North East Medical Services

this review is for the guy who picked up the phone this morning ⁵⁄₁₇ around 7am. The male was totally rude, answered the phone, heard I was calling for someone else and immediately hung up on me. I will NEVER refer anyone to this hospital ever.

need to make a last minute appointment? Need to make a routine check up, dentist, or new glasses? Prepare to wait 3 – 6 months… So I advise you if you’re feeling really sick and can’t wait more than 1 – 2 days don’t even bother making an appointment. One time, I tried to make an appointment with the cardiologist and the next appointment wasn’t available till 6months+ and I really wanted a checkup asap.
Three stars because Dr. Helen Lu was my primary doctor for many years and she was amazing. She deserves 5+ stars alone but this review is based on overview imo. Also they provide many different services in one building like adult/​pediatrician, dental, optometry, nutrition, you name it.
Service is hit or miss, one time I saw this receptionist kind of raised her voice in a very rude way towards an elderly woman because she couldn’t hear her.

Time to renew membership every year. The income determine at 22k and the co-​pay for that income would be $ 40 per visit. Very expensive for people that is working with income $ 1800/​month and do not have insurance but still pay $ 40 to visit a doctor when you are sick.
The 2 stars is for the staffs (receptionist and member service staff Yvonne) at NEMS Clement Street

This review is for Stockton main location but I assume that they run other locations (Clement and Noriega and others) — same way.
Also, last time I went to NEMS was a year ago — but again, I dont think the things improved since then.
First of all, let me say that unlike some patients who receive discount based on their income, I never was eligible for any discount, so I always was charged full 100% rate.
And I think for the rate they were charging — the provided care was completely inadequate.
I shouldn’t even given them a chance…
Waiting time is long, main office is very crowded. There is barely any nurse service like measuring BP. But the main reason I’m not coming back: doctors.
They rush in the room, ask you a sentence, completely ignore your questions, and rush out before you can even say anything. Completely don’t listen to the patient.
Good luck if you have a few questions to ask: be lucky if they even pay attention to the main question you have. I usually need a doctors note — so I have to ask for it almost when the doctor is at the door already, and each time they give attitude. Never run or offer to run any lab tests, never schedule any follow up visits — so you got the picture — they don’t want you to come back.
I don’t think it’s adequate service for the amount they charge: it was $ 95 and then they raised it to $ 115 per visit. For such 5 min «service» — it’s way too much!
And again, I come with simple problems like flu or cough or cold. I wonder how they «listen» and «carte» to patients who have chronic conditions, serious conditions, which require lots of attention from the doctor. I’m very sympathetic to such patients. Because I believe every patient, regardless of their income — if they go to a medical provider — they must receive adequate quality of health care.

North East Medical Services at San Bruno Office is very unprofessional. Here are what happened:
1. They always changed their primary physician and almost all their experienced physicians have left.
2. They have now young, inexperienced physicians serving and the worst is they do not have hearts to serve. My friend who started coughing 2 months ago went to see his primary physician. At that time, he was treated by Dr. Cheng (unfortunately even with this Dr. Cheng, he lost his heart to help because he is retiring). He complained of cough and short of breath and the physician also noticed my friend is a heavy smoker with over 30 years smoking experience still does not recommend a chest x-​ray for him. He ridiculously prescribed the inhaler and cough syrups only. When my friend got better with his cough, the physician then asked him to take the flu shot by which he took and his coughing all started up again. Just before Thanksgiving, my friend had been coughing with blood strips so he went to see his doctor again. This time Dr. Jing referred him to take an x-​ray. When the result came with a diagnosis of possible lung cancer tumor of 5 cm, Dr. Jing then prescribed my friend with anti-​biotic drugs and asked him to try for 2 weeks before he did anything. It was totally unacceptable steps in view of the seriousness of my friend’s illness. My friend then went to emergency room to get his CT scan done. The next day he took the results to see Dr. Jing. Dr. Jing commented that my friend will have 6 months to live but still has not referred him to see any specialist.
Dr. Jing is extremely irresponsible and I think NEMS is taking advantage of the poor persons and their language barriers.
Do not join this group.

Dr. Lu, I highly recommend! She has a great bedside manner. I came with a list of questions; and instead of her going to my phone to mechanically read and answer them each, she chose to have a conversation. She wanted to find out the situation, and asked about the background of my problem. She is excellent at listening. She answered my questions directly. When I expressed concern about something, she even went out of her way to identify with me about something she had personally experienced in her own life, and shared her personal story — to assure me I had little to worry about.
I am a new patient. The check in process was seemless. The administrator Kit, was fast, understood the mission I came in to accomplish, and got the mission accomplished SWIFTLY.
I got my yellowcard quickly, and saw the Doctor at the agreed upon appointment time. I am not sure what all the fuss is about with other one star Unilocalers on this page. Ignore them. Especially the Unilocaler who complains about OBGYN service. This is NOT a OBGYN clinic! It’s a primary care! (Duh!) If you need a specialist question answered, you need to go to a specialist. This is a general Doctor. Do people not know the difference?
There’s also plenty of parking by the park, along park presidio, if you go to the Clement location.
I needed a referral for a specialist at a private practice, and the nurse assistant completed the referral in seconds. FAXED. DONE. I changed my mind and didn’t want to go with a private practice but instead with UCSF. So, I returned to the clinic close to their lunch time. They work so hard, they sent out the referral to UCSF — and again, the nurse assistant completed the request, FAST. DONE. She didn’t complain about how it was nearly 12noon. She didn’t complain about her time or me changing my mind, but focused on getting the job done, and just did it.
Bonus: They are organized and had the phone number ready for the specialist at UCSF and other facilities if you wanted something faxed. I came prepared with the phone numbers, and they already had it.

