Congratulations! I'm a little ways out of your area, but I can provide a little information on 3 offices in the county. As far as I can tell, it's trial and error in choosing. All 3 offices we have been with came highly recommended, so recommendations don't always ensure good service and healthcare. Be alert and diligent with your child's health, because some Dr's just aren't!
We are currently with Dr. Christina Chua-Lim in Walnut Creek and have been very impressed with her. She has great bedside manner, is attentive, knowledgeable, open to discussion and longer appointment times when needed, and her office staff is friendly and courteous and it's so easy to schedule an appointment. So far, she has provided us with nothing but accurate and detailed information, and our daughter enjoys going to visit her.
Prior to that, we were using Dr. Philip Rush in Pleasant Hill. He was a terrific doctor and we didn't like having to look for a new office. But unfortunately, this office is set up with an advice nurse playing "gatekeeper" and you can only get an appointment (other that a well check) if the advice nurse decides you need one. The staff are friendly for the most part, but seem to routinely (as far as I could tell) overbook well checks and then tell you after you arrive that you are going to have to reschedule. We loved Dr. Rush, but dealing with the rest of the office, particularly the advice nurse, was like pulling teeth and our daughter ended up with about a 3 month delay in diagnosis and treatment (fortunately nothing major/life-threatening) for an issue that ended up requiring minor surgery due to the advice nurse blocking us from an appointment.
The first office we were with, starting when she was born, was Mt. Diablo Pediatrics in Concord. We had a very bad experience with this office. Long story short, mis-diagnosis followed by long-term mistreatment based on outdated information, after the correct diagnosis was made, for our daughter's condition(s). And this with 3 different Dr.s in the same office having seen her at different times. We were given misinformation regarding many of our concerns with our daughter's health, or referrals for age-inappropriate services that our daughter did not even qualify for. And all of the Dr's seem to be a bit heavy handed with prescriptions. They tried to write a prescription for just about everything, even for a few small pimples on my infant! The front desk staff, except for one very sweet lady, and one terrific nurse were usually abrupt to downright rude. The other nurse in the office was nice enough, but seemed kind of out of it all of the time. Also, when we later obtained medical records to change offices, they had hardly written ANYTHING in the medical notes, and some of what they had written was incorrect! Subsequent Dr.s offices (both pediatricians and specialists) have been shocked at the lack of medical notes and incorrect treatment that we received from this office.
(and now I'll sit here and wait for the lawsuit, but everything I said is true!) Hope it helps...
