Kenneth J Hammerman, MD

This Dr is great. He is very knowlagable and didn’t make me keep coming back in for no ridiculous reasons. Both persriptions he gave me were immediate successes and it didn’t require me to take time off for ridiculous extra testing. If you want your problem fixed quick and accurately without taking too much time he is your man.

In this day and age of specialists it is more than refreshing to know that there still are generalists out there that have the expertise and the skills such as Dr. Hammerman. Word of mouth was what brought me to him; he was the only doc to have found a tiny lump on my friends throat after many other specialists had tried but it has been his diligence, vast knowledge, common sense and command of medicine that has kept me going back for over 25 years. Yes, his office is always a bureaucratic bustle but he’s always managed to fit me in when I need it and I’ll take his expertise any day over plush digs and servile staff.

My boyfriend is a member of Kaiser and is forever singing their praise. From what I’ve seen, he’s absolutely right. However, it is not humanly possible that anyone at Kaiser could match Dr. Hammerman for his knowledge, common sense, nice manner, promptness or follow-​through. I’ve just signed up for Follow My Health where I can get info on-​line about my health. It was interesting to *read* the results of the lab work but I must say that Dr. Hammerman’s telephone call to me just now was ten times more welcome — personally assuring me of the good lab results.

I am updating my original 1-​star review. After speaking to Dr. Hammerman about the issue, he immediately removed the additional charge for the ear cleaning in agreement that his office could’ve informed me there would be a cost before performing it. So, I would like to say that he was very responsive and went out of his way to rectify this situation, and as a patient, I appreciate that.

If you base Dr Hammerman on his assistant, Imee, you will not go to him. She is so rude, and unknowledgeable it is very scary!

I have been a patient of Dr. Hammerman for 25+ years. He has guided me through lots of issues, some small and some life-​threatening. He listens, responds respectively, treating me like an intelligent person who is serious about living a healthy life. I am never kept waiting, he returns my phone calls, and remembers my issues. He has taken excellent care of my friends too. He is ethical, honest, intelligent, caring and responsive. I just hope he won’t retire before I expire.
Loretta O’Connell

wow wow wow. i have been in so cal for the past 10 years. what a huge relief to come home to the everwise, everkind, dr. hammerman. dr. ken has the BEST bedside manner and is thorough. it is icing on the cake that he is not only an internist but a gastr“guy” specialist as well.
have miised him more than i knew!!!
if you are having diegestive issue… run don’t walk to this guy. if u don’t live in s. f … worth going for the commute to see him.

NOTE: Dr. Hammermann is a wonderful doctor (I was forced to switch from Kaiser after 16 years when I took a new job late last year.)
That said, his receptionist/​gate keeper is very rude and her tone comes across as someone who would rather do anything else than help you. I have switched to another doctor. I would recommend professional development/​customer service training for his very rude receptionist.

I’ve never written a Unilocal review until now. In fact, I registered simply so that I could review this doctor.
I showed up for my first appointment with this doctor, waited, and then went in for my first check up. After the nurse gathered my initial health stats (e.g. blood pressure, heart rate, etc.), I waited for Dr. Hammerman to enter. When he did so, he was quite unfriendly and asked me if I already had a doctor for this chronic condition I have. I told him I did, and he said that unless I wanted to see him both for general medicine and the special condition, he’d prefer not to see me as a general doctor. At this point, I had taken a couple hours off work, made my way to the office, waited, and got prepped all to be told that he wanted to treat me for everything or nothing — a decision that could have been made had he looked at my chart earlier.
I have never had a doctor say anything like that to me.

I am greatful what Dr. Hammerman has done for me, don’t get me wrong. Unfortunately he hadn’t tried hard enough. He may have been a great doctor once, he’s just become very very old school. After getting a second opinion, I realized it actually IS ok to think that what you eat, does effect your gut. Duh. I think it’s either time for him to realize that medication doesn’t always solve everything and that the Western Medicine isn’t the center of universe, or it’s time for him to retire if he doesn’t want to listen to his patients with actual proofs. Or I should find a different specialist. I’m going for the last option. For a different doctor that always calls me back and when I call, there is an actual person on the other side for me.

If I could give Dr. Hammerman 6 stars I would…
From the moment I was seen, I felt that Dr. Hammerman was very knowledgeable, personable/​polite, and diagnosed my inguinal hernia in way that did not feel like I was being rushed like some doctor’s offices. He also takes time to get to know the patient on a personal level and wished me luck with my studies on getting into /​applying for dental school after seeing my school books. I based my visit to Dr. Hammerman from previous Unilocal reviews and I am glad I found him on Unilocal!I would highly recommend him to any Unilocal’er that finds this review!

I love Dr Hammerman but his receptionist Connie is the person who makes my life easier. She always calls back– how could some one handling such a huge practice ever be off the phone to answer? I am shocked when she can & tell her so & she laughs too. They are flexible, competent and generally great. They are my HMO & she is very helpful regarding referrals & getting the requests to the MD quickly. I couldn’t do an HMO without them.

