Reed James H, MD

I had a great experience with Dr Reed and his office staff. I found Dr Reed to be very professional and he had a good bedside manner. The office staff always answered the phone and all information was easy to understand and thorough.

I am very late in writing this review. This doctor has no bedside manner. He is not prepared for his patients visits. When approached on why he was not ready especially if the results are a life altering diagnosis you want your doctor to have his act together. No excuses people’s life’s matter! Would not recommend or refer anyone to this man. To me he’s not worthy of his medical degree. We walked out of the appointment. There was a reason this happened and we got a better doctor than this quack.

Was referred to Dr. Reed by my physician for a colonoscopy. I’ve had a couple of these before, so I have some basis for comparison. Dr. Reed was friendly, informative, and unhurried. After my colonoscopy was over, I even got a packet of information with details of the results and attractive four color pictures of the polyps which he removed. I am now carrying them in my wallet and will show them to anyone who asks. So far, no one has.

I’m only writing this review in the hopes that Dr Reed reads these and will finally do something about his front office. I’ve been a patient of Dr Reed’s for about 6 years, finding him based on luck, searching the Aetna site. He’s such a great guy, solid physician and really knows his stuff. I love talking with him and collaborating around some creative ideas for treatment. He even calls you back (assuming his staff gives him the message) when you call with issues and questions. If it weren’t for his front office, he would be the best doctor in SF.
HOWEVER.
To say the experience of going to his office is a horrible experience is not an understatement. You are yelled at by angry front desk attendants, shuffled to the side to sit in a non existent waiting room and greeted with only confusion and annoyance by the staff. That’s IF you’re able to get there in person.
For example, I’ve been trying to schedule a physical for over 2 weeks now. Every time I call, they say rudely that «only Flo can schedule physicals,» and she’s either been out of the office or not available every time I’ve called. Occasionally after a few days, I’ll get a call back but it’s always from an «unlisted number» and my assumption is that it’s a telemarketer. Why is it that only Flo can schedule something as basic as a PHYSICAL? Finally I said, «this doesn’t make any sense, why can’t you just schedule me??» «That’s how our office runs,» is the only answer I get. They have lost paperwork, lost faxes and failed to call in prescriptions multiple times. That’s also how their office runs.
After years of actually AVOIDING going to see my favorite doctor solely because I didn’t want to deal with his front of office staff, I finally decided that’s just unhealthy and have begun my search for a new primary physician. I feel awful about that, but it’s just the way it is.
I wish Dr Reed well and if he ever reorganizes (aka fires and replaces) his front of office staff, I’ll be back and very excited to see him again.

Dr Reed and his office staff have been so kind and attentive, responsive, and patient! Having 4 MDs working with me on various connected issues can be very confusing. I designated Dr Reed to take the lead on this. He is very knowledgeable and has a wonderful bedside manner.
I cant recommend Dr Reed and Dr Man’s office any more highly!

Nobody answers the phone. The phone! There wasn’t even a vmail or message service. It sounds like someone picks up and immediately hangs up. And this same phone number is published for several doctors (including Kevin Man and Gregory Fung of the SF Digestive Disease Medical Group).
Based on the previous reviews, I wasn’t sure what to expect, but for nobody to answer the phone is inexcusable.

Dr. Reed is FABULOUS. Even during a busy day he took a seat and talked to me. I said «I know you’re in a hurry» and he replied «no. You’re the most important person of the moment.» Great to see doctors caring about their patients. He ordered a few tests, and has been helpful in diagnosing my problem.
However, the front office workers are AWFUL… and I mean AWFUL!!! No professionalism, and extremely difficult to understand. I don’t like being waved around, and that is all that happened with his staff. All they need in that office is a remodel, and ALL NEW STAFF in the front, and they’ll be one of the best in the Bay.

I was recommended to Dr Reed by Jim Savage, an awesome doctor (check him out on Unilocal).
I must say that the first impression of the office was that the front was a little dated. The support staff was actually pretty good so I am not sure if the support staff has changed but they were friendly.
Dr Reed was definitely super nice, and seem to know his stuff. I scheduled the colonoscopy for the week after.
When I checked into the Sutter Street Endoscopy (which is really the sister medical office of Dr Reed), it was very professional.
The staff was really organized, the facility was a lot more modern — like any other hospital. I was in at 10am, and out by 12pm. all inclusive.
Overall, I’d recommend both Dr Reed and this screening facility.

