Virginia Cafaro, MD

Like a previous reviewer who gave Dr. Cafaro 5 stars, I have been her patient for over 20 years. Unlike him I am not surprised that people give mixed reviews, but I believe the reviews are mixed primarily because her front desk staff unfortunately does not represent the quality or character of the practice as a whole — that is, the service is spotty and, to be honest, one member of the front staff is downright surly. When I first began seeing Dr. Cafaro in 1992 her office staff was efficient, empathetic, entertaining, and most loveable — the best office staff I had ever had the pleasure of going through when I needed to see my doctor. I have no idea what happened as people moved on in their careers and others were hired. She took me as her patient in the wake of a catastrophic year in which they had lost 14 men to AIDS. Newly arrived in San Francisco, I had been phoning through a lengthy list to find a doctor. I was turned down time after time, and I was fortunate to be added to Dr. Cafaro’s patient roll. Over the years Dr. Cafaro has become one of the nation’s most respected doctors in the field of retroviruses, dealing daily with HIV, HepC, and other medical nightmares that have, as a result of her work and that of so many others, gradually been brought under some semblance of control.
Dr. Cafaro is the most brilliant personal physician I have known. She is able to take random symptoms and make sense of them. She is a healer. And she takes her time. One person describes her as garrulous, not negatively; I would not, however, agree. She has a wonderful sense of humor, but over the course of an appointment, she gathers odd bits of information, sometimes seemingly unrelated, and by appointment end, she generally secures a solution to even enigmatic difficulties. Also, unlike many physicians trained in western medicine, she recommends medical practices that fall under the umbrella of medical care, but are often viewed skeptically by western doctors. She does not deny the power of eastern medicine, for example, and if she is perplexed by a condition will recommend naturopathy and other umbrella practices.
Her primary PA, Jennifer Chen, is well trained, efficient, and brusque. She provides a counterpoint to Dr. Cafaro’s more leisurely approach to medicine, but, unlike a previous PA who remained only a short time, she is excellent at what she does. She is blunt, can be skeptical, but unlike one brutal harangue against her in these reviews, she is not angry, bitter, or hateful. She simply does not strive to be your mother. I call attention to this because as a professor I have read studies of student evaluations, and I believe that students’ expectations of women professors are much like patients’ expectations of female doctors: they want nurturers, women who exude empathy and affection, who for all intents and purposes behave like their ideal mother (and perhaps not like their real mother at all). They do not expect this from men, and, indeed, for the very same traits that they lower their ratings of women professors, they honor male professors. Much of the same, I believe, goes on in people’s minds when they go to a woman doctor or PA. The brusqueness that they would describe as intelligence and incisiveness in a male doctor or PA, they experience as bitchiness from a woman doctor or PA. That’s the way of our world. Female professionals have to live with it and discover ways of dealing with it. Jen is outstanding; she could easily be a doctor if she chose to be. We are the ones who need to examine our preconceptions of how women professionals need to behave.

I came across these Unilocal reviews of Dr. Cafaro and Wellspring Medical Group and was pretty amazed at the wide range of reviews and comments. I have been a patient of Dr,. Cafaro’s for over 20 years now and except when she is out of town, I have always been able to schedule my appointments with Virginia. The only other exception is if I am having an emergency health issue in which case Jennifer or someone else in the office sees me the same day. I don’t understand the comments of patients never getting to see Dr. Cafaro as all I have to do is when I call to make an appointment, I simply ask for the next available appt. with Dr. Cafaro. It’s that easy. As for Dr. Cafaro… It does not matter how busy the office is, how many people are waiting in the waiting room, how behind schedule she is, Dr. Cafaro always gives me as much time as I need to answer all of my questions and concerns. I have never felt the slightest pressure to rush my appointment so she can move on to the next patient. To repeat… she always gives me as much time as I need. She is extremely knowledgeable and compassionate. I will say the same about Jennifer Chen and Dr. Higgins. When traveling overseas I had an emergency health issue and called long distance and had someone in the office call me back immediately. Is her staff a 5 star staff? The answer is «no.» But no practice is perfect and her staff has actually improved over the years. I agree with the comments that if you are a relatively healthy person and just need an occasional office visit for tests, or a hang nail, you may want to look somewhere else. Dr. Cafaro and her staff deal with patients with serious life threatening health issues such as cancer and HIV. In a city like San Francisco, they are kept very busy with such cases.