I have no clue why anyone wouldn’t find Dr. Hammerman to be the best there is. The only negative is that he is busy. It’s probably because so many people recommend him. I have recommended him to a few friends and they all rave about him. I like him a lot for a few reasons: one is that no matter how busy he is he takes the time to explain everything to me. He also is generally spot on with his diagnosis. It must be tough being a great doctor and having so many cry-​babies complain about you as I’ve read in some of these posts.

Sorry, I’d like to give him a better review, but just can’t. He’s very knowledgable and experienced, which is the good part. I was first sent to him for a gut problem, and he was very responsive. However I continued to see him for general matters, and things went down hill then over the next few years.
I had some lingering thing that no one could figure out, including him, and through that he got a fixed idea that I was just a head case. Then when I became suddenly, seriously, terribly, obviously PHYSICALLY ill, he didn’t readjust his measure of me. Note to doctor: even head cases get deathly ill.
On the bedside manner, he’s a cold fish, but I don’t care, as long as I’m being listened to and taken seriously. I would describe him overall as experienced but judgmental.

Unilocal wants its reviews to be useful, funny, and cool. There was nothing funny or cool about my wife’s visit to Dr. Hammerman, so hopefully this review is at least useful.
My wife has an unusual medical condition. She was experiencing abdominal pain, so her normal doctor had an ultrasound performed and wanted a GI specialist to review the results. Since her normal doctor’s referral was too busy, my wife ended up with Dr. Hammerman. That was a mistake.
Before the appointment, I called her normal doctor to ensure the ultrasound results had been faxed to Dr. Hammerman’s office. They had. Upon arrival in Dr. Hammerman’s office, my wife specifically asked whether they had received the fax. They assured her that they had.
When we were finally in the examination room with Dr. Hammerman, he doesn’t have the fax. We said that the staff assured her the fax was here. He left the room for a few moments, returning empty handed. We went to Dr. Hammerman to interpret an ultrasound but, because of the incompetence of the office staff, the visit was pointless.
Then, Dr. Hammerman started talking about her condition, but I believe he was out of his league. In my opinion, he didn’t know anything about my wife’s condition. I don’t trust him because I believe he didn’t have the knowledge necessary to give my wife adequate medical advice.
We waited weeks to get this supposed advice, all the while my wife’s pain increased. Now we will have to wait weeks more to see another doctor. If there was some way to prevent our insurance from paying his office, I would do so.

Ok, I’m writing this review for my boyfriend, who has had a pretty lackluster experience.
The actual visit that he had with Dr. Hammerman to establish himself as a patient went well, but now the boyfriend has tried to call into the office several times because he has experienced an injury. There is not a LIVE body to answer the calls!!!
The v-​mail recording is all he gets. He left a message for Dr. Hammerman this morning to try and discuss an injury that he experienced earlier this week and has not received a call back. My boyfriend let me know that he was a bit frustrated. Several hours later, I called Dr. Hammerman’s office to see if I could get a person and STILL no luck. In addition, I noticed that the v-​mail recording by the office staff is very long, very detailed and not very clear.
If it were just this one day, it would not be such an issue. My boyfriend Laurent has tried to call in the past to get a copy of some lab results and was subjected to the rambling v-​mail recording at those times, as well.
I’m a little concerned if it takes this long to try and get a call back from a physician or a member of his staff. I know that there is 911, but isn’t the purpose of having a PCP is to have consistent and considerate medical care?

Dr. Hammerman is the most sincere doctor I have been to in… um, my whole life.
I have Celiac Disease and was looking for a doctor that deals with stomach and intestine problems along with all the other day to day things a Primary Care Physician takes care of. Dr. Hammerman does both so I get to kill two birds with one stone! I only waited a week to get in to see Dr. Hammerman and he was on time! I think I waited a total of 10 minutes.
He listened to everything I had to say and genuinely cared about my well being. He also keeps his Palm Pilot with him so he can look things up to be 100% sure! He even personally called me to let me know my blood test results all came out normal!
A few weeks later I got a little stomach flu and came in without an appointment. He was out of the office so I saw his colleague who fixed me up right away. That night Dr. Hammerman called me to apologize for being out of the office and to check up on me! Now that’s a good doctor!
I have referred him to all of my friends and they love him as well!

I can not say enough about Dr. Hammerman. Makes you comfortable. You never feel rushed. He makes sure you understand what’s going on and answers all your questions. I’d recommend him to anyone seeking a great and thoughtful doctor.

Hammerman rocks. He is a great listener, not like other doctors who want to jump right to a diagnosis and push you out the door. I would recommend him to anyone looking for a new general practice doctor.

Dr. Hammerman is everything that I want a doctor to be. He explains your options, he doesn’t waste your time or money, he is friendly and knowledgeable.
N.B. His current phone number is 415−923−3122.
Update: I went to his new office recently and it rocks. There is a lab right next to the office so you don’t have to go elsewhere to get blood/​urine tests. There is a garage directly under the building.