Primary Health Care Associates

Physician Assistant (more like Doctor) Preston Williams is incredibly gifted and diagnosed me with something rare within minutes. An uncommon find from my global trekking and experiencing various medical providers. Despite the incompetent staff and profane language of the front desk people, (also chatting in languages other than English and disregarding my presence), I found Preston to be sharp, tactful, professional, possessing outstanding bedside manners and I would readily refer my family or colleagues to him!
Phenomenal PA! (Too bad he’s temporarily here)

Dr. Shamash is a competent doctor. However, this clinic is very dysfunctional. In the past 2 years, I have had 6 appointments. In all of my appointments, someone from the clinic predictably called to reschedule the appointment. They assume the patients are flexible in rescheduling appointments, not taking into consideration that we have work to do in offices that are not located right next door to the clinic. In some cases, they asked me if I can come in in the morning or early in the afternoon, which I couldn’t do without risking losing my job. Annoying, inconsiderate and very predictable.

The office is a mess. Over booked with patients. Wait time is anywhere from 40 minutes to one hour. AND they go through nurse practitioners like water. the last one I saw Alma Magna was the ultimate worse. At the end of our very short encounter, told me she was leaving also. If I stayed I’d be on my 3^rd doctor in one year. No thank you. The front desk folks are no different. You receive different responses depending I who you talk to. NOT a place to be if you are I’ll and not feeling well. You’ll just leave feeling worse.

I had a routine blood draw for tests. The technician was not careful and did not pay any attention when I told him that I am in great pain. Result: he damaged nerve in my arm leaving me crippled for the rest of my natural life. I now have agonizing pain in my arm, it feels like an electric shock. I can’t extend my arm anymore. It hurts to type, to work a computer mouse, there is no chance to ever ride a bike, I can’t play guitar or piano anymore. I can’t even hold a cup of tea in my right hand.
AVOID THIS PLACE IF YOU VALUE YOUR LIFE.

I’ve only had a great experience at this location. I’ve never had to wait too long and it’s always been easy to make an appointment.
I see nurse practitioner Gail and she’s amazing. She truly cares about her patients and their needs. She even returns calls on holidays (if it’s urgent). I truly appreciate how she remembers me and what my issues are.
She’s very friendly and always explains things very clearly.

I am not one to leave negative review very often, but I do want to save others the stress of dealing with Dr. Shamash.
I came to the office to do my USCIS medical exam. I made the appointment and arrived 10 minutes earlier per their instructions. I ended up waiting over 35 minutes past my appointment. I needed a few tests for the form but they did not have a lab so I ended up having to go to a lab in the Mission, which works with them. Then I had to wait a few days before he actually fills out the form and signs it. Altogether it took over a week for the form to be ready for pick up (the regular time is 3 days). They did not call me when it was ready, I had to call and ask. When I arrived to pick up the form, I realized that I put down the date of the first examination instead of the date of pick up. I asked if I could fill out the first page again and if he could sign it. After another 40 minutes wait, the receptionist told me that he would charge me another $ 150 if I wanted him to sign the form again.
It was the worst experience I ever had at a doctor’s office and I am baffled that someone this horrible could remain in business.
I would avoid him at all cost especially if you are already dealing with the stress of filling out immigration paperwork.

This review is based purely on Dr. Shamash. He is a knowledgeable and kind doctor who always makes me feel well cared for and comfortable. I have been going to him for years– he is a trusted practitioner within my family. Both my siblings and parents (who are very particular with their physicians) couldn’t be more satisfied.

I have been going to Dr. Shamash for years and have always felt like I was in good hands. He answers all of my questions and calms my nerves, which is something that is essential for me, seeing as I tend to ask lots of questions. He is very professional but still personable, and I will continue going to him and referring friends as well.

Dr. Shamash is a great doctor. I was recommended to him by a close family friend who has been seeing him for years. I was hesitant because of the office’s mixed reviews on Unilocal but was completely happy with my first visit. Despite the fact that his staff was sometimes slow to respond, for me the most important thing is that my doctor cares about me and understands my medical situation. His office is pretty old school (not a bad thing!), and he is very smart and has been practicing for many years. I fully trust him and the care that he gave me – making me feel relaxed in a stressful situation. I will definitely be going back to Dr. Shamash and would highly recommend him to family and friends.

My first review on Unilocal… here it goes. To be honest, I was hesitant to come to this practice after reading reviews, but I figured I would judge it for myself, especially since the office is so close to my house.
I called to make an appointment and was patched through to a friendly secretary who was both pleasant and accommodating (which was exactly what I needed when I was feeling like I had been hit with a truck). When I came in for my appointment the next day, I was greeted by a filipino lady in the front who had me sign in. The office was really busy so I was expecting a long wait. Surprisingly, after 10 minutes, a sweet lady from the back came to apologize for the wait and alert me that the doctor would be right with me. Can I tell you how refreshing it is to be acknowledged in a doctor’s office?!? I saw Dr. Shammash and I can tell you that I will not be going anywhere else. He not only listened to all of my (probably irrational) concerns, but he was friendly and professional. Upon leaving, I got to schedule my next appointment right then and there.
Overall, I had a great experience in this office. The busy office is a testament to the quality doctors. The only negative would be the wait, but honestly not enough of a problem to deter me from coming.
Also, easy +free parking!