I’ve visited the office twice and had excellent results. First time was for a physical. I was happy to hear that Dr. Cafaro could also take care of a gynecological exam. Killed two birds with one checkup. The second time was because I became violently ill with a stomach bug. The office was able to get me an appointment 2 hours from when I called. I was not able to see Cafaro but that wasn’t necessary. Another doctor gave me an anti-​naussea shot that helped me feel better and get much needed rest. I’ve recommended Dr. Cafaro and her office to friends.

I have taken some time before writing this review, because I never met Dr. Cafaro. I have heard she is excellent. Unfortunately I’ve realized I am simply not willing to return to her office after my visit.
I scheduled an appointment for a physical. The appointment was set with the PA which is fairly standard practice now, so I had no concerns with that. They suggested I get there 15 minutes early to complete paperwork. I ended up being ten minutes early (traffic snafu on my tiny one-​way street), then waited several minutes to talk to the receptionist (okay, she was helping someone so no problem there). The receptionist was very nice; she handed me the paperwork.
I sat down to fill out the paperwork. I am very fast at this since I am very organized. I completed the paperwork quickly and waited, and waited. .. . Several people were called to the back while I waited. I went to the desk to make sure that I didn’t need to sign in or something; she assured me I did not and I would be called soon.
So I waited longer, now 25 minutes past my appointment time. The PA finally called me to the back and took my paperwork. She then focused on entering the information into the computer. She was very nasty in her tone and attitude as if I had somehow put her out by showing up for a physical. She expressed anger that she had trouble finding my information in the computer system, «Someone must have put you in here before. There’s no way you don’t have health problems.» This comment seemed to be based solely on my weight and appearance. While over-​weight, I am not exactly 500 lbs.
My family has a rare genetic disorder that includes a possible variety of symptoms. It is important to understand what the actual effects are. When explaining about my brother’s series of heart surgeries, she cut me off and snottily said, «You already told me he has [the disorder]. I don’t care about this.» She also insisted on sending a prescription order through to Walgreens that I told her I did not want her to do. Since she was too angry to listen to me, it wasn’t worth the fight.
She did find some of my former records in the system, then told me «Your numbers looked okay then but they could be better. Besides, I’m sure they are much worse now.» I really enjoyed being judged based on my appearance, especially since my «numbers» are better now.
After yet more unpleasant repartee, I was informed that we were running late so she did not have time to do a physical and I would need to schedule another appointment. (Of course my insurance was charged for a physical. It’s only going to pay for one in a year.) And, «We’re going to need to see your test results before we can do anything.» Again, thanks for the preconception and I think you can still do a physical exam without knowing my cholesterol levels. Also, I wasn’t late — she was. I can understand medical offices falling behind, but penalizing me was not fair.
I asked for a mammogram order since it had been a few years. She was visibly angry, barking at me «I have to do a breast exam first!» as if that was a major setback for her. She did do the exam; I just half stripped right then and there, no gown. Another staff member started walking into the room during the exam. Hello hallway friends! Here are my boobs!
I was told to go down the hall. The office takes a photo of new patients. I said hello to the woman in the small office. Again, I was hit with nasty attitude. It’s not my request that they take my photo, yet somehow she felt free to speak to me as if I was garbage and treat me as if I was putting her out.
Strangely, throughout the whole experience, I stayed quite pleasant. I said my goodbyes to the nice receptionist and left. But as the days went on, I realized I am not willing to go back to this office, and I haven’t had the blood tests or mammogram done using the slips provided. I simply do not want to go back to an office in which they feel it is okay to be nasty and dismissive in tone and attitude. If they are this rude and resistant when I simply need a physical, I cannot expect to be treated much better if I have an issue. So, unless Dr. Cafaro makes major staff changes, I’ll go elsewhere.

The best doctor ever. Dr. Cafaro is always up to date in her medical knowledge. Generally appointments are on time. The staff is always pleasant.

