San Francisco General Hospital

Absolutely terrible for our last visit. First we cooked our heels for well over an hour past the scheduled time (we were there 30 minutes early), then the person in charge, the one who has been in charge all along, had no clue why we were there! (a simple blood draw). By that time it was too late to do the work since no courier was available to bring the sample to the lab, so we have to go back today for the same thing. The person in charge told us we did not need to come back to her clinic. No bleep!

I had a very good experience at Zuckerberg hospital. All the doctors, interns and support staff are very professional, friendly and helpful. I am very thankful to all of them.

The grounds are exquisite, both the old buildings and the new, and so far the staff appears to be extremely nice.

VERY mixed experiences: The good: Fantastic quick diagnosis of NMO and initial treatment by Neurology dept. Mostly world-class care from doctors, nurses and other staff over 4 weeks. HOWEVER: HUGE errors were made! TWO representatives from 'patient advocacy' a.k.a. the 'office of patient experience' came to my room to receive a grievance, took it, and then FAILED to file it. They never apologized. The grievance was regarding a horribly botched lung biopsy operation. The expert surgeon who obtained my blatantly misinformed consent LIED to me. He didn’t do the operation; a doctor in training did and she was poorly supervised (I heard it) and screwed up, causing my lung to COLLAPSE (!) and I was in HORRIFIC pain (so bad that I was curled over, unable to lie down, and could only whisper) which they didn’t treat for HOURS because they felt the need to consult with the on-call neurologist first, who didn’t respond to an urgent page. I was left ALONE in the OR in unbearable pain. Surgeon did apologize! (months later and not for anything specific) Days later, staff also made 4 medical errors dispensing painkillers which fortunately I prevented. They have “advanced” technology to prevent medical errors but it’s buggy as hell; it should have prevented what I prevented just in time. I would put money on it it hasn’t been fixed, based on the way my grievance was handled. Also see my ER review. Richard Fine/1M clinic is GREAT. UPDATE: WARNING: Be sure to read the ProPublica article, "A Surgeon So Bad It Was Criminal". Because the medical profession has done nothing to keep such disasters from recurring, I'm almost regretting not posting the names of the known parties involved in this review and not pursuing damages - if only to create a record that would alert other patients.

No idea why people complain about this place. The staff are helpful and always available to help, what else do you want to get when you are not even paying a dime?