Uc Davis Department Of Family And Community Medicine's Online Review Report Card

I'm the type that goes to the doctor once a year maybe, because I generally pretty healthy. Every time I come in it's someone new. They are always telling me they are about to retire and won't be there when I come back. These are not old doctors. They look late 20's early 30's. They don't explain my test results. I'm not sure why they have me get labs. In general I assume no news is good news. But then I got sick. Would have been nice to know I was pre-diabetic. I would have made life style changes.

Family practice and pharmacy - if you want really inconsistent care. Come here. They won't even allow me to see a gynecologist because I'm in early menopause. My husband can go in and come out with anything under the sun (medication). If I ask for labs, I get treated like an ahole. Yes, my husband and I have tested this. I came home crying, and he got the prescription. (Non narcotic or habit meds) & (Wildly sexist care) I can only imagine a bunch of old white men behind the curtain handing out viagra to the men and deeming the women irresponsible and hysterical. They dropped the ball on my FMLA during covid... then blamed me. Today, they have such horrifying mixed up information that I worry others might have the same situation with life supporting meds. The pharmacy frequently closes with no notice on non holidays. (Yes, people, I see you), not even a note on the door, and it was not a holiday (last business day before New Year). Seriously, it is not just that they have crappy manner or treat people badly. It's how often I go off and quit meds because of the inconsistencies and then having to explain myself to them and it's hard when they have a pattern of treating women as less-than. Honestly, it is so frustrating to be treated like this in 2024. Get some trauma informed bias training, ffs. They overcharge me constantly. It's exhausting.

Dr. Alem was super attentive, even for an establishing care appointment. She immediately started a care plan for my husband and initiated changes in my care as well. She was super knowledgeable and very detail oriented. I would highly recommend her to all of my friends and family. If you want an inclusive, educated and forward thinking provider, I would choose her. The staff here are exemplary as well :)

This review is specifically for the Family Practice clinic (Primary Care) located on the first floor of the Lawrence Ellison building aka the Ambulatory Care Center (ACC). My experiences with other departments, as limited as they have been, have been better. I've had too many poor experiences here over the past few years that I am finally switching my provider to Mercy which my insurance also covers. Initially I chose UC Davis Medical Group because its proximity to my residence and workplace and that everything was consolidated on one campus. If I needed to visit a specialty clinic, it was right next door. The lab and pharmacy are in the same building. If I ever had to be admitted, it's just a few blocks away. I sacrificed quality for convenience and I know not to do that again anymore. I've more or less visited the ACC family practice clinic once a year since my preventative healthcare is completely covered without copay (including annual physical exams and well women visits). A few times I came in for treatment or bloodwork if I had specific illness or injury. Residents in training (med students) are your provider here, not a licensed doctor. This alone I don't mind as I know they are closely supervised by their attending, but the problem is that residents come and go, so you really have no consistency in care or communication. I've never seen the same provider more than once here. And again, that alone would be fine, if my health issues and past appointments were appropriately and accurately documented for the next provider to go off of. But with no former context, each doctor treats me like a new patient, which is both extremely impersonal (no establishment of relationship or friendliness) and creates lots of room for miscommunication due to lack of context. My breaking point was that for my last two appointments in the past year, I've waited over 50 minutes past my appointment time, each. What's the point of making and waiting for an appointment date then? Each time I have not been given any helpful information from the MOSC other than an offer to reschedule, which is completely useless because they could run behind an hour at that new time too. Such a waste of time. I saw other patients come into the waiting room after I arrived and be seen before me, and leave before me. I've been denied testing that I felt I needed because they wanted another examination of me (which I already had had and paid for). When I went in again, they refused testing even though my insurance would cover it, because it did not seem necessary. I saw a different provider for this issue and was able to get the same exact testing. Additionally I have had multiple instances of my assessments being coded by hospital billers incorrectly because of this lack of proper documentation that I mentioned earlier. But each time I've filed a complaint, I've been told to take it up with my insurance, even though it isn't my insurance's fault for charging me based on the information they were given by my provider. I know insurance is imperfect in this country but the automatic villainization of the insurance company whose hands are tied if the hospital refuses to take accountability for their trivial administrative mistake, is so off-putting to me. And I have great insurance--I can't imagine what patients on more basic plans have to go through if they're seen here. As a healthcare worker who often has to work with my employer's billing department, I know how everything works, and I know this is not the level of patient care that they advertised. I've heard highly of the speciality clinics and have better experiences there, but this primary care provider is not it for me, in the quality of doctors, their punctuality, their billers, and customer service. The only pros of this place: Location (it's a safe campus with free validated parking and a nice cafe within the building). Friendly nurses and PAs (unfriendly and cold schedulers, doctors, and front desk/clerical staff however). Usage of MyChart for messages and to see your results. However I don't think any of these things are enough for me to return They will undoubtedly message me or comment on this review with a copy-and-pasted statement to contact their customer line for feedback on how to improve their service. I've done this dozens of times over the years and not one productive thing has come out of it, so unfortunately I'm not wasting my time giving them my data every again. I am switching to Mercy General for my primary care needs encourage any new and potential patients to do so too, unless you are ok with what I've described above.

