Southern Orange County Pediatric Associates

If you have a high deductible plan, be aware that the costs are not clear, that a visit depends on the «level» the nurse deems appropriate, and just because two kids on the same day in for the same reason with the same person both appearing and vitals showing equal, the cost of visit may still be different.
Today I spoke to Melanie about a bill that came in for my kids I took in with sniffles that weren’t going away. Neither had a fever, any weakness, or irritation. Both just had sniffles. Their oxygen levels were equal, and neither appeared tired. But for some reason, one child was billed at a higher rate than the other, which was because apparently one child was more ill than the other. (PS It turned out to be allergies).
When I called and eventually spoke to Melanie, she was incredible patronizing and honestly only interested in getting me off the phone. After I said I would have like to have known one visit would be more than the other, she said «Well the doctor is not going to hand you a bill after your visit», to which I replied that would be a ridiculous expectation, and I was just asking it be better communicated if the costs for visits that appeared completely equal to me were not actually equal, and that one child’s visit would have a higher cost. She then spoke to me extremely slowly, with huge pauses between words as if I didn’t understand what she was saying.
I was upset, but I realized we weren’t getting anywhere, that they have no intention of communicating that there seems to be no rhyme or reason to how they mark their charts, just some kids are more expensive than others.

I had an appointment for my child, but was turned away after a 30 minute drive. It would be nice to know before hand if they do not accept children who will not be vaccinated anytime soon due to a vaccine injury.
If there are risks involved in a medical procedure, a parent should have the right to decline. Pressured or being bullied into doing so should not be tolerated.

We’ve been seeing dr. Regina Brown since the day he was born and if she’s not available, dr. Chu.
I never have an issue with anyone not answering the phone and if it’s an emergency they’ll see us right away, or find a doctor in the area who can.

I give one star to the staff that work there they never answer the phone and if they did they will put you on hold for about 10 – 15 minutes till you give up and it takes forever to refill a prescription it’s really so sad …
But I’ll give Dr. brown a five stars … Omg she’s amazing, so nice and professional

My kids have seen Dr. Chu for 14 years and he is an amazing doctor! He takes time to listen, he is thorough, and has a great bedside manner.

If I could give 7 stars, I would! Every doctor is wonderful, Lisa, the nurse practitioner is fantastic as well as the girls up front! Both our kids have gone here since birth and we are beyond pleased! My kids had some complex medical issues and had been misdiagnosed. The doctors here diagnosed correctly and after short treatment and food changes, we have very healthy kids!

OK this is strictly on the billing department. My child’s pediatrician is Dr. Yson from RSM and she’s wonderful but the billing department is awful. There was confusion with my son where insurance didn’t pay for 2 visits so I went back and forth with the billing department and insurance trying to sort it out. Ultimately, it was taking insurance awhile and SOCPA refused to see my son for his 6 month wellness exam so I ended up doing a payment plan with them. A few weeks pass and I get an update that insurance paid off the 2 visits yet SOCPA continued to charge my credit card. Insurance mailed a check to SOCPA on ⁷⁄₉ and it was cashed on ⁷⁄₁₅ yet they still submitted a charge on my card on ⁷⁄₁₅. I then call SOCPA billing on ⁷⁄₂₄ and get nothing but voicemail. It’s funny, how when they want payment — they are absolutely 100% available yet when you need them, they are unreachable… Anyhow, I just tried making my son’s future 9 month appointment and they refuse to make the appointment because there is still a balance. First and foremost, at this point, they’ve received double the payment — once from me and the other from insurance. Secondly, who refuses to see a child for a wellness exam. It just seems so unethical and their administrative department seems unorganized and money hungry. Their priority seems to be dollars and cents versus the well being of children. It’s awful and the person that I am working with is Susie. She’s unorganized and her bottom line is getting payment.