Bottom line: don’t go there it’s terrible.
Key issue: after a physical Dr Reed sent me to do a completely unnecessary CT scan. Not only is costed my hundreds of dollars, it it killed half of my day and exposed to me to an unnecessary dose of radiation.
Reed said that the «fullness in the right abdomen» could be caused my the fact i didn’t have bowel movement in the morning or «smth else». So instead of sending me to the bathroom and checking the fullness again he sent me to do a CT scan.
He got the results (Thur). but didn’t return my call until Wednesday next week. He also promised me to put the records online, of course he never did.
Check the rest of the reviews to see what you are dealing with before considering Dr. Reed.

I had a colonoscopy with Dr. James Reed scheduled ~6 weeks in advance. A few days beforehand, I got a call from his office saying he would be off on vacation and that we needed to reschedule for two months later. No apologies. I was very busy with my work and I had moved mountains to protect this appointment from clients who had been clamoring for meetings. In other words, I had inconvenienced many people to keep my end of the bargain.
In my mind there was no excuse for this. At best it reflects incompetent office operations, at worst it reflects an arrogant and inconsiderate culture whereby the patients are treated with scornful indifference. Even if that was not the intent, it was nonetheless the effect. I’m sure Dr. Reed is technically a skilled doctor in the surgery… but for me that is as far as it goes.
On top of all that, most times I attempted to reach his office I got the answering service, who just put me in hold and never came back.
Five years ago when I had my first colonoscopy with Dr. Reed, I was summoned to his office for some sort of preparatory meeting with him. I waited over an hour to have a 5-​minute consultation where I learned nothing useful and he didn’t ask me anything of substance. A huge waste of time during my work day. After the procedure there was no follow-​up contact from Dr. Reed or his office.
I ended up having another doctor do my colonoscopy on the same day originally scheduled with Dr. Reed. The procedure went very smoothly and the doctor and his staff treated me with total professionalism, caring, and respect.
Unless you want to be treated like an inert piece of plumbing, avoid Dr. Reed!

It’s too bad that this office is so poorly run becuase the Dr. himself is so sweet and really great.
Otherwise be prepared for a frantic, disorganized staff, to wait a really long time for your appointment, and for them to never follow up with you.
They really need to get their act together as I’m not sure how this practice is even still in business.

THE MOST incompetent and disorganized staff I’ve EVER had to deal with. Worst. It stresses me out just to think about them. Seriously, and I am a reasonable person. I’m switching my doctor today for the reception/​phone staff alone.
It’s too bad because I really like Dr. Reed. Nice guy. No complaints about him whatsoever.

Had a GI procedure done with Dr Reed. I think he was great, no issues like the other reviews.

i was referred to Dr. Reed’s office and he has been my general practitioner for over 5 years.
re: Mr. Reed. I have not had a better Dr./Patient experience. He’s patient, very knowledgeable a very good listener and I find him extremely competent and kind. I trust him with my health, and feel that is a very wise decision. I am still his patient, and hope that this continues into the foreseeable future.
re: Staff and office. I have had nothing but professional, courteous service from them. and I have been in that office at least 20 times. Are they busy? Of course. If you mentally swap places with them, you’ll soon realize that their job is not an easy one, and that you will be served as soon as they’re able to do so. They’re not sitting their avoiding helping you… every time i’ve been in there, the phone is ringing off the hook, each call, a can of worms, from our lousy insurance situation in this country. to them patiently trying to make someone who can barely hear, understand all the hoops they must jump thru for their insurance to be effective nowadays.
The short story is, from all of my experiences, they are doing a wonderful job, helping and taking care of an ever-​growing public, each new patient arriving with a little less patience than the one before them.
Just bring a small amount of patience and kindness with you when you enter the office, and you’d be surprised what you’ll leave with.
5-​stars.
J.J.
Hayward, CA

I was referred to Dr. Reed by my PCP for evaluation and treatment of Gastroesophageal reflux disease. Since some of the other reviews seemed lukewarm at best, I was pleasantly surprised.
1. The office personnel were helpful and polite.
2. I was not kept waiting an unusual amount of time for a specialist, maybe 15 – 20 minutes.
3. Dr. Reed has a great bedside manner. He took the time to understand my condition and concerns, was a very good listener, and carefully explained what the next step will be. He cheerfully changed my medication to something that seems to work better for my condition.
I have no complaints.
I did need to wait 2 weeks to get my first appointment. The follow up is scheduled for 8 days after the initial appointment. While the office could probably use a little renovation, that’s mainly cosmetic.
I am very happy to be referred to Dr. Reed.