An acquaintance who is always trying to dump on my recommendations told me about «negative reviews» for Dr Cafaro, my doc for over a decade with whom i meet 3 or 4 times a year. I had to look.
I started with Virginia when my previous doc didn’t want to switch meds when i was having problems with my previous meds.
I think she is one of the best infectious docs in the city. Brilliant with new drugs, new problems, new regimens, new generics and supplements. She is great especially with proactive patients.
I read the reviews, bad and good. The bad reviews are mostly BS. Course i’m prejudiced but it strikes me that the bad reviews are simply people who are very poor at organizing their communications with a very very busy office. I know personally all of the staff personnel, especially Jeff. The computer sys is only a year or so old, so they’re still somewhat getting used to it. I shake my head in wonderment at anyone who only sees her twice a decade, then wants instant service.
It always takes a day or so to reach the doc, but every time i’ve «declared an emergency» and needed an asap appt (about once every two years), I reach a human when the office is open and I have been able to get an appt within 24 hours, Virginia always «squeezes me in» or with Jennifer. (Anything worse than that should be dealt with in an emergency room). And, yes, it takes a couple weeks for a regular appointment. Would you rather have Dr Cafaro turning away new patients? She regularly has a sign on the door, «no reps, too busy.» Yes they have a lunch period, but so does every doc office, and if they tried to answer phones, they’d never get a break.

I love Dr. Cafaro and have seen her personally many times over the years. Her PA’s are also always friendly and helpful to me when I visit.
They have improved their telephone system, and generally I get a call returned the same day.
The receptionist is very abrupt and dismissive, but I’m not going there to see her.

It is ten years ago this week that PA Jennifer came to my hospital bedside in tears, apologizing for having missed the heart attack I enjoyed while in her exam room.
Let us hope she learned a lesson. One I paid for dearly, and almost with my life.
BE CAREFUL.

If I could rate Dr. Cafaro with 10 stars I would. First let me comment on those people who have posted negative remarks about Dr. Cafaro at the same time as they admitted choosing their Doctor randomly out of a book. Seriously, if you don;t have the time or won’t put in the effort to research your Doctor, you don’t really have the right to complain.
Dr. Cafaro is a genius whose field of specialty oncology and infectious disease, by nature, means she is going to spend most of her time and effort on people who have serious chronic diseases. If you complain that you never get to see her, it’s probably because shes helping people who are fighting for their lives everyday, so take your routine «physicals» and stick em where the sun don’t shine.
Also, you go to a Doctor to get treatments for physical ailments. Not to be treated like royalty by the office staff. If you don’t like the receptionist, try treating them better next time, instead of calling them names.
Admittedly, I’ve been going to Dr. Cafaro’s office for over 20 years, so I am very aware of all her abilities as well as the short comings of her staff, that being said, I have never seen anyone except Dr. Cafaro save on two occasions when Virginia was out of the country and I had an emergency. I have trusted my life to Virginia for over 20 years and I hope to trust her with it for another 20.
Simply put, she is the best qualified physician I have ever seen.

I’ve been going to Dr. Cafaro’s office for about 7 years.
I’ve only ever spoken to Dr. Cafaro myself once, but usually I see Jen. She’s great. She always calls me back within a few hours of me leaving her a message.
The office is far from perfect, but its by far the best doctor’s office experience I’ve had in San Francisco, and believe me I’ve been to quite a few.
I’m surprised to see such a low score and all the negative reviews.