Dr. Katrina Liu, you are the most compassionate & professional doctor. You have given my son the best care for the past 8 years THANK YOU, YOU DA BOMB!!!

You want to save money on your own health? Get free medical and dental care? Come to this place, and be ready to sacrifice your health and life in order to save some money or to get free treatments!
I came here for dental work because the place that I trusted had given me a large estimate on fixing two teeth ($ 500), so I waited over one year and decided that I could apply for Nems and get discounted dental work because I was too cheap to care for my own teeth. So I went to see one of the male dentists here at Nems, and he said that I needed a root canal, I didn’t feel any major pain, and did not think much of it, as I felt that perhaps the problem had gotten so bad that I actually needed one. It cost me $ 1650 plus all the other things that I «needed» to do for my teeth. I decided that since I had waited for so long that I needed to take care of this, so I paid for it and took care of it. Now I find out that this root canal was never necessary, and that my problem was never this serious, I could have had a filling instead, but my tooth is gone now, and I’m looking into a referred dentist from a trusted friend to get this root canal removed, so that I can find another solution to my problem. I might have a fake tooth put in place for when I need to go to work, and remove it when I’m home as I do not want anymore chemicals put in my mouth. I will also be looking into replacing all of my mercury fillings with better things. There is nothing I can do for justice in this situation except to grieve my own stupidity, and to learn from this. I will never put my health in the hands of people that I do not trust in order to save some money.
I’ve heard of Chinese doctors and dentists giving unnecessary treatments and procedures to patients in order to make more money, but I never thought that this would happen to me.
Beware of the consequences for putting money before your life.

I have recently started coming to Nems. My doctor (who is wonderful) is located at the Noriega location.
But I came to the stockton location and I have to say the gynecologist I had was not informative at all! She did not explain to me what was going on, didn’t give me time for questions (I had to squeeze in my questions as she was rushing out), didn’t make anything clear about my visit.
I left feeling lost and confused. She seemed so careless. I will definitely be putting my complain in and will refuse to see her again. I think there is only a few Gynecologists and based off the reviews they lack knowledge and respect. Super unorganized. Not to mention I was in an elevator with a drunk lady who was pushing all the elderly ladies!!! Is she even suppose to be allowed in the building???

This is about a visit at Clement clinic. I saw Dr. Jane Lu for the 1^st time because my PCP was not available. Dr. Jane is very kind and has a beautiful smile on her face. I don’t like to see doctors, but Dr. Jane put me at ease. Too bad there is no pharmacy on site, otherwise I might switch to this clinic. There is a walgreen nearby though.

I put my elderly friend, a MediCal patient, on a waiting list for a dentist appointment. The lady who took the phone call said there are a thousand patients ahead of him. She seemed to imply that maybe I should forget about putting him on the list. She had no idea how many months it will take for him to get to the top of the list.
I already took him to an expensive eye doctor out of network after being told the wait for an appointment would be three months. (His glasses were broken and 15 years out of date). After he goes off blood thinners and has a biopsy at UCSF I will find out when he should see a dentist and probably will pay for an expensive one who can actually see him.
«Care delayed is care denied».
—–
I give NEMS a couple of extra stars because a nurse practitioner there was the only one in a long series of clinic doctors and nurses all over the city who correctly identified a life-​threatening condition.

I would give no stars if I could
The OB doctor is lack of knowledge !
I saw dr. Jong today. After the check up, I ask if he can write me a letter to my employer to explain my condition, he bought me out of the office to the front desk and told me …
He said that pregnant women in all stages are safe to fly airplane. It is airlines responsible if they take you. He said pregnant women may left up to 30lbs but if your employer ask you to left 50lbs that is ok too. Your employer is responsible for you. It is okay to work more than 8hrs a day, there are nurses in Nems who are able to work 12hrs a day. I told him I am not feeling well. Can you write my employer a letter that I am not capable to work over 8hrs, HE SAID NO. I asked if he can put how I feel in the letter that I’m experiencing dizziness and vomiting, HE REFUSE TO WRITE IT… All he got me is a paper say my pregnancy stage is… Dr Jong ignore patients feeling. I can not find deference between this doctor and a pregnancy test stick… Very disappointed …
I am not going back to him and this clinic
I hope you may find another doctor may better serve you and would be able to offer you a better advises.

