Obstetrics & Gynecology: Mountain View Center: Palo Alto Medical Foundation

Sep 2024

PALO ALTO MEDICAL FOUNDATION, MOUNTAIN VIEW Two years ago, I jumped out of bed in the morning full of energy, seriously overstretching my right thigh muscles and as I found out later, damaged the subcutaneous nerve. My young primary care physician Dr. Tran incorrectly diagnosed me with chronic back pain and sciatica without ever touching me. A nurse and physicians from Physiatry (PAMF Mountain View), PA Queiros, Dr. Shah who was supposed to be treating me and Dr. Perkash who I had asked for a second opnion, copied that. Dr. Shah even changed his diagnoses on Ssutter Health PROGRESS REPORTS for three visits, while he continued ordering MRIs and X-rays of my lumbar spine. Dr. Shah belittled me on Sutter Health. I had to wait a whole year, before Dr. Ding my new primary care physician ordered the MRI that I had wanted at the beginning of the treatment. Even after a year, it confirmed that I had overstretched my right thigh muscles. During the first year I went to Urgent Care four times because of pain. I fought several MRIS and X-rays of my lumbar spine without success. During the last one I was forced on the X-ray table by three technicians even though it caused me pain. My lumbar spine is already documented. It has never given me problems and I did not fall, so it did not change. Now, I can no longer walk the (2 to 4) miles/day, that I was able to right after the incident while I was unable to do any exercises because of the damaged subcutaneous nerve. My health has declined, my balance has gone down, my depression has increased and so has the medication. All that because a young Sutter Health PAMF MV physician entered her diagnosis into my health history and nobody can change that. PATIENTS HAVE NO RIGHTS! ROSEMARIE KOCH

Aug 2024

What on earth has happened to PAMF Sutter Health??? Broke ankle in January and podiatrist rescheduled on me last minute twice in a row and each time I go to the rescheduled appointments was late for more than 1 hour and was seen for like 5 minutes. Had posterior vitrieous detachment of my eye and Ophthalmologist took 3+ months to book appointment. Finally at my appt I sat in waiting room for 2hrs 20 min before I lost my patience, Stood up, politely explained to the nurse, and walked away. I know my eye doctor is popular. I blame the hospital overworking him by overbooking At the patients' expense. At least have the courtesy to call me ahead so I don't waste more than half a day for absolutely nothing!

Jul 2024

PCP messaging challenges, exorbitant fees for video visits with Nurse Practitioners I've been a customer of Sutter (formerly PAMF) for ~15 years, primarily because of a wonderful PCP who sadly retired last year. Sutter's monopolistic pricing has really taken off these past few years. See the 575M lawsuit settlement reached with the California AG in 2021 for price gouging. I had my second bout with COVID last year, and I setup what turned out to be a less than 10 minute video visit with a Nurse Practitioner. This was required just to obtain Paxlovid, which I'd already taken previously. I was billed $247 for this visit, which was classified as "high complexity"! In the past couple of years, messaging your PCP through MyHealth no longer goes to the PCP, but to any random physician, PA or NP who happens to read the question. This despite specific directions that I wanted my PCP to answer the question! (My PCP advised adding a strongly worded request to reach her, but it didn't work). I now use an online telemedicine service with fixed pricing for well defined issues. Otherwise, I'm looking for alternatives in this monopoly filled landscape. The only positive: some of their physicians truly do care, and are frank about their own battles with their system.