San Carlos Center

"I am very disappointed at the level of patient care I received. My CT scan was done on Monday and from reading the test results on MyChart I had kidney stones. Didn’t hear from my doctor for a week. Referral call finally came in on Friday. The earliest possible appointment with a urologist wasn’t until the following Thursday. It took them 13 days for me to see a urologist from the time I had the CT scan, 21 days from my first appointment to check the blood in the urine. My request to see a urologist was turned down. I endured the most excruciating pain in my life during my business trip to LA over the weekend. BTW, Urgent care won’t provide any help over the phone."

"Incorrect notes in MHO and After Visit Summaries. A lot of important details are left out and some details are false/incorrect. Also, I've previously and incorrectly been checked in to have visited a doctor in a specialty department I wasn't even familiar with. Not sure how that mistake could be made considering you verify identity when checking in for appointments. Called dept. to ask for the correction to be made, Sutter ARGUED with me about it so I asked to leave a note for that doctor I never met and correction was eventually made --mind, they never apologized for this major error. In my opinion, desk as well as medical staff do not care about accuracy in note-taking or being truthful when handling patient records. They will write whatever they want and whatever they need to cover themselves. Not okay and pretty sure potentially illegal."

"I came for an annual physical (covered by insurance), received a bill for $300+ and was told that what was discussed in my exam wasn't covered... After reviewing the appointment notes it's apparent that this is because I inquired about a specific lab, and because the doctor brought up an unprompted topic while checking to my lungs. Long story short, I was billed over $300 for a sum total of a 2 minute conversation for what requested to two referrals, one of which the doctor brought up. While in the appointment I received no additional care outside of the doctor ordering one additional labs that I requested. I spent two months trying to dispute the charge and was told there was nothing anyone could do. I spoke with billing, insurance, my employer, and the doctor. Nothing... If you choose to come here for care I suggest you make it very clear to the doctor the second you walk in the door that you want to explicitly be told if something MIGHT be out of scope. Pretty upset about my personal situation for obvious reasons, but more importantly I'm very disturbed for what this could do to someone vulnerable financially or with a language barrier, etc. From what I was told it seems there are also zero protections from fraud which feels ridiculous. No wonder people close to avoid getting care. The doctor even had the audacity to tell me "it's complicated..." I certainly won't be back to Sutter, and the only reason I'm not leaving a one star review is because my in office experience on the day of the appointment was fine and my attending nurse was fantastic. I hope this review is helpful to someone and can prevent people being overcharged and then being threatened with creditors."

"DO NOT COME HERE FOR URGENT CARE. I got a facial laceration and came here because it was the closest urgent care facility. The urgent care reception TURNED ME AWAY even though my face was actively bleeding and I'm applying pressure with a bloody towel. They said they were all booked up for the day! This was on a weekday 4pm. The reception went back to check with a doctor, and came back confirming that the doctor won't see me. It was ridiculous - they cared more about staying on schedule than people's health. I'm standing there bloody and pleading to get some care, but all they could do was referred me to an ER 15 minutes away. This is an example of a broken healthcare system. You would think "urgent care" should be for treating non life-threatening like the cut I had, but instead I ended up waiting hours at the ER. If you're only going to accept appointments, then please don't call your 'urgent care'. You're basically just a primary care backup."

"Lazy and inadequate support. Absence of availability. ENTs are booked 45 days ahead. Request for an urgent appoinment at website - no, you need to call us, says Amy G from ENT department. Calling, after 15 minutes of waiting (first call was just dropped) you are asked for symptoms, name, date etc .... only to say we're booking for more than a month from now. I could see that from website, and I asked for urgent appointments - so why did you lazy Amy asked me to call and to wait to just say what I know? Why didn't you even read the request? Going for urgent care? You know, it's not that urgent really, so you can try to book on the website, and there are VERY few slots, and in 8 minutes they all were gone. If you need to plan and book - it is not "urgent care" IMO. So plan your urgent cases a month ahead! Sutter health, your health is a priority (well, not really). All I needed is a test for bacteria and a prescription for antibiotic."