Livermore Pleasanton San Ramon Pediatrics Group

My husband and I brought our newborn daughter to LPP 2 days after her birth for a color check. The exam room was cramped and claustrophobic.
A nurse came in with one of those old IBM ThinkPad laptops and proceeded to ask me a series of questions. What was my daughter’s weight at birth? How long was she? Was the birth natural or cesarean? We answered all her questions as she entered the information into her laptop.
LPP thought my daughter looked «ruddy» so they sent us to the lab for bloodwork. The nurse said they should have the results by that afternoon and someone would call us by the end of the day. We were told to come back in two days for a color re-​check.
No one called us on Monday to give us the results of our daughter’s lab tests.
Tuesday morning I called LPP to request the results of my daughter’s blood work. The receptionist said they had the results but only a nurse could share that information. She said she would have a nurse call me back by the end of the day.
Again, for the second day in a row, no one from LPP called us back with our daughter’s lab results.
Wednesday morning, my husband and I took our daughter back to the cramped office at LPP for her follow-​up color check. This time another nurse comes into the exam room with a laptop, and proceeds to ask me what my daughter’s birth weight was, her measurements, was my delivery natural or c-​section. the same exact questions we had just answered two days prior. I was more concerned with my daughter’s health at that point than to question them on why we were being asked the same questions all over again, so I let it go.
When I told the nurse that nobody had called us back with the results of Monday’s blood work, despite me calling to ask for them on Tuesday, she seemed surprised. She said the results were fine but still thought my daughter looked too red. She asked me if we were putting our daughter in the window, in sunlight, with her clothes off for 15 min at a time multiple times a day. I said, no, are we supposed to be? She said Yes, weren’t you told that on Monday? «Um, no. Nobody told us anything like that.» Not the first nurse nor the doctor who examined her on Monday ever told us that we were supposed to put our baby in the window with her clothes off several times a day!
Next the doctor came in and recommended we go back to the lab for another round of bloodwork. This time this nurse promised me she would call me back by the end of the day with the results, and thankfully she did. Our baby was not jaundiced.
Friday morning I discover my daughter has thrush, so I call LPP and get in for a same day appt. The nurse comes in with her laptop and Again, for the 3^rd time, starts asking me what my daughter’s birth weight was, what her measurements were, was my delivery natural or c-​section. My husband and I looked at each other in frustration but still didn’t say anything as again we were more concerned with our daughter’s health at that point.
After the nurse left, we waited nearly an hour before the doctor came in. He apologized for the long delay, wrote a prescription, and asked us to come back in a week for follow-​up.
The following Friday I bring my daughter back into LPP for the 4^th time and *I kid you not* the nurse comes in with the IBM ThinkPad again and starts asking me what my daughter’s birth weight was, her measurements, was my delivery natural or c-​section, etc. I was getting very frustrated that this is my child’s pediatrician and they don’t seem to even know who she is!
Finally I said «This is the 4^th time I’ve been asked this same set of questions. Don’t you guys save this information? » She said Oh we have it, but I have to close this program on the laptop and open up another program, blah blah. Less work for her, but it doesn’t do much to instill confidence in the parents of their patients.
By the time I left that claustrophobic little office, I vowed never to go back. I gave them 4 chances and was not thrilled with any of our appointments or at repeatedly answering the same questions.
The four times that I took my daughter into LPP, we saw 3 different doctors. The practice has about 10 doctors in it and they seem very busy. My husband initially told me that any good pediatrician’s office will be busy and to expect to wait. However after our multiple visits to LPP, it seemed like my daughter was just a 10-​minute allotment that they squeezed in to their overpacked day, they didn’t have the programs available to know her vital stats when she came in for appointments, medical advice was not dispensed as it should be, and follow-​up calls didn’t happen ²⁄₃^rd of the time.
A practice’s busy-​ness doesn’t necessarily mean they are «better» or that your child will receive more quality care. The lack of coordination within the office regarding patient information, call backs, not being able to see the same doctor, and cramped office space was tedious and frustrating.

