Webster Orthopedics

My son, a freshman, broke his wrist while attending UCB and went here to get medical help. The break required surgery and unfortunately this facility was not on either his Berkeley plan or our family plan. I was hesitant after reading a few reviews here AND the insurance issue. After explaining the situation to the front office, everyone went out of their way to make it happen and was very polite. I was going to back out of it and go elsewhere due to insurance issues but received a personal call from his surgeon which changed my mind. He is healed and was very pleased with the outcome and care. Thanks for the great care, phone call and help navigating our insurance issues.

The doctors are good. The office scheduling is terrible! Expect to be waiting in the office for an hour or more waiting to see the doctor!

Dr. Tseng is absolutely wonderful !

Just had my broken ankle attended to by Dr. Roth. Everything about the medical experience was positive except the break itself.
Pre-​op visit-​perfect
Surgery– perfect
In hospital –dr. and physicians assistant both visited; great bedside manner.
I highly recommend this group.
It bears mentioning that I previously was treated by Dr. Roth for a torn miniscus and had an equally positive experience.

I had a rotator cuff repair 3 years ago by Dr Richards. He was wonderful and very thorough. His assistants were caring and a pleasure to work with. They explained everything in detail. My disability was taken care of in a timely manner. I really appreciate it.

I can’t tell you how many times Webster orthopedics has:
— Lost my appointment, so I drive 45 minutes just to be told I can’t be seen
— Given me the wrong equipment and then complained when I brought it back
— Cancelled my appointment at the last minute and then told me I couldn’t get another for two months
— Made me wait on hold for 20 minutes
— Made me wait in the lobby for over an hour
The doctors here are good, but the office staff SUCKS. This goes for their Berkeley, Oakland, and San Ramon offices. It was so bad a handful of doctors actually left the practice because it was such a headache.

Terrible place with a very extensive wait time. We waited over 30 minutes to see the doc for 5 mins. And the wait continues … To re-​splint my sons arm

Surgery denied. For an outstanding bill. Have two insurances medi care and medi cal. Year 2014 is when the bill surfaced. Mam called to schedule the surgery. But then denied it because of the passed bill from 2014. spoke to Ruth in collections. Told me to call medi cal. medi cal was in force in 2014. Stated I had a share of cost at that time. I’m on a set income that there should be no share of cost. This is being appealed now. And medi cal going to pay the bill. Still need surgery. And I have to wait now. Behind this error. I need DR. TSENG to see this. No surgery should be delayed. Very very angry and in pain.

I had an excellent experience with this place. My hand therapist Liz Sakaldasis was extremely helpful, knowledgable, caring and generous. She treated me with four sessions, while I had prepared myself for the entire 12 sessions (authorized by my insurance). I highly recommend her.
The only issue was making appointments by phone. You almost can not directly talk with the receptionist. It takes a few phone tag playing. I was not successful with online appointment system either.

I was involved in an auto accident over two years ago and sustained a back injury. Being a nurse myself, I was not too excited at the prospect of spine surgery to alleviate the chronic pain and sciatic issues resulting from this injury, so I spent over a year on more non invasive treatments with minimal relief obtained. Since this was a Workers Comp injury, I sought a referral from the WC doc to explore the possibility of surgery, and was directed to Dr Michael Tseng at Webster Orthopedic in Berkeley.
Dr Tseng is awesome! He spent a great deal of time reviewing my MRI with me, ordered some additional x rays and fully explained my options for treatment. Still, I was hesitant and sought a second opinion from a physician who will remain nameless. He spent considerably less time with my, and scared the hell out of me with the degree of intervention he wanted to perform which would have included fusion of my spine clear up to T-​10 which would have severely impacted my flexibility and mobility for the rest of my life!
I returned to Dr Tseng, and together we decided on a procedure that would relieve most of the sciatic pain without the fusion. His office staff was amazing in navigating the workers comp system to get authorization for the procedure and I was scheduled for the procedure.
As soon as I woke up from anesthesia, I knew things were much better… for the first time in over 2 years, I was free from the sharp burning pain in my leg that had been causing me so much agony since the accident! That night I was able to stand at the mirror long enough to fix my hair, brush my teeth and do my face completely without pain! Before surgery, I was unable to stand in place for more than a minute without the stabbing pain in my leg. Less than a week later, I was able to walk a mile, virtually pain free, a big improvement from walking less than a block before the pain set in.
I am now about 2 months out from surgery and while I still need to limit some activities (lifting more than 15 pounds, driving/​sitting more than 90 minutes without stretching, etc) the difference had been life changing! I can now enjoy wandering around flea markets, walking my neighborhood, even some hiking with very little pain. My only regret at this point is having put off the surgery as long as I did!
I know every patient is different, and perhaps not everyone will experience the dramatic improvement in symptoms as I have, but I can attest that if you have a back problem, you will receive the best, most compassionate and most effective treatment available from Dr Tseng at Webster Orthopedic! Thanks, Dr Tseng and staff, for helping me get my mobility back!

Lisa is one of the greatest acupuncturist ever. When we met she scheduled me right away a shot me started on my healing process. The session really helped as I was going through my adjustments of healing and weight loss. Both of my knees were affected by a Mencius complex tear. So I am now learning through modified exercise, yoga, organic foods, traditional medicines, cultural ideologies of instinctual remedies of restorations– and again with the aid of professionals like Lisa from Webster Orthopedics and Dr. Roth– my healing has been a challenging but pleasant journey in the recent weeks.