The doctors are the highlight of this group, which I would say is the most important aspect of searching. We’ve been seeing Dr. Brown (and Dr. Chu intermittently) for 7 years and I have nothing but praises for them. The doctors are very easy to talk to and have many years of experience which is what I look for in a physician. Eventhough we have moved out of the city, I still make the drive for visits. They have lots of patients (which is a good sign) so I can understand if things get backed up or we cannot be seen instantly, so we just go to Kids Doc in Mission Viejo. Notably, they have worked us in a busy schedule when they felt my son needed to be seen urgently. These are some of the highlights of this group:
* friendly and knowledgeable physicians
* friendly and caring medical assistants
* affiliated with Kids Doc (urgent care for kids)
* separate entrances for well and sick kids

We use to see Dr. Ball in the Ladera office, he truly is an amazing Doctor that goes above and beyond for his patients, but we live in Lake forest. So we started going to the office around the corner from our house. We started seeing Dr. Brown, in the Lake Forest Office. Which she is amazing and very detail oriented!!! I love both office. I like that they don’t have very many toys and just books. Due to the fact toys just pass along germs!!!

I can’t help but think Cody doesn’t know what he’s talking about at all. He believes a Nurse practitioner, who on many occasions takes the responsibilities of a doctor, doesn’t know what she’s talking about? The thing is that there are likely many causes to one thing or another, and the only thing they can do is to keep guessing until they find something that works. That’s neither here nor there, and I hope all of you parents consider this.
My son was born at Saddleback Memorial Hospital, where Dr. Brown did his circumcision. She did an excellent job and we were recommended to go to SOCPA by the postnatal nurses at the hospital. When asked which doctor the nurses at Saddleback Memorial recommended, quite a few (who are mothers themselves) said that Dr. Terrance Chu was an amazing pediatric doctor. We scheduled our appointment and met with him two days after my son was born.
He was courteous, and «dumbed» down the information so that we, new-​parents-​running-​on-​little-​sleep-​with-​no-​idea-​on-​medical-​jargon, could understand. We were very thankful for it. He gives us recommendations, he thoroughly inspects and looks over our little cub from head to toe. He knows what he’s talking about and he knows about babies. He is an amazing pediatric doctor, and I truly recommend SOCPA. He’s been my son’s pediatrician for going on two years.
Additionally, every doctor’s visit they send us home with a paper discussing things that we should do to help our little man grow to be an amazing boy. They give pointers, tell us what should be done and what shouldn’t, and also what is recommended. (It also makes us happy to know he’s above or right on track too!)
The offices are clean and sterile. The nurses are nice, and helpful. I believe the ratio is small when it comes to parents who don’t vaccinate to the parents who do (like 1:20?) so that’s another thing I love about this office.
This is a great place to take your child, and it’s located off of El Toro and Muirlands. Pretty easy to get to, and so it’s convenient for us because we live three blocks away.

We’ve been coming to see Dr. Chu for the last 7 or 8 years, at this office and Ladera. I have 3 girls, ages 9, 7, and 3. He has been amazing for all three of them. My middle was a preemie, and had quite a few issues when she was younger. He was always very attentive to them, and really listened to my concerns. We found a vision problem in her that wouldn’t have normally been caught unless she was seen by a specialist. My oldest wears hearing aids that are pretty uncommon, and Dr. Chu makes an effort to keep in touch with her auditory specialists when needed. My youngest is a mega klutz who can’t seem to go a full year without stitches. Dr. Chu is great with parents who pass out during stitches too ;)
I saw Dr. Brown as a teenager, and then when my oldest was born, Anneke was the one who came to check on her when she was born, so we floated around with different doctors in the practice, and liked them all. Dr. Chu was the attending when my middle was born, and I really liked how he took a vested interest in her health. When she was on different meds for reflux and swallowing issues and couldn’t keep anything down, he would call us at home, even at night, to check on her.
Maybe it’s because we’re in there so much with having multiple children, but I feel like they all know my kids, and remember things that are important to them. The wait is never more than a few minutes, and I’ve never been treated rudely before– even when I had a melt down in the office over an insurance issue that wasn’t even their fault. It was my insurance’s fault. But I digress…
Dr. Chu is amazing, Dr. Brown is great, the whole office is a pleasure. After h ours care in Ladera has saved us from the hell that is Kids Doc many times. Getting an appointment is easy, same day or future. I prefer Ladera over Lake Forest, only because it’s a little closer to my house. But we’ve gone to Lake Forest longer, so this review pertains only to Lake Forest.

