Richard Essner, MD FACS

Dr. Essner treated my wife with her Cancer. Every time I had an encounter with Dr. Essner, he was always very caring and thoroughly explained her diagnosis and treatment. Even after her surgeries, he took the time to follow up with her personally. His assistant promptly scheduled all her follow up tests without delay. He is the reason why she is in remission today. I highly recommend him if you are in need of an oncologist.

My father was referred to Dr. Essner for basal cell carcinoma on his scalp and squamous cell carcinoma on his ear. When scheduling my father’s appointment I explained to Dr. Essner’s office that scheduling an appointment was difficult because my father was in a nursing home and was ill with Parkinson’s disease. Dr. Essner followed up with a phone call to me directly and made arrangements to come to the nursing home to evaluate my father’s scalp and ear. Dr. Essner’s commitment to patient care is amazing. He was extremely knowledgable and spent considerable time discussing treatment options for my father. After considering all of my father’s health history, Dr. Essner felt it was not in my father’s best interest to subject him to surgery because his Parkinson’s disease had progressed so far. I was so grateful that Dr. Essner came to evaluate my father. He is a very brilliant doctor with a very kind heart. I would highly recommend Dr. Essner, he is a true expert in his field!

I had surgery performed at Cedars Sinai by Dr Essner to remove a large malignant melanoma along with sentinel lymph nodes to check to see if the cancer had spread as it was shedding cells in the biopsy. My dermatologist recommended Dr Essner, who was able to fit me in the next day and I was squeezed into the surgery schedule two days later. This may be the cause of the wait others have experienced. Dr Essner is dealing with cancer which doesn’t recognize schedules. We couldn’t wait for the cancer to start spreading and luckily we got to it before it did.
My surgery went well, and my scar, well you can’t have surgery without a scar. I had a large chunk taken out of my upper arm and there was very little skin left to sew back. Dr Essner did a remarkable job and my scar is a light pink line running down the back of the arm, and the lymph node scar is hidden in the natural crease in my arm pit. No one is happy about getting a scar, but as scars go I’m very happy with it. Much better than the alternative!
During pre and post op, and my 6 monthly and first 12 month check ups Dr Essner has been professional and helpful. Yes, I had to wait, but I totally understand that he is also fitting in emergencies, such as mine, so I am happy to wait. I take a water bottle, a sandwich and a book and take time out of a busy world to relax. Dr Essner’s staff keep you updated and let you know if he is running behind (last time I was there he was doing a procedure which took longer than expected on another patient and he had to take 10 mins before seeing me to eat lunch — I’m OK with that).
When you go in for your ⁶⁄₁₂ monthly check ups make sure you go for your blood work and chest X ray prior to seeing Dr Essner.
If you get lost ask any staff member, they are all helpful and professional and very friendly.
Take a drink/​food as there is nothing available, even vending machines are scarce.
Parking is either valet or self park and there is a parking ticket machine in the main foyer.
I would recommend Dr Essner to anyone who has skin cancer and requires surgery, he is a great doctor, doing a brilliant job.

I’ve recently met Dr. Essner on two occasions while taking my older aunt in for a procedure and follow up. On both occasions Dr. Essner was punctual and most important he was patient. My aunt is in her late 70’s and has a hard time hearing. Dr. Essner was very attentive and professional and put me and my aunt at ease.
If you’re looking for a great Oncologist Dr. Essner is where you should start.

I read these negative reviews and don’t agree. Dr. Essner is an excellent physician and surgeon and we had a positive experience on all counts. My husband went to Dr. Essner both at St. John and his new location recently at Samuel Oschin. Dr. Essner is not running late at Samuel Oschin like he was at St. Johns. In fact, we hardly waited at all. In all fairness at St. Johns, they would warn you to bring reading material and spend time. We found him to be very competent AND He did an excellent job of removing my husbands troublesome moles. He is NOT a typical dermatologist; rather he is a top notch researcher specializing in serious skin cancers. We felt an extremely level of confidence going to him over our regular dermatologist. He knows his stuff. The only reason I gave 4 stars is because the staff didn’t do a great job of pre-​registering and getting us forms — we had to spend way too much time filling out forms that could have been done at home. Otherwise, well worth seeing Dr. Essner. We are lucky in Los Angeles to have him in our city.

He is always late for appointments. It’s brutal. I’m talking 90 minutes late. If you want to kill a whole day doing nothing, he’s your guy. Stay away.

He practices Surgical Oncology and «practices» is the key word. His work removing moles from my back was awful — he hacked me up like he was cutting chicken from the bone and then sewed me up like I was a pair of old jeans. My friends said I looked like Frankenstein after he was done with me. After I went back to have him remove the stitches, he took so little time and care that I started bleeding again and he left two stitches in me. How do I know his work was so bad? I had another mole removed last month by Dr. La Via and she did a fantastic job, so good that after just one week, her work looked twice as good as Essner’s, and his work was done 4 months prior! Stay away at all costs from this HACK.