If I could give this woman no stars, I would. I picked her to be my PCP randomly out of the book about 10 years ago. Everything about her office staff sucked from the get-​go, but given that I only went once a year for my annual exam, I just dealt with it. I saw Jennifer Chen for years because to see Cafaro you have to plan your medical emergencies six months in advance. Jennifer was constantly rude, dismissive, and bordering on negligent. When I found a lump in my breast and was FREAKING OUT, she asked to look at my breast, didn’t actually touch my chest at all, rolled her eyes, gave me a wave of the hand, and said «Oh you don’t have cancer!» Really? Because the last time I checked, breast cancer wasn’t visible to the human eye. I had to fight tooth and nail for her to give me a mammogram referral, and I ended up having surgery (not cancer, thankfully, but serious enough to warrant surgery). She frequently talked over me, and rarely did I get the sense she was actually listening to me – not a trait you want in a medical professional.
And dear sweet Jesus, let me just take a moment to discuss her office staff. Much has been made here about their lack of urgency in calling people back. Every single time I needed to see someone, I had to call no fewer than three times. EVERY SINGLE TIME. Unacceptable. I finally started calling them out on it, telling whatever cretin finally called me back that I was sick of having to leave multiple messages. And never was I offered an apology, not once. Instead I was offered atttitude and snottiness. And never once did I speak to someone there who had any sort of basic verbal skills. I’m not talking about people born elsewhere for whom English is a second language; I’m talking American-​born people who speak at a maybe a seventh-​grade level. Does she hire her staff from the bottom of the nursing barrel? I expect a doctor’s office staff to be somewhat articulate and knowledgeable. You’ll find none of that here.
About three years ago, I developed a chronic condition that required more doctor’s visits than I’d previously experienced. I decided to stop seeing her PAs and finally see the woman herself. It takes MONTHS to see her, and when I did, she was personable enough, but it was clear from the start and from every subsequent visit that she’s running nothing more than a factory. She must see 60 patients a day. What this means for her unlucky patients is that they get all of three whole minutes to explain their condition while she halfheartedly listens and figures out how best to usher you out of her office because she’s got 50 people in her waiting room. (And don’t get me started how many times I’ve sat in her waiting room for 45+ minutes, as though her time is more valuable than mine.)
You’ve barely finished describing your symptoms and she’s already writing you a prescription for something because throwing drugs at the problem is easier than using her brain and trying to get to the bottom of a medical problem that is complex and requires some actual medical know-​how. My wife saw her as well and Cafaro just said «Oh you have high cholesterol? Here is this drug that’s new on the market. Bye.» We had to do our own research and discovered enough disturbing side effects that my wife quit taking it. And Cafaro never even scheduled follow-​up blood work to see if the drug was working at bringing her cholesterol down. I’ve had the same experience with zero follow-​through as well. I’ve had to call and call and call to get results of tests she’s scheduled. We as patients have not gone to medical school. As a doctor, it’s YOUR JOB to take the time and discuss test results with us, discuss our concerns about side effects of drugs, and discuss our medical histories at length. Instead, she just leaves her patients to wander around in a morass of medical confusion.
Seriously, this place makes me angry. As if health care isn’t fucked up enough in this day and age. We’re all striving to find a doctor who provides personal attention, concern for our medical issues, and is an advocate for your health. I cannot emphasize enough that Cafaro is NONE of these things.
I finally, finally, finally after three years of putting up with this crap, bit the bullet and did research to find a new PCP. Yes, it was a pain in the ass, but when you’re sick, you shouldn’t have to include Putting Up with a Crappy Doctor on the list of things you have to deal with. I now have a doctor who is responsive, attentive, and takes the time to hear me and think about my issues. Those doctors are out there, people, and I urge you all to go find one because you won’t find it at this office.

Absolutely horrible experience. In the two years I have had her as my PCP — I have never seen her. Her staff (the other doctors and NP) are extremely rude. I have had a doctor unable to locate my medical records and said that the doctor who had seen me before had left and was very unorganized!
I also have called to make appointments specifying that I am in pain (not extreme) and would like to see someone and the first available was in a month.
Do not recommend.

Dr Cafaro herself is a wonderful doctor and very nice person. But, out of maybe 15 visits, I have only seen her twice. And if she actually saw me occasionally when I go in and i did not have to deal with her sometimes very rude front office staff, there would be no problem. But, I am right now trying to find a new doctor because I do want to occasionally talk to the doctor herself and I don’t want to be treated so insensitively by the staff. Her PAs are not the problem, they are quite nice, but the front office staff and whoever it is who returns phone calls can be really downright mean and nasty sometimes. It’s hard to understand why dr. Cafaro tolerates them. She should call them sometime, pretending to be a patient, and see how they treat her.

I’ve been going to Dr. Cafaro’s office for over four years now. I’ve actually never met her – I’ve never needed to. I’ve never had any issue serious enough to see a doctor for (with one exception, in which case I needed a specialist, so I went to one). I’ve always seen Kelly, whose training as a physician’s assistant makes her more than qualified to treat the things I’ve needed treated.
I remember being very much put at ease by their new patient questionaire – while it had sections for alcohol and smoking, for recreational drugs it said «discuss with provider.» Right off the bat I knew that they recognized that to get the best health care I need to be honest, and to be honest I need to be able to trust them. I’m certainly no crackhead, but I don’t really want to put everything in writing, you know?
I have gotten no judgmental behavior there either. I’ve had doctors in the past treat me badly because I have a different lifestyle than they do. (Holy crap, piercings? I must be from the devil.) If Kelly has ever had any issue with the way I live my life, she’s never shown it; she’s always respectful.
I have never seen Dr. Cafaro, but I referred a friend of mine to her office, and she saw Jen. She was delighted with Jen, but had more serious medical problems than a P.A. can address, so she then saw Dr. Cafaro. My friend was delighted with her too.
I just called to make an appointment (I agree they can be a pain to get a hold of, but this time it went perfectly smoothly). Apparently Kelly no longer works there, so I’ll be seeing Jen this time. I could have gotten an appointment with Dr. Cafaro, but I’m perfectly happy with P.A.s. People who insist on seeing the doctor should actually insist to the office instead of whine about it on Unilocal; they’d give you the appointment. You might have to wait longer, though. That’s why doctors have P.A.s – so they can have more patients get seen for minor or routine medical care and free themselves up to deal with more serious issues.

