Richard Menendez Md

Dr. Menendez loses two stars for being judgemental and rude. His care during visits has been just fine. His office staff just fine as well.
Currently, we choose not to vaccinate our children for personal reasons. Each visit when the subject has come up, the professional Dr. Menendez calls us «selfish» and «irresponsible» then proceeds to tell us his 3^rd world childhood stories about how he staved off all illness’ because he breastfed until he was a young teen.
We’re used to catching flack from declining vaccinations, we’ve educated ourselves on the facts and can hold our own. He doesn’t even try to have an adult discussion about it, instead he tries to demean us into changing course.
We are only still with him until we find a Naturopath MD who accepts our insurance.

Ok, if there was a negative star, this Dr would get it. This Dr. refused to see the patient of another Dr. that he was suppose to be covering for. So this is what happened…
I dialed my daughters pediatrician phone number (who by the way is not Dr. Menendez), right away I realized that I don’t recognize the voice on the other end, thinking that maybe the Dr’s office has hired someone new and that I didn’t recognize the voice. So I proceed on letting the girl know that my daughter has been complaining of her throat hurting for the past 3 days and that last night she started having a low grade fever as well as diarrhea. The receptionist said to not give her anything for a few hours for her diarrhea, so I told her that I was not concerned with the diarrhea I was concerned about her throat and I wanted her to get checked out, she said ok, checked their schedule and said «we have 1:30pm available», I asked if anything else was available before 1:30? She said no 1:30 was the earliest. I said ok thats fine, she proceeded on taking my daughters info, then after I gave my daughters date of birth she said we don’t have a patient with that date of birth and asked if she is a new patient. I told her no she has been with Dr. ~~ for many years. She said oh this is not Dr. ~~ office, this is the office Dr. Menendez. I said oh I’m sorry thats weird I may have misdialed.
I hung up and call our pediatrician again, this time I recognized the voice and went through the situation with her and was advised that Dr. ~~ is out of town until the following week and that Dr. Menendez is covering for Dr. ~~. And the reason why I got Dr. Menendez office when I called the first time, was because the calls get forwarded to Dr. Menendez after a certain number of rings.
Once again I called Dr. Menendez office, the same girl answered, I reminded her saying I just called you couple of minutes ago and that Dr. ~~ was out of town and Dr. Menendez is covering for Dr. ~~ so I would like to take that 1:30pm. She told me to take my daughter to urgent care instead. I said wait a minute you are not taking my daughter in because she is Dr. ~~ patient whom Dr. Menendez is suppose to be covering to begin with, I said this is ridiculous and that I will be filing a complaint with the board. She asked me to hold which I did for about a minute, then she comes back and says «yes, I’m sorry You can do what I told you when you called earlier» referring to not having her eat or drink for few hours and I said well how is that going to help with her throat, then she said or you can take her to urgent care. We went back and forth about this and I told her again that I will be filing a complaint and she said «go ahead». So I hung up the phone, called my insurance and filed my complaint.
What kind of a Dr. is Dr. Menendez, obviously he does not care about the patients health, well at least he doesn’t care when they are not his patient. I hope the Board does something about this. I am so annoyed…

The Dr is very nice and easy going but sometimes I feel like concerns I have with my daughter are over looked and brushed aside as to just be regular. Not a lot of reassurance or detailed examination in regards to issues I feel I have with my baby. The worst part is that they force you to schedule so far ahead with appointments. I work retail and I’m a single mother and think its absolutely ridiculous that my daughter will not be seen up to two months after I call to reschedule an appointment but for a sick appointment she can be seen within the week. I have spent just around the same amount of time there for both kinds of appointments. The front desk people are rude never spell or pronounce my daughters name right and in the midst of searching on Unilocal for a new Drs office I decided to let Unilocal know why. Because mine SUCKS.

I don’t understand how come every time that I try to see doctor Menendez because my son is sick they tell me to call another day to see if they have any cancelations. Are you kidding me? My son is sick today not tomorrow or the next day. How can o schedule an appt for a sickness? Do we parents plans when our kids gets sick? I do understand check up and follow up but my son has Asthma and it’s hard to control when he would have a bad episode.

