Alejandro Soffici's Online Review Report Card

15 years ago I was pregnant with my 3rd son, I decided to bring my then 7 and 5 year old to the ultrasound of my 3rd baby.  I was almost 6 months pregnant.  Dr. Soffici was surprised at my age, and after seeing that my baby had thickness of the neck and a couple of holes in his heart he suggested an amnio as he was certain my baby would have down syndrome,  In front of my 7 and 5 year old sons, he told us that the baby would be ill its entire life, maybe not even live after birth, would be institutionalized, if the baby lived he would be in and out of the hospital...he went on and on about his discriminating opinionated negativities of down syndrome.  He suggested that we get an amnio so we "could decide" as we had very little time left to "decide".  He didn't say the word terminate or abort, but my 7 year old knew after all the negative comments Dr,. Soffici made meant...My 7 year old took me aside after the apointment and said, I don't know what down syndrome is Mommy, but what thing i do know, "this baby isn't going back".  My baby was born with down syndrome, he is 15 years old, the healthiest in our family, he is smart, funny, talented...and so much more.  Dr. Soffici should lose his license for his discriminating comments he made and I am sure sways hundreds if not thousands of women pregnant with down syndrome babies to abort.  Not okay.

Beyond bad. I don't even know where to start. Stay away from this place. First of all Bonnie is beyond unprofessional. I am 34 years old and she spent the entire ultra sound (our first ever) scolding me for waiting so long to have kids like it was something I evilly planned. She also talked the entire rest of the time about all the issues that my body would have (not could have) since I am "geriatric." Never said a word about our baby who was so cute on the screen. Just talked the whole time about the fears I should be having. Also, the bill for our 3 month ultrasound was $2000!!! And the 20 week I hear is $5000. This is an outrage. Spare yourself. Also the front desk staff won't tell you what anything costs and acts like you are ridiculous for even asking and said to call my insurance even when I asked for a cash rate. A great alternative is Jadali Daryoush MD in Ventura. I went to him for my second and the experience was night and day.

Seriously the BEST doctor around. I trust him 100% & he is very knowledgeable and compassionate towards his patients. Wait times for appointments can be longer, but I’d rather wait to see him than anyone else! Hands down the best doctor I’ve ever seen.

Dr. Soffici is an amazing physician, extremely knowledgeable and experienced, takes the necessary time to explain very complex issues with us every time we are there. We are lucky to have him in Santa Barbara!

Amazing doctor. I was a high risk pregnancy and older (43). Dr Soffici was kind, knowledgeable and everything you'd want.

I haven't received the bill yet but we had a great experience in office. We had a 6pm appointment, and we were seen promptly by a friendly nurse first. Dr. Soffici was kind and thoughtful and explained everything that would go on, took time to answer all our questions. We left reassured to be in his hands.

Every appointment he is late, last time I waited for two And a half hours.

My experience with Dr. Soffici's office was wonderful! The office staff are professional, very friendly and mindful of your privacy. They offer evening appointments which is perfect for working individuals (both my husband and I were able to go the appointment without having to take time off work). Dr. Soffici has impeccable bedside manner, explains everything thoroughly and answers all your questions. I would definitely recommend this doctor!!!

I had a terrible experience with Soffici. Actually, many bad experiences as I was forced to go to him a total of 5 times (3 of them being completely unnecessary, but I found out later he was affiliated with the provider that referred me to him - totally unethical). But, besides being unethical, my biggest complaint is the way he approached my pregnancy specifically. I felt bullied, threatened, and scared after my final appointment with him. He tried to scare me into having an unnecessary c-section. I had a completely healthy pregnancy. I'm young and really healthy/athletic. The only "issue" was that my baby "might" be big. He told me that if I didn't have a c-section, I had a 1 in 100 chance of something going seriously wrong with the delivery of my baby, including that the baby could be disabled for life. He said that if I tried having my baby naturally, and something went wrong, I would have to live with myself for the rest of my life. When I said I trusted in nature, he told me that "mother nature is trying to kill us". Long story short, I didn't take his advice and I had my (very BIG!) baby naturally. Everything went perfectly fine and I have a beautiful healthy baby.Soffici prays on vulnerable pregnant women that are scared. He knows they trust him because he's a doctor, and he takes advantage of that. He wants to give c-sections because they are easier for him (he doesn't have to get up in the middle of the night) and he gets paid an exorbitant amount of money for performing them. As the other reviews say, he's always very late and only spends 5 minutes in the room with you. But, these were minor complaints compared to how he treated me . I feel bad for the women that are uninformed and trust anything he says, because he does NOT have your best interest at heart. He has his own interests at heart (#1 being $$$). I know he is the only option in town, but please go to someone out of town. It's worth it to drive a little bit and have an honest doc with integrity. I wish someone had told me this before my pregnancy.

My enormous complaint is that the front desk staff changed my appointment day & time without asking or notifying me. I called the office the day of my appointment, while I was already in the car, to tell them that my husband was meeting me there, and was told that I had no appointment for that day. I had already coordinated with my husband to drive 35 mins to meet me there. This was for an ultrasound to find out the sex of our baby. I couldn't believe it when the receptionist told me the day & time they had me scheduled for. There was no way in heck that I would have booked an appointment at that time because my boss would not have let me leave work at that time! I worked in a medical office as well. I showed up at Dr. Soffici's hoping there was some sort of mistake or that they could work me in. The girl had no apologies and basically said I could wait if I wanted but that the Dr. was already running late & wasn't even in the office. I was so irritated that there was a woman sitting in the lobby with my appointment time which I made first and they acknowledged that (because their computer systems keeps track of when the appts are made) but for whatever reason they changed my appt. and I was the one getting screwed. They did not honor my appt. and turned me away. After crying to the office manager how their staff was 1)wrong, 2) unapologetic and 3) not offering to do anything satisfactory to fix the problem, she offered for me to come back at the end of the day to have the U/S done. So I went back after work, my husband drove another 35 mins (one way) to meet me, and I got a comment from the Dr. about being rude to their receptionist. But I was armed with even more information about their poor staff and customer service - the same exact thing had happened to a co-worker of mine at Dr. Soffici's office! My co-worker was a doctor herself and would have never booked an appt. at the time Dr. Soffici's office said she did. She demanded to be seen and her U/S done at the time she arrived in their office, which fortunately they did. I don't know what the receptionists there are doing but I know I won't be going there again to get treated that way!