Richard Berkson, MD

My experience with this office has been so negative I don’t even know where to start.
Let me start here… after a fight with Thyroid cancer I was asked to start seeing an Endocrinologist. I was recommended to Dr. Berkson.
1. The offices are TRASHY. They are broken down and almost dirty looking. I looked past this at first as I considered it almost superficial to complain
2. After 2 visits with Berkson, I was transferred to another Dr. Vischwanathan in the same office. This upset me because NO ONE ever asked if I approved of being transferred to another doctor. They just did it.
3. I am always in the waiting room for AT LEAST 1 hour 15 minutes. Sometimes there are only a couple other people waiting. Once, the staff «forgot» to tell the doctor I had arrived and she was taking patients that arrived after me — I waited for TWO HOURS.
4. There have been SEVERAL occasions where I needed a refill on prescriptions and the office has totally failed to respond to the pharmacy. MULTIPLE times. Even after I have called the office and they said they were doing it while I was on the phone.
5. GOOD LUCK actually reaching someone at this office. The phone goes straight to voicemail OR if you’re actually lucky enough to talk to someone, they will put you on hold for 30 minutes.
6. I called about 2 months ago, which took dedication and a lot of redialing to get a person, to leave a message for my doctor that the medicine she prescribed was making me ill and ask what I should do or if there was an alternate medicine we could use. SHE NEVER CALLED BACK. When I tried again… for several weeks, to reach her and finally got her on the phone, she kind of had an attitude. She said she got the message and what do I want her to do about it? FRUSTRATING.
7. I was recently scheduled for an appointment on a Friday. Unfortunately, I was able to make this appointment. Called TWO WEEKS ahead to ask for a rescheduled. I was offered a SATURDAY appointment. I asked the person on the other end of the phone if she realized the date she provided was SATURDAY and she said «Yes, We have Saturday appointments now». So, I scheduled and showed up to find the office was CLOSED. TOTAL WASTE OF TIME. I called the following Monday and asked to speak to my doctor. The front office person told me «You missed your appointment on FRIDAY». Then she tried to argue with me that she would never give me a Saturday appointment. UGHHHHHHH. They can’t even keep their own schedule on track!
8. I’m currently home recovering from surgery and had arranged for a refill of a very important med about 3 weeks before running out. My mail order company contacted Dr. Vischwanathan/​Berkson for approval on the refill. The office never responded. When I got to the point of my recovery where I felt well enough to log on to see the status of the prescription, I found that it was still not approved. I started calling the Berkson office, repeatedly, until I got a live person. This person assured me that they had sent in the refill request. She said she sent it again while I was on the phone. My prescription service STILL hasn’t received (a week later). I called the prescription service today. They were very helpful. We spend over an hour on the phone together trying to reach the Berkson/​Vischwanathan office and finally the representative had to give up. I know this isn’t the fault of my prescription service because I do not have this issue with ANY other doctor and I deal with several offices.
I am fed up and have had enough of this horrible customer service. BEWARE OF THIS OFFICE. I could go on and on about the poor service but I hope that what little I’ve shared about my experience will help you. This is NOT a knee jerk reaction. This is my experience after YEARS of tolerating this treatment. YEARS.

Tooo bad I can’t give a negative star. I attempted to make an appointment with Dr. Berkson as my PCP referred me to him. So a few weeks ago I called and I wish I would have gotten her name but the receptionist was beyond *UCKING RUDE!!! She asked me what my insurance was and I told her and she said that they don’t take my insurance a I told her I was referred by my PCP & had she checked her fax machine she would have seen all of my info they faxed over. I was nothing but polite to her and when I told her that made no sense to me she REFUSED TO BOOK AN APPOINTMENT for me, & said thing made sense to her & she hung up on me!!! (oh and by the way she could BARELY SPEAK ENGLISH!!), if you can’t speak english perfectly & understand if you shouldn’t work in a Dr. office dealing with peoples health! ESPECIALLY IF YOU HAVE ZERO CUSTOMER SERVICE SKILLS & HATE LIFE AND EVERYONE IN IT!!! The Dr. should fire this stupid *UNT & don’t let her have unemployment! I would love nothing more than to work in an endocrinologist office as I find it very fascinating. (((Oh and a side note I have a nodule in my thyroid and would rather have my throat close up than to deal with that receptionist!))) The Dr. maybe the best but GOD FORBID YOU GET THE RUDE RECEPTIONIST ON THE PHONE, don’t call this office ever until the rude gal is fired, I told my insurance company of this issue right away & they will no longer be referring patients here!!!

I got the referral today to call this office for an appointment. The first person I spoke to immediately told me, «You can’t have straight Medi-​cal» before even asking for my name… I have a weitten referral deom my doctor btw… so I asked to put an Supervisor on the line and Sandy picked up. Sandy was sweet but asked me the same questions more than once. I was on hold for a while so i hung up. When I called back Amber answered. Amber was extremely rude to me and I’m the one with a disease. Amber said to me, yelling…” how can I help you” over and over as tired to tell her. I haven’t meet rhe Doctors yet but hopefully they are not as rude as Amber.

The doctors here are the best. This is my third time having gestational diabetes and care here was too notch. The doctors always followed up on me even after I delivered my baby. The nurses and staff are just as caring.
I highly recommend this office to anyone dealing with diabetes for the best care around.

I repeatedly tried to get test results for a thyroid lump from Dr. Berkson. I finally wrote a letter to Dr. Berkson in which I said that I was assuming the results showed no abnormalities since neither he, nor anyone with his staff, had ever contacted me. Three months after I wrote that letter, I received a phone call at home around 7 p.m. one night. The test results did indicate a need for a biopsy. Wow, what doctor takes three months to notify a patient of test abnormalities!!! I never went back to his office; I went to one of California’s teaching hospitals.

As Dr. Berkson reminded me last week, I’ve been seeing him for a decade. I’m a type 2 diabetic with, it seems, other problems. He quickly refers me to other docs in Long Beach.
I’m probably one of the few type 2’s (for close to 20 years) who has not been put on any meds for the condition, controlling the beast with diet and exercise all because of his forbearance in the deploying of meds.
Long wait? He’s not on the clock, so he spends a lot of time with each patient.
A great guy, and a great doc.

I made an appointment and showed up on time, I wasn’t seen till two hours later! No apologies or anything. Parking and finding the place is horrendous.
I am not sure where the photo came from, but this isnt the doctor.

Wonderful doctor. He takes his time with each patient so you don’t feel like you are rushed through your appointment. Unfortunately, this also means long wait times in the waiting room. I also like how he is not all gung ho on surgery and all kinds of meds. He has a wait and see approach and lets your body heal itself. My last doctor was trying to force me to go through radioactive iodine, but Dr. Berkson let me wait it out on minimum meds. After a couple of months, I went into remission and I’ve been in remission for almost two years now. Thank God I didn’t listen to my last doctor.

Excellent Endocrinologist!
Fellow of the American College of Endocrinology, Associate Clinical Professor UCLA School of Medicine.
WOOT my college!
Thorough, informed, upfront, honest and a nice sense of humor.
Every lab test ordered has helped in solving my problem with more scheduled as follow ups on Monday for a return visit on the 2^nd of November.
Staff is great and super personable and patient.
His office isn’t much on the inside, the waiting room looks like I’m waiting to be booked at Twin Towers (wreckage of my past) and it’s in the hood.
Smart, save money on rent, as to enjoy what little free time he might get and pay those horrific Malpractice Insurance Policies.
He has excellent MDS as part of their residency in his office and boy are they sharp thanks to him.
Going through the change is such a bitch, just like me during this process!