Today is going super bad at this office. I am about fed up and considering changing DR soon.
I made an appointment on Thursday and was told I was all set for Monday at 9:30 but tell me why it is 10:08 and still haven’t been called in. I’ll tell you why 20 – 25 min after I arrived the front desk called me to the window saying my appt is for tomorrow and couldn’t see me today bcs they decline to see WALK-​ins. This was just bs for me since I called in late at work. Alright so someone’s mistake caused me being delayed and put aside for more than 40min. I asked to speak to the person in charge as o cannot make a double trip here tomorrow and minutes after I was told it was fine for this time but no more walk-​ins. Wth!!! Really? I’m not a walk in read your notes and ask the person that answered the call correct them not me.
Anyhow I am still waiting and its 10:20 No Dr. Yet

I have been coming to this place for a long tine. but recently i notice they have a receptionist. .male.who is the rudest guy I’ve seen
I called concern about my daughter’s health since she went into the ER and she needed a follow-​up with her pediatrician. .and this guys was mean to me… rude and impatient. …what a shame to have the worse staff being a good doctor… hate this! !

The doctor is very nice and friendly but the office staffs are not nice at all. They are actually the worst compare to any other doctors office that I’ve been to. Also If you have to reschedule the appointment, you have to wait about 3 months. It doesn’t matter if that’s for vaccination or routine check up that needs to be done within a month. Very inconvenient. It’s like going to the DMV office. I wish they had a batter system. I can’t wait to change the doctor.

I am very disappointed after seeing so many good reviews and realizing all were lies. I never encountered a doctor who will insult you during a visit. My wife cried after that day. Front staff also rude, gave us an appointment and when we called to confirm the time we realized there is no appointment and the next one will be in 3 month. Not only that he missed a very common diagnosis and now my baby is waiting for a delicate procedure. I do not trust this doctor and I will look into the medical board of California and see if he has any cases like this. I hope this review will help parents find a better pediatrician.

We were assigned to Dr. Menendez, as he was the only pediatrician who accepted the Healthy Families plan at our hospital.
Luckily, the doctor himself is wonderful. Dr. Menendez takes time to answer your questions, calls you back quickly after hours and is a true professional. He has been in the field many years and seems to really know his stuff.
We ended up switching after our first two appointments after moving 45 minutes away. There is a good possibility that we would have switched anyways.. . here’s why.
— There isn’t a sick room/​healthy waiting room for the kids. This can be dangerous for those too young to be vaccinated.
— The office staff is nice, but not very professional. Also, they don’t all speak English that well. English is my main language, so that’s a drawback.
— You do have to wait sometimes a long time before your appt. And they are busy, so you may need to schedule appts. far in advance. They scheduled my baby’s two month appointment when she would be almost 3 months old.
— They wouldn’t take my daughter when she had a cough. I was reading everywhere online that if your child is under 3 months of age, you should bring your child in if they are coughing, even if it’s just a little cough. I called my insurance’s nurse line they told me to go to the dr’s asap and if i couldn’t go to urgent care. I was shocked when the office staff of Dr. Menendez said they don’t take infants in for coughs. That seemed a little irresponsible, even if chances are low it is something major. Now that was the office staff not dr. menendez. I know he is busy, so this could be why they don’t take them in. My new office got us in immediately.
All in all, it can be difficult to find a Dr. you like and Dr. Menendez is top notch. We have felt like we are in good hands every time we’ve seen him. I was just blown away when he called me back immediately, when I was simply concerned with first time parent type questions. That is why I thought it was odd that he wouldn’t see us for the cough. Anyways.. . it is difficult to find reviews on dr.‘s, so I thought I’d get this out here. Good luck with your little ones.

I am a single mom and decided to take my daughter to Dr. Menendez since she was a newborn, she is now one and he is absolutely amazing. I love that he will either answer the phone or return your call within 5 minutes if you call him after business hours. There were times when I, being a new parent, would call at 2 am and he would return my call even if it was just to re assure me that my baby was ok. His staff is nice, he supports breastfeeding but also does not push it if that is not the choice for you. He’s bilingual — Spanish and English which is great. His staff is also very friendly. Sometimes, the phone line is busy but just keep trying and you will get through!

I love Dr. Menendez he’s a great doctor .Hes very nice and and straight forward. Im a new mom & I worry a lot when my son gets sick, so I always call the doctor & he always returns my calls.