We moved to OC right before our daughter was born so we didn’t have a great deal of time to research doctors in the area. Since I didn’t know anyone in the area I had to turn to Unilocal and since SOCPA had plenty of 4 and 5 star reviews we chose them.
The main thing we wanted was to see the same doctor for every well check, which is something we didn’t have for our first child. At that time we were both in the Army and couldn’t choose our own doctors. Having our daughter seen by the same doctor every time was and is extremely important to us. Somehow every time we went in we saw someone new even though we’d booked a specific doctor. After the 3^rd time of not seeing the doctor we booked we’d had enough and went looking for a new pediatrician.
I don’t have any complaints about the receptionists, they were very sweet and the nurses were nice enough though they seemed over worked. My main complaint is with the doctors who for whatever reason were not there for our appointments that were booked well in advance. One other thing I didn’t like was feeling rushed. Every time we went in I had the feeling I was in some sort of drive through or the doctor was trying to see as many patients as possible for a world record or something.
I gave SOCPA 3 stars mostly for the staff, and because they diagnosed our daughter’s milk allergy. I’m not saying this is a bad place, because I always felt that the doctors we saw were knowledgeable, but they just didn’t seem to care.

Been going here for over 13+ years and I am always pleased… No complaints at all!

I chose SOCPA because of a friend’s recommendation and I have been pleased so far. It’s easy to get an appointment and I’ve never had to wait long. Most importantly though, I know they take great care of my son! Dr. Chu was quick to recognize a mild issue during my son’s first appointment and instead of the ‘wait and see’ approach, he sent us directly to the NICU, even though the problem wasn’t that serious, and I really appreciated the aggressive action. After that a nurse from SOCPA would call and follow up with me every few days to see how things were going.
We’ve seen Van Blerk and Brown too and they were both great. The front desk staff has always been super nice to me, they always fawn over how cute my son is, because he is damn cute and I’m glad they understand that. I’m sure they only reserve their compliments for me, hahaha, yeah right …
The on-​call nurse is easy to get a hold of and she calls you back promptly if she’s not available. I’ve never talked with someone who knew so much about baby poo! Amazing.
Also, the nurse that gives the vaccines has a real quick draw like an old western cowboy, she is in & out before my son can wail. Very important skill for a pediatric nurse.
The parking is great at the Lake Forest location, but the building is old and needs some H&G luv. The Ladera office is much nicer and more modern.

First time visiting SOCPA as we moved from the east coast recently. It was a 5 year well/​pre-​K visit and we had Dr. Regina Brown.
I found the office staff to be great. Welcomed when I got there, friendly service and when someone was asking time killing questions while the office manager was on the phone, she even apologized during the call to me. I don’t think that has ever happened before.
Dr. Brown was nice & did a great job answering my questions. I wish I had gotten the nurse’s name, but she was great. When it came to shots, she has it down. I think he won’t be scared of shots any more. Great technique, good with my boy and fast to get the shot in/​out and band aid on. Very impressed!
The waiting room was a little sparse for things to do, but it was clean, open and there is a well side and a sick side with DIFFERENT ENTRANCES, which I thought was a great touch. The only reason for four stars instead of five is that I want to have a track record with a doctor’s office and rate over time. I would think that some might be disappointed with the lack of toys, but I don’t really care. We bring stuff with us to do.
Can’t comment on the wait, we didn’t have one, but were the first appointment of the day. Looking at previous reviews about the receptionist, our experience was great so maybe there is a new office staff or they have made changes. Maybe we just got lucky, who knows?

