.
May I suggest that you call the office and inquire?
The new landlord is doing renovations at the building so they had to move out.
Yes! We were happy patients of Dr Salsburg at Kiwi as well and we have followed her to her new practice at Hilltop Pediatrics in Richmond- https://hilltop-pediatrics.ubcp.org. We just had a new baby so have had several appointments with her at new clinic already and everything seems very well organized.Its nice as well that Hilltop uses the My Health Online app so I can send messages to Dr Salsburg now through that, which I was already using for my own doctors so it’s convenient.
I heard, but not firsthand, that Dr. Salsburg left Kiwi at least partly because of frustration with their electronic medical records system. We’ve had good experiences with other doctors at Kiwi as well so I also thought staying at Kiwi would have been a good option, but the Alcatraz location isn’t as convenient for us.
Forgot to add: Dr Salsburg left Kiwi 5/31/24 and I also only found that out when scheduling an appointment for my daughter- agree that it is unfortunate that they didn’t communicate more proactively.
Dr. Salsburg is working at Hilltop Pediatrics:
2970 Hilltop Mall Rd #305, Richmond
(510) 222-5437
Yes, Dr. Salsburg moved to a different practice a few months ago - she was our son's regular pediatrician for his first year. She told us she was leaving at his last appointment with him. I think she said wanted to transition away from the "running a small business" aspects of her role at Kiwi. (I do not know where she practices now.) We have been seeing Dr. Winokur at Kiwi since then and have been happy with the new arrangement.
Not sure why they closed the San Pablo office - I guess to cut down on costs? It coincided with a big internal remodel of the Alcatraz office, so I guess they wanted to reinvest in that one so they can stay there awhile.
I'm also a bit surprised that these changes were not better noticed, but I wouldn't read anything nefarious into it.
We were also long term patients of Dr. Salsburg's and I happened to message her about something and found out she was leaving but just a couple of days before she left (maybe around Aug 30th?). She wanted to step out of the "running a business" side of practice (is what she told me). I believe she went somewhere in Contra Costa County, but if you call Kiwi I'm sure they'll tell you and you can absolutely go with her (they actually offered me that when I called recently to reschedule our most recent apt). The closing of the Albany office was also super recent, in the past few weeks. My sense of why they didn't communicate any of these changes to their clients is just about lack of admin capacity--they're a small practice, with some very highly experienced (but heading into retirement age) practitioners, and almost no admin support of any kind. Over the years we've seen many of the other practitioners there and I've always liked them and felt we received great care.
We transferred care to Dr. Salsburg who is now seeing patients at Hilltop Pediatrics in Richmond (by Walmart).