the 2 OB/​GYN doctors suck! i had a nonstop bleeding issue 2 times in a row and the first doctor came to the room and prescribed medication right away without even asking my condition and didn’t even give time for questions. the second one he did check my condition but refused to give me medications (how the hell i’m going to stop bleeding if you don’t give me something or tell me what’s going on?!) and while i was asking questions he was already walking out of the room and took me 30mins to talk with the nurses to give me a prescription and a ultrasound referral which the doctor refused to give it to me. (chinatown)
as for my general doctor i don’t have a problem with her, she is always helpful, explains everything and is honest when she isn’t sure about my problem instead of giving false assumptions which could just alterate the patient emotionally, and always gives me options instead of deciding by herself (noriega/​taraval) (according to my brother she is hot!)
my nephews pediatritians are ok. sometimes we go several times for the same symptoms and ask her about the reason behind their problems and she just makes up stories like my family has the same problems but never is able to state the reason or say honestly «i don’t know» (noriega)

NEMS has been around for a long time. Back when I was a child I had two procedures «recommended» that I found out on 2^nd opinions were unnecessary.
1^st was four teeth front teeth that I had extracted as a child. As a result of the extraction my four front teeth did not grow out properly. I was told later by another orthodontist that this procedure was both unnecessary and done poorly.
2^nd was most egregious around my early teens there were small ring like growths around my nipples. The NEMS MD scheduled me for surgery to have them removed. The day I arrived for the procedure the MD took the day off and I had to come back another day. My mother was livid she took me to SF General. Where the doctor immediately diagnosed the growths as hormonal and would go away in a few months. No surgery needed. We later found out that another MD at NEMs my father’s also believed that the surgery was unnecessary. But he did not say anything because he did not want the original MD or NEMS to miss out on $$.
NEMS preys on unsuspecting immigrant families from China. Because there is a lack of Chinese speaking health care providers many of them go to NEMS because most of the staff speak Chinese. As a result NEMS makes money off the ignorance of others.
To see proof of their «success» just look at the new properties they have purchased and opened all over San Francisco in predominantly Chinese neighborhoods.

This place seems complicated and not very organized/​service-​oriented.
Before you can even schedule a doctor’s appointment, you have to become a «member» of NEMS.
To become a member you have two options:
a) Go to the hospital and wait in line. They’re unable to tell you how long it’s take, not even an estimate, except that «it’s going to be long». They recommend making an appointment (to become a member to be able to make a doctor’s appointment).
b) Call «member services». I tried on different days at different times. They always place you on hold for 10 minutes before they hang up or transfer you to a voice-​mail system that they apparently don’t listen to.
If that’s the experience and responsiveness NEMS offers to prospective clients, I can only imagine how you’ll be treated once you’re a patient and actually want something from them.
I heard from a friend that you can get good treatment once you actually manage to get an appointment, that’s why I’m giving 2 stars instead of 1.

This is the worst place ever!!! always a long wait… and service are bad I would never come here again if u r really sick and u wanted a appointment don’t bother calling …

The Stockton Street mothership location had a renovation some time ago, and it looks much more polished than the previous décor, which was eternally stuck in ‘70s-​mode. The facilities have a high-​ratio of healthcare providers and ancillary medical staff, which is always a good sight to see. Courteous and friendly, I can also practice my Cantonese here, which always brings out laughter especially when it comes to my butchering the medical terms… hehe.

This place sucks and the only reason why I went here was because I had no insurance at the time. Everyone that works there are soooo disorganized with a lack of communication. So many times I would get different answers from different people and sometimes they look at you like what were you here for again? Definitely a DANGEROUS combination for a medical facility. And I know this is definitely not how health professionals should be operating.

It was my second time at NEMS in Chinatown yesterday. Although parking can be a pain in the behind, the doctors and nurses that I have encountered at this location are pretty awesome.
My first time I went to get my teeth cleaned, unfortunately I can’t remember the name of the dentist but she was really nice and talkative and made me feel comfortable. She also did a good job cleaning my teeth.
The second time I went to get a Pap and the nurse practitioner that saw me was really friendly and made me feel comfortable. She answered all of my questions and was helpful.

Chose this place for the healthy sf program as it was one of the better places to choose from. But omg, what a horrible experience.
Came here twice for teeth cleaning, i’m not sure why, but there was ringing in my ear while she went over two of my molars, one on each side. I thought maybe she went over my fillings which maybe caused the ringing. This was not the case because I went to a different dentist and there was no ringing.
Came here also for blood tests and the nurses are maybe not properly trained? She asked which arm was my dominant arm and I informed her that it’s harder to find the vein on opposite arm and usually get my blood drawn from my right (dominant arm) she ignored me and tried to look for a vein in my left arm by slapping it a bunch of times. –_​– I have gotten plenty of blood tests in my life and i always get blood drawn from my right arm because it’s near impossible to draw blood from my left arm without causing bruising.
The only positive experience here was with a normal doctor that I came in for a check up with. I don’t remember her name as it was long and interesting, but she was I think the one of the only non-​Asian doctors there. She was super nice and attentive.