I have experienced better. It is extremely difficult to schedule an appointment. 99% of the time I have to leave a message and they call back at the end of the day. The staff is nice. The Dr that I see has a rough bedside manner. I will be taking my children to a different practice.

Since my earlier review. Dr. Chiong has left and now we like all the doctors here. The waiting areas are great and the staff is nice. They always try to accommodate you when you need the and weekend hours are a pure blessing since most kids are in the habit of needing a doctor on the weekends when none is easily available. I removed one star because to get an appointment sometimes takes a bit of waiting on the phone and listening to the tinny, shrill music they have playing there.

My kids have been cared for by this amazing group of Pediatricians for 3 years now. And they are so worth the drive. We live 30 minutes away from the Livermore office so we know they are worth the drive. Our last visit Dr. Gach was kind enough to see both of my kids. They were both very ill and with his patience and calm demeanor he helped put my mind at ease that they would be well soon. My toddler’s pneumonia cleared just a week after Christmas! We are so relieved to hear her breathing normal without coughing so hard. We will continue to have our children seen here because I feel that the staff genuinely care. Also their new weekend hours are a huge plus when you have young accident prone children. (:

I have been taking my girls to Dr. Gach’s office for over 8 years. I was a bit concerned because the DR we had previously was amazing. With the exception of one doctor — who didn’t last long — EVERYONE at Dr. Gach’s office has been amazing. They really care about their kids.
I have had several doctors from this office go above and beyond to care for my children and I am ever so grateful. A couple of quick examples: my youngest daughter had pneumonia quite a bit when she was young. She was in the hospital with a really bad case of pneumonia and RSV and her doctor came by to do rounds. Our older daughter was standing at the doorway as the nurses wouldn’t let her come in because she wasn’t feeling well. The doctor came by on rounds and was checking out my youngest when my older daughter coughed. He looked over at her, asked a couple of questions then asked my husband to bring her to the office later that day (a Sunday no less) and said that even though he wasn’t scheduled to be in, he wanted to see her. Turns out she had pneumonia also… not bad enough to be hospitalized but bad enough to warrant meds and follow up visits.
A second instance I would like to share is one night I called after hours and they had the on call DR call me back. I had taken my youngest in that morning to have her ears checked and they looked fine. They were still hurting her that evening, she was a total wreck and I couldn’t get her fever down below 102. The DR called me back. She listened to my story (including the fact that both my girls get frequent ear infection) and even though she was heading home to care for her own child and family, turned around and went back to the office to see my daughter! She wanted to see her before the pharmacy closed and was glad she did because, YES, she had a «raging» ear infection that developed in less than 12 hours!
A final «kudos» to one very special member of Dr. Gach’s staff. When my girls were really young, they loved Stacey. She saw them for a while, then went on maternity and took some time off to take care of her own family. She recently came back. I went to make an appointment for my youngest and when they gave me «Stacey» I paused but didn’t think much of it. I was pleasantly surprised when she was the Stacey I remembered. I was SHOCKED when she remembered us – and asked very specific questions about the kids from way back when she saw them. She remembered all about them — which one was our «pneumonia» child, who was the «healthy» one, who hid under the exam table and how she would do the exams on the ground with her under the table, etc. Stacey is amazing and a shining example of how the staff, especially the Doctor’s here truely care for their patients.

Livermore Pleasanton Pediatrics is an excellent group of pediatricians. They’ve cared for my children for the past six years and I feel we have received nothing but exceptional medical advice and care. The pediatricians are well educated and highly competent, and they clearly care about their patients. Also, the pediatricians we’ve seen have all had the true expert’s ability to know when to intervene and when not to, which is a difficult thing to achieve. The practice has extensive hours and multiple sites, and the doctors are very available when necessary. I can’t recommend this group of doctors highly enough!