I need to inform that this place had gone to hell. I have called them recently to get a priscription to my OBGYN since I have a insurance carrier that do ask for that. Well last Thursday I had call to get the priscription and I spoke to one of the staff up front name Siva. Well she said that she will give the message to Dr Shamash assistant. Sorry to say that it probally never got there or if it did, they didn’t think that it was important enough. I waited like the whole weekend till Tuesday to call and see what is going on. Well just like I thought nothing. This time I spoke to another front desk lady name Racheal. I am not sure how they run this place but they are such crap of a system. It’s going no where with all these calls. I thought that maybe this time it will work but nope. I called back today and spoke to Mariam and she told me that there were no priscription for me at all. She also insisted that I don’t need a priscription to see my OBGYN. I just corrected her right away because I do need it but they are so lazy that they don’t even know what kind of insurance or even your name to make that conclusions so you can have a misinformation and make you do the leg work to waste more time and come back to call them again about this.(It had happen to my mom before so I know) I am pretty patience about things but with such a high insurance payment and getting this stupid service and have to pay a high co pay for such a incompetant service is not my idea of good practice. I am not sure that if they know that they SUCKED big time. I want to give a negative two for a star but Unilocal won’t let me and I swear the god to anyone else who plan to come here. DON“T!!! They are going to waste your time and they don’t even care, all they wanted is your money that pay their salaries.

Techinically this is a zero star rating if Unilocal allows me to do that.
I was sent to Dr. Shamash’s office (not by choice) for a physical exam for my PR application process. My primary care physician is amazing and I’m very spoiled and well taken care of by his office. So when I go see a doctor, I have very high expectation in terms of their professionalism. Not a chance in Dr. Shamash’s office!
Dr. Shamash’s office is one major f***up if you must know.
Staff:
Dumb, slow, no common sense, unprofessional, rude, old, did I say dumb? I found Dr. Shamash on my health care coverage network and his office is near mine. So I called to make the appointment and they told me the first availability is the following Monday. I booked it. 2 days before my appointment, a lady called and left me a reminder voicemail. When I got to the office, the door was closed and there was no name sign on the door, but he was listed on the building directory. I waited and knocked on the door several times, but no one answered. So I called the 415 phone number and spoke to a lady. Immediately she jumped the gun that I wanted to cancel the appointment. I corrected her and said I wasn’t calling to cancel, in fact I was keeping the appointment. Then she jump the gun again and said that I was late, which I explained that I wasn’t late and I was already outside the office. She started yelling at me and said that she didn’t see me outside and that’s when I asked her where is the office. GET THIS — their office had move like a year ago and they DID NOT update the healthcare website director, DID NOT remove their names from the building directory and DID NOT even bother to put a note at their olf office door indicating their new address. Worst yet, the office assistant DIDN“T have the common sense to inform new patient like me of their new address and their damn phone number is still in the 415 area code when they had moved to DALY CITY!!!
I WAS LIVITE!
I saw the doctor and he was nice and did a good job with the physical exam. He sent me off with 2 lab slips and told me to call back on Friday. I didn’t call until Monday, an extra day for them. When I called, they couldn’t locate my chart! Hello! That’s a clear violation of HIPPA! Mutliple phone calls back and forth and multiple times I provided my last name and birth date to help them find my chart, still no sign of my chart.
Then they called again this time asking for the labs phone number because this time they couldn’t find my lab results. I gave them all the information and again multiple phone calls later, they found my lab result because they were underneath a stack of all the other incoming faxes. I am not joking here. These people are horrifyingly disorganized.
I finally got a voicemail at 3:15PM that my reports are ready for pick up. So I went hoping that this will be the end of a doctor’s office nightmare. Not so fast! When I got there, they didn’t have the reports and had no idea where their colleague left them before she left for the day. OMG! This is not a brain surgery, but a brain transplant as these people clearly need one. One of the staff called the colleague who had gone home and instead of asking here where she kept my reports, she handed the phone to me. HELLO! HOW THE HELL AM I SUPPOSED TO KNOW WHERE SHE KEEPS THINGS! I DON’T WORK THERE!
These people have the focus and attention span of a snail. Instead of locating my reports, they kept asking me for payment. I told them, No Reports, No Payment. Fair and square. I wasn’t going to pay for something that I don’t get. I have a brain. I told them, if they give me my reports today, I will be happy to make payment.
The end of this is clastor f***ups– I walked out of the office furious, without reports I came for even thought I drove all the way from SF in the mid week after work traffic just so I could deal with 5 cent brains and snail paced people who had no business having a job or breathing the same air as the rest of the population. No Thanks! I had to go find another doctor for another exam, but they can kiss my A** and their fees goodbye! Don’t bother calling the office for anything.

Unless you are old and have all the time in the world and needs parking close by, I wouldn’t go to Primary Health Care. I saw Dr Kamal E Shamash twice and would never go back ever again. On my first visit, I had an appointment at 5pm and had to wait over an hour before I was seen. No updates, I just sat there. I had another appointment to get my blood test and got a call a few hours before the appointment that he had to cancel. I was okay with that, I mean things happens right? They gave me a new date and time and guess what they called me again on the same day to say another emergency happened. What the heck??? I ended going back for another appointment just to get my test results and still had to wait. They pretend nothing happened, no apology, nothing. Don’t go here and like the other posters, they seem to be behind the times.

Loud, crowded waiting rooms with unconcerned desk staff made visit here very unpleasant. While the parking is easy and the building lobby is very nice, the actual practice area is chaotic and impersonal. The physician I saw prescribed an inappropriate and unnecessary test (verified by two other doctors). He also wasn’t good at handling multiple complaints, focusing on one factor at the exclusion of others, requiring me to have to keep repeating myself. And though I’ve had at least a dozen rectal exams in my life, none was a harsh and painful as the one I received here. I am so glad not to have to go here anymore.

30 minutes wait time early in the morning of 9am appt.
The facilities is old small. Medical Equipments seems to be from the 70s. Even the cotton in the jar shows brownish.
Doctor Gopal is not any better, does not ask much questions or provide any much help. I had been coughing for 3 weeks and she told me I will be fine eventually.