Lily Y. on the dot. OMG… I am just so so disappointed w/​the lousy lazy staff workers sitting their lazy asses on the computer and not go out of their way to help patients with concerns. I came here out of recommendation of my friend whose been coming here for years. Now that Healthy Families gone HMO, I have no choice but to abandon my adored Dr. Katz and to come to these people that don’t give a damn about us. They did let us in slots to come in last minute, which is good. I just feel that some of the Nurse Practitioners are not knowledgeable enough. If I am paying to see a doctor, I should see a doctor or else charge me the price of a Nurse Practitioner. Anyhow, my daughter had some rashes on under her chin and on the insides of the legs and hands. She expressed that she thinks she knows what it is and suggested an over-​the-​counter oinment. I bought the oinment and it did not help, matter of fact, it seem to got worst. I came back two days later for another reason, but thought I’d ask the receptionist if the rashes on face that got worst is normal. The Nurse Practitioner wanted to see us, but I don’t want her. I don’t feel she have the knowledge of what it is. I told the Receptionist that I wanted to see a doctor this time. She suggested me Dr. Brown next door. She kindly walked me over there. I asked her if I should have to do a co-​pay again? She said she don’t know. When I got to the other office, that’s when it got more ugly. There was no one… absolutely nobody waiting in the office and I explained to her what happened. Basically I wanted to get a second opinion from Dr. Brown since the Nurse Practitioner did not give me the right product. She asked me to fill out some forms. I wasn’t planning to see the doctor today so I’m really in a rush to get back to work so I asked her prior to filling out the form how long would I have to wait. She said hm…30 minutes that is if nobody walks in on their appt. I said, but there’s like nobody here now. I asked if I would have to pay the co-​pay again since I’m only trying to correct something that was not done right the first time. She said she would have to ask the doctor about that and she just stood there. I can afford the $ 10…it’s just the principal of it. I feel that I was robbed of my first visit. She said it’s not their fault that your daughter has allergic reaction to the cream. She was unwilling to help me, but she was sure good at rebuttals. Big no no… if you don’t have servicing patience, maybe your ass should be cleaning the bathroom where nobody can see you hidden behind dirty toilets. Service is everything nowadays. It was my second visit there and it will be my last. I will be changing my physician.
I called three days later and spoke to Robin about bringing my daughter in. It was 10:30am when I called and she said I can bring her in at 11:15. I work in HB and I have to pick up my daughter at Aliso Viejo, I will try to make it to the 11:15am appt. She said no you cannot try, you got to know for sure you will make it in at that time. I told her that I will be there before 11:30 for sure. She said never mind, you should get the 1:30 appt. I said never mind then. The sigh and tone of her voice just tells you she doesn’t even want to talk to me. There are so many Pediatricians out there. Does the docs in the office know how Patients are being treated? Obviously not…
Follow-up…I went and got Fougera Hydrocortisone from my brother and applied on my daughter. OMG, one application you can see the instant disappearance of the itchy patches. It’s like miracle cream. Why can’t any doctor give me a prescription of this and make my life more simple.

I have been taking my daughter to Regina Brown, M.D. at this location for little over a year. I could not be happier with the care that she receives at SOCPA. I was previously taking her to a physician in Irvine who could not clear up some issues she was having… I took her to DR. Brown and she took care of my daughter in weeks. They always are accomadating to last minutes appointments. They also have after hours care at the Ladera Ranch location. The only reason I rate thm 4 instead of 5 is sometimes the front office staff is hit or miss. La La Love them .my daughter has a visit coming up I will update my review to reflect that visit.

When my daughter was born 13 years ago, I wanted a female pediatrician in Newport Beach. What did I end up with? A male pediatrician in Lake Forest. Why? I met Dr. Wesp in the hospital. He was the pediatrician on duty at Saddleback. Besides being extremely handsome, he was so pleasant with me and the baby. I really got hooked when I took her for her first check-​up and saw how they ran their office. Dr. Wesp has since retired but here are the highlights of this office that we still go to, even though she is a teen.
*They have a well check side and a sick side.
*They have nurses on call at night to answer the phone when you are crazy because your kid is sick.
*In the 13 years I have gone, I have only waited in the waiting room more than 5 minutes one time!
*Everyone is very organized.
*The office is clean.
*During the busy season they have extended hours and weekend appointments.
I highly recommend them!