Except for few doctors this place is terrible & that includes front office (assistants, office folks etc)
Long wait times on phone to get an appointment (even if you are 1 in queue based on what their automated system told me). Their excuse we are fixing phone system. OK that is fine but how long are you planning to work on that phone system? No idea. Been at least two months.
Whoever their office manager is; she needs a refresher course in handling difficult situations. One doesn’t start working their way through a difficult situation by saying «listen to me else we won’t help you», «listen to me else I will hang up» or this gem «do you want it done or not …» & some other nuggets. This after they slept on a simple 1 page form for 4+ weeks and that too after taking payment. How difficult is to fill a form & fax it to wherever it was supposed to be faxed? Her excuse I didn’t follow up. Hello! I gave you the form + payment & I have to follow up so that you can do what is routine in every pediatric office! She really knows how to drive away folks & what is ironic that it is place for kids, which is supposed to be happy go lucky kind of place! Granted I was upset that they didn’t fax the form even after we did everything by book but that still is no reason to talk like she did.
Glad their are choices and other pediatrics in town if it comes to that

What can I say, I’m most often inspired to Unilocal when I really like something. We didn’t necessarily choose LPPG, but we were destined to be their patients. I was born in Livermore (yep back when babies were still delivered at Valley Memorial Hospital, now Valley Care), and Dr. Gach was my doctor from birth until I was way too old to be seeing a pediatrician.
When my wife was preggers with my little angel, Valley Care in Pleasanton asked us who our pediatrician would be. Since I didn’t know of any others, and they were located right there at the hospital, we chose LPPG. And I am so glad we did! Dr. Weger came to see us in the hospital a few times in the days after my daughter was born and we fell in love with her. She was genuine, friendly, attentive, and always seemed excited to see us and more importantly our tiny baby girl.
In the two years since she was born we have been to see Dr. Weger and staff quite a few times. I wish I could remember her name, but we really love one of their nurses too. Every time I’ve been to the offices I am very pleased with the staff, especially in the Livermore office. Dr. Weger greets us and our daughter with such welcoming enthusiasm and makes us feel very very comfortable with routine check ups as well as sick visits. She explains things thoroughly and in terms we can understand, and treats our daughter wonderfully. Needless to say, I’m a big fan of Livermore-​Pleasanton Pediatric Group!
Oh, and a quick look at their website, and it appears Dr. Choing is no longer a physician there, so my advice is to disregard the negative reviews pertaining to him!

I made an appointment but when my MIL got there, she was told at an appointment was not made for my son. Really? The whole point of calling them to set up an appointment is for them to reserve a time slot so that my can be seen by a doctor. They also said that they could not see my son because all the doctors were booked. So, I told them that I was disappointed with their customer service and I’ll make sure that I will talk to somebody about their bad customer service. Then, they changed their tone… and found a doctor to see my son. Really? Do I have to tell them about their bad customer service. Anyways, all the doctors here are pretty good except for Dr. Chiong. We felt that we are just another patient for him wasting his precious time.

My son has seen the pediatricians there since he was born at Valleycare hospital 2 years ago.
It is very easy to get same day appointments and the longest I had to wait before they let us in was 10 minutes.
There are a lot of doctors so after a while, you can decide which doctor’s style you like best. Our favorite is Dr. Flanzbaum. He is very attentive to your questions (serious and silly ones) and answers them extensively with good references to available books.

I chose 2 stars because honestly, meh. Ive experienced better.
The front desk was very pleasant to deal with, but being a first time patient, the lady coud not find the new forms to fill out for like 5 mins.
No big deal, but it was the Dr. Choing who made me feel I should write a review.
Im not sure if he was just having a bad day or if he is normally like this, but he walked in the room and was just very cold and abrubt.
He did not seem passionate about dealing with children and coldly asked «what are you here for?» in a very mono toned way… and he was not very throrough. He took no test on my daughter to make sure she did not have an infection and blew off the fact that I told him she was also very congested and did not give me any advice for that or any of her other issues.
I am not going back to this practice, I am going to find somewhere else that has a team of passionate pediatritians.