I have Jen as my doc. She is smart, efficient and attentive.
All the reviews about the front desk peeps is true indeed. They are substandard. You need to be kind, and persistent and you’ll get what you need. Same goes for life.
It’s seems like all doctor’s offices in S.F. suffer from the front desk indifference syndrome…

Dr. Cafaro is nice, and very experienced. However, she spends most of her appt. time with her computer instead of the patient. Her office staff is the worst I’ve ever encountered. The office staff does not answer the phones, they don’t return phone calls, which resulted in a trip to the emergency room for me a couple of months ago. I left a detailed message relaying serious symptoms at 9:15 a.m. and never got a call back. The message was left with a live person (for a change).
They also billed my partner for a missed appt. and the office staff accused him of lying when he said he called and left a message (because nobody bothers to answer the phones) — he had to produce his cell phone bill to get them to drop the charge. He wrote Dr. Cafaro a letter about it and she never bothered to respond. He will not return to her office.
If you have anything that can be potentially serious — find another doctor, you are not in good hands with Dr. Cafaro’s office (although Dr. Cafaro herself is good).
Matt B.

I met her on my first visit; She seemed great.
Never saw her again.
Instead, I was assigned diffrent Dr. /​RN each visit.
This caused communication problems that proved dangerous.
This sort of thing is probably pretty common these days, so perhaps it’s not fair to blame Dr. Cafaro in particular…

Went for a yearly physical and the coding on the labs got screwed up. Tried to get her office to fix it with CPMC but the bills kept coming in. Told them that I got a collections warning and her office said they’d take care of it. Well, two months later I’m now getting sent to collections for a completely coverable visit.
Additionally, when I spoke with «Jeff» who handles their billing, he basically gave me the «what do you want us to do?» He wasn’t sympathetic, didn’t reassure me that they’d take care of it, and basically said that I’m probably going to have to pay it.
That is my last visit to her office… time to shop for a new doctor.

I must echo the reports of everyone else here on Unilocal regarding Dr. Cafaro. She, herself, is a wonderful physician, very knowledgeable, friendly and great to talk to.
But nobody in her office will bother to pick up the phone. Dr. Cafaro is impossible to see. Her PACs are competent but always being left in the hands of a nurse practitioner makes me feel un-​cared-​for by the presiding doctor.
The office staff is the weak link here. They’re not particularly friendly and patients should NEVER have to be shunted to voicemail … and often then never called back anyway!
Today, after 2 years care at Wellspring Medical Group, I was yet again unable to get a human on the phone, except to be put on hold and tranfered to a voicemail box. I am thus leaving the practice for friendlier waters.

I’ve been with them for 10 years, and the only reason I haven’t switched offices is because I’m lazy, lazy, lazy and healthy as a horse.
I go there once a year for my pap smear and to get my BC prescription refilled. It’s a painful process that usually requires leaving three or four messages before you get a call back, but since it only happens once a year, I just deal.
Not so much this year. After leaving EIGHT messages over the course of three weeks, I finally got a call back and was scheduled for an appointment more than two weeks later. Well, yesterday morning I realized that Auntie Flow will be visiting on the day of my appointment. So I called to (a) reschedule and (b) get an extra month refill on my prescription. Surprisingly, one of the twits from the office called back (in just a little more than 24 hours, *gasp*) to tell me as snooty as can be that she doesn’t think that they can do that and that I should have taken care of scheduling an appointment in time.
Not even my laziness puts up with that, so guess what, Dr Cafaro: you’ll never have the pleasure of meeting me (yes, in 10 years of being her patient, I’ve yet to even see that woman), we shall be like two ships passing each other at sea, again and again and again.
I’m off to find a practitioner who actually sees his/​her patients and has an office staff that works at least some of the time.