Skip this place. Although the medical care was okay, I went for a general check up. They charge $250 for a new patient documentation fee, which no other hospital charges in town (including sitter!). Upon many conversations and attempts with my insurance to have it recorded and removed, they completely refused and sent me to collections. Avoid the new patient fee and see a decent doctor that doesn’t charge a ridiculous amount.

I would NOT recommend you go here. This facility has medical students visit patients, but they bill for their attending or professor. There are also things to know about how this place improperly bills. See below: Strike 1: Common insurance allows for a "preventative wellness visit" annually. This visit is intended to be a standard preventative check up with typical preventative blood work that insurance pays 100%. This facility will charge for this PLUS a "NEW PATIENT ESTABLISHMENT" which is $360. Upon talking to United HC, the facility has the option to select this to make more money, but it's not commonly done. I've never been to a new family practice doctor that charged this. Insurance does not cover the new patient fee because that is NOT preventative. Strike 2: The med student isn't allowed to bill for services, so they bill under their professor, Dr. Joy Melnikow, MD when I in fact saw Kate Richards the resident medical student. If it was a normal visit I would not be so mad, but I NEVER saw Joy- she didn't even pop her head to in pretend like I was seeing her. I saw a nurse and this student, the end. Strike 3: This is the kicker. I asked her for my "normal yearly blood work" which is (as informed by United HC) not the correct terminology if you don't want to be billed a lot of money. You have to use the word "PREVENTATIVE NORMAL BLOOD WORK" or the doctor (med student) has the option to go nuts with your blood test order. In this case, this gal Kate wracked up $1,100 in blood work for things like A1C/Diabetes (I even told her I'm a nutritionist and work out daily). If she would have said, "do you want to be checked for diabetes, your insurance won't cover it" I would have appreciated that, and said definitely not! I know I don't have high glucose or Diabetes! No doctor (I guess which is still true since she's not a doctor) has ever done this to me - charged for all these non preventative health tests. STRIKE 4: this one really makes me mad. She got all these tests ordered and has not provided ANY notes in my patient portal. Basically, I can see the results that I've had to pay $1,100 for, but she hasn't done the courtesy to write the review notes - or Dr. Joy, the doctor I actually paid to see. Never have I had blood work done and not gotten the notes in my portal for what the doctor recommends. What does she expect? That I'll schedule another $350 visit to see her so she can tell me the results? There is no way that visit will be "preventative" so maybe this is the final way this facility steals money from patients. What a shady business, DO NOT GO HERE. I know we are all trying to make money, but they should at least be upfront about their ridiculous fees.

I'm a patient of the Family Practice and I couldn't be happier. The whole team from the front desk, ladies answering the phone, nurses and Doctors they all rock like superstars. I feel like I'm treated like a valued family member every time. It takes a while ( years ) to get a open panel spot but it was worth the wait. I completely trust my entire health to all my Doctors at this place and know they all work as one to improve every patients life that they see. Thank you for the best care I've ever received.

Best hospital ever.

I'm not sure where to start: my horrible experiences elsewhere? My being prepared to wait and being able to entertain myself thanks to the free WiFi? The friendly people everywhere? As a person on the spectrum, going to the doctor (or dentist, etc) can be difficult, and often unnerving, and after reading some other reviews that didn't seem to match with my experiences here at UCD, I thought I'd write what I know. There's so many cool buildings around the UC Davis campus, it's quite overwhelming! I don't know why they charge for parking, especially because they say they validate and then it still costs two dollars, but whatever. You're gonna pay $2 for parking, but they do usually warn you about that before your appointment. There's lots of pokestops if that's your thing. The family practice building itself is HUGE! It's like a mini-hospital itself! (Maybe it is? I don't know). The place is just a LOT bigger than I thought it was going to be. FYI, they use florescents. The place itself was really clean and I didn't feel like I was going to get a staph infection by touching anything- even in the lab where they make you push a button to get a number like at the DMV, but unlike the DMV I wasn't compelled to use hand sanitizer frequently (again, weird given the place, but a testament to their -UC Davis- sanitary standards!). I didn't get to venture anywhere beyond the first floor, so it could be different on other floors, but from the staff to my doctor to the building itself, I'm BEYOND happy to be a patient here!!!

First visit today; staff was friendly and the doctor listened. I think this will be a good fit for my family