The fact that this review has two stars and not one is solely because the doctor himself was competent. His initial treatment provided some, albeit transient, relief. He gave me a steroid shot for a frozen shoulder, and though the pain abated, the relief only lasted about a week. Frozen shoulder is a weird ailment, and though there are others, at UCSF for example, who don’t consider steroids to be a legitimate treatment, it’s a least arguable that a week of pain relief was worth it. Sort of.
But that’s not why I’m giving them such a lousy rating. The doctor prescribed physical therapy. I scheduled it at the Berkeley office. When scheduling, I had a long talk with the scheduler about an appointment I had an San Francisco at noon, how I needed to be on the road by 11, how long the initial appointment would take, etc. When I arrived, I sat for 15 minutes before coming up to the desk and asking what the holdup was. I was told that my appointment was in fact not at 10 o’clock as I had thought, but at 11. When I expressed dismay at the error, the physical therapy scheduler was obnoxious and rude. She never apologized.
The other clerks were very nice. They seemed embarrassed that there had been a scheduling mistake. They made up in some small part for her unpleasantness, but still the idea that that woman still has a job boggles the mind.
I get it. Mistakes happen. They ought not to happen when someone takes as great care as I did, but they happen. If you screw up, however, the very least I expect from you is an apology.

I had a pretty bizarre experience at Webster. I made an appointment to see Dr. Michael Tseng to get my back checked out. The lady told me that he is available in Berkeley office for that day. I live in Oakland but decided to make the trek to Berkeley. When I got there, I was told that Dr. Tseng was in Oakland that day. They told me I could go to Oakland but there is no guarantee about when I will get to see him and refused to even call the Oakland office to check if there is anything available. No apologies, nothing.
Coupled it with the fact that they have terrible wait times, I will avoid.

Having been treated by Dr. Peatman and PA Sue Conley, now for a knee problem and an injury, I can say that I trust them completely and will go straight to them if the need arises again.
Dr. Peatman repaired my left knee macerated meniscus 1.5 years ago. I had that darn pain for years and now it’s like that never existed. And there is only a tiny, scar that I have to hunt for — no one else would be able to pick it out. My experience is that Dr. P. is a highly skilled surgeon.
I recently had a deep cut over where my Achilles tendon is on my right leg. I don’t know why it didn’t occur to me to go straight to Dr. P. and Sue. I went to a regular doc, and 1.5 months later, I was still swollen and sore, not sure if I’d ever be able to push off with my right foot again.
Sue put on a new age dressing — polymem — which turbo-​charged the healing. Swelling completely down. Dr. P. determined that I did not need surgery.
I want to add that I *adore* seeing and being treated by Sue. I always feel that she’s my advocate — facilitates the best care for me there within and without the practice.
It’s true that the wait time can be excessive but I’d rather wait (annoying as that can be) and get top-​notch care than get ushered in fast for care I don’t trust. Staff at the Berkeley office are very friendly; staff at the Oakland office leave a lot to be desired.
Summary: *Go see Dr. Peatman and Sue Conley with confidence*, and bring a book.

5 stars for Dr. Peatman and his PA Sarah Langbein, who saw me for an initial and followup visit respectively for some a knee problems. Dr. Peatman gave me what seemed to be a thorough but efficient exam and diagnosed a much more minor problem than my GP did, translating to a recommendation for physical therapy and not surgery, woohoo! Dr. Peatman and Sarah were both very professional in explaining the problem, and they were very thorough (using clear and simple language along with a model of the knee, and no medical jargon) so that I understood what caused it and how PT will help. I love when health care providers take the time to do this, rather than just tell you what the diagnosis is and give you a prescription, because it really helps you understand your condition better which in turn helps you heal better!
I’m taking off 1 star because of two things that bugged me (but weren’t worth taking off 2 stars because of the quality of actual care):
1) The wait times can be long… I arrived on time both times for early morning appointments. First time, I didn’t get x-​rayed until 45 minutes after my appointment time, and didn’t see Dr. Peatman until 15 minutes after that. I do expect a fair amount of waiting around at doctors’ offices, but this was just too much. The second time, however, I only waited 15 minutes to see Sarah, which was a great improvement.
2) One if the people who work at the front desk really needs to work on her people skills, or maybe she’s just overworked and they need to schedule someone else to handle the front desk. I arrived for my appointment, and I’m the only patient there, and she’s the only staff there at the desk. I said I’m here for a 8:15 appointment, and she said she’ll be with me in just a minute… she’s working on some patient billing issue that seems important but not all that urgent… so it’s weird, but whatever, I sit down. 5 minutes later another patient walks in and says she’s here for a 8:20 appointment… and she proceeds to help her. I chime in to say that I was here 5 minutes ago and have been waiting to be helped (and have been sitting right in front of her, with nobody else in the room!). She doesn’t apologize but does start to help me, but she’s nonchalant and distracted, just doing her job with no courtesy and little acknowledgement. Later when I am leaving she is much more friendly, so maybe I just caught her in a bad time, but come on. It’s not that much to ask to interact courteously with a patient even when you have a lot going on, right?

I have only positive things to say about my experience with Webster Orthopedics, and specifically Dr. Michael Tseng. I had a severely herniated disc and needed prompt attention and surgery. Not only was he competent and familiar with current procedures, but made me feel comfortable, listened to, and hopeful. A sense of humor and a positive attitude were icing on the cake — a rare find in any doctor, especially an orthopedic surgeon! My surgery went very smoothly, and I’ve made a full recovery — no more back pain! I would recommend him to any and all of my family and friends.