Procedures performed: ¹⁄₁.
Phone calls returned: ¹⁄₇.
I guess that sums up my experience. I could go on about the excellent diagnosis, the poorly written post-​op care instructions, the variety of unhelpful answering service employees and receptionists, and the energetic (if brash) doctor’s assistant… but honestly, the scorecard gets the point across.

This review is just for Dr. Reed: not his office or his practice. So let’s base this on 3 stars out of 3 stars.
I have spoken with Dr. Reed twice now on the phone due to the fact that he covers for a doctor specialist of mine. I have appreciated Dr. Reed’s very friendly manner, thorough questions and genuine concern for both issues at hand. Very recently, his advice was spot on and while he *could* have mooched off my insurance and had me come in to his office to be seen, instead, he answered my call via my specialist’s office, and suggest I see my own internist vs. waiting for my specialist to come back to town.
I think the above says a lot about a doctor. Whether or not the office is desired is less important when your chips are low. Of course it’s lovely to be part of a warm practice, but let’s face it, these days, that’s hard to come by. So are good doctors with a solid demeanor which Dr. Reed possesses.

I came in for chronic heartburn. He asked me what was going on and I told him. I touched my stomach, prescribed me a med, sent me for tests and gave me a pamphlet instead of explaining to me what was going on.
I was in and out in 5 minutes. While usually this is a good thing it wasn’t in my case. I came to see a specialist because my regular doctor wasn’t cutting it and I wanted something more thorough.
What was really disturbing was that I went for my tests and I was supposed to get a call back within 5 – 8 business days. After two weeks I called to follow up with them. After two more weeks and no response I called again and finally I got a call back. The nurse told me that I had to come in for more tests and I wondered why I had to keep coming back in and why they didn’t do all of the necessary tests at once. The nurse had no good reason and explained that she only worked there on Tuesdays and that the administrative staff was admittedly unorganized.
Dr. Reed finally called me back that night and read my chart to me over the phone, totally unprepared. It seems to me like he’s just cranking out patients and is not investing time in our health. I wouldn’t reccomend him and I’m not going back.

I was referred to him by my PCP as well, and after a month long wait finally got in to see him. I think he’d be great if you had some exotic tropical parasite, but since my visit was more consultative we may have been mismatched from the start.
I didn’t have the problems with the Suite 1203 staff that have popped up in the other review, but where I did have a problem is that Dr. Reed showed up 50 minutes late for my 12:45 appointment. It wasn’t because he was with another patient, as I saw him walk in the back door about 1:30, clearly coming back from lunch. My initial guess was a racquetball game — he’s in good shape — but given how many different trinkets had drug company names all over them around the practice I’d bet good money it was a pharma lunch in someone else’s office.
While he apologized for «the wait», had a good bedside manner in listening to what I had to say, and was happy to write out full tests and even a couple of prescriptions, the appointment felt really rushed as he did his best to get me out in 20 minutes or less. Unfortunately, the $ 225 fee for the 45 minutes the appointment was supposed to be was on the high end even for that, and of course didn’t get marked down.
I also didn’t think his general dismissal of a couple of concerns that I’d raised with my PCP was helpful, although I give him credit for coordinating care with him. Granted, as a layman I’m not qualified to determine what’s right and wrong and he’s had a residency and years of practice and seems reasonably competent… but in gastroenterology probably more than any other field, you’ve also got to put that into practice by working with the patient on a bunch of things. It’s more than just potentially diagnosing something and writing a script to fix it, which I suspect he’s good at — but it didn’t work for me.
No repeat here; I’ve experienced worse doctors but I’ve also found better ones.

4 Stars for Dr Reed
1 Star for his staff
I was referred to Dr Reed by my pcp. I found him to be informative, patient and accommodating. He answers calls pretty quickly, usually within the day. If you can get to see him or get a hold of him, he’s great. But sometimes it is hard to reach him.
The practice’s office staff leaves a bit to be desired. Sometimes the dr doesn’t get their messages and you have to call again, they get flustered easily and do not handle direct questions with any finesse. I had to be pro-​active and micro-​manage my referral process because they didn’t know what to do.