Fillmore Kimberley, MD, FACOF

Unfortunately Dr. Fillmore has closed her business. She was very busy because she was great at her job. I went to her for several years, she knew her stuff. She delivered my son in the middle of the night with smiles and friendly conversation, even with delivery complications she stayed cool and calm. She did an amazing job delivering my son safely into this world and took great care of me too. I had been nervous because my previous OB was terrible and caused me great harm, so even with similar complications, this delivery was about 200 times better. She even gave me a little ceramic booty with my son’s name engraved on it. She was terrific. Hopefully some day she will decide to reopen her practice.

Dr. Fillmore came highly recommended by my friend. I never had a gynecologist before then. Therefore, I was expecting someone that jumps out from the show Private Practice. Dr. Fillmore is nothing like that. It is true that the wait in her office can be as long as an hour. It is also true that she has never addressed me by my name. However, Dr. Fillmore is also an exceptional doctor, very knowledgeable in her field, and she hides her big heart behind that short-​and-​straight-​forward manner.
I had a high-​risk pregnancy due to my age. In addition, there were complications throughout my pregnancy. Dr. Fillmore and her staff were there every step of the way. They were very proactive in handling my case. Although sometimes, I would only get 2 minutes of face time with Dr. Fillmore, she appeared to have read through my file before she came in and whenever I had follow-​up questions, I never felt that I was rushed to finish. Dr. Fillmore always answered my questions thoroughly.
Fast forward to my delivery, I had to be induced and Dr. Fillmore was in the hospital the entire time. Going in, I was very nervous because of the numerous horror delivery stories I was told. But I found my experience to be very different. Dr. Fillmore gave me a big hug and some words of encouragement when I checked into the hospital. Then, throughout the day, she constantly checked my progress with the nurses. And during delivery, she was clam and caring. She kept ensuring me that I was doing a great job and making progress. Overall, my birth experience was very peaceful thanks to the professionalism of Dr. Fillmore and the nurses in the John Muir Hospital.
About the wait in Dr. Fillmore’s office, like I said before, sometimes the wait can be very long. In my experience, occasionally Dr. Fillmore has to cancel appointments to perform emergency surgeries. And when that happens, those appointments would be double booked in the following days, which create long waits for those days. Sure, I don’t want to wait around for my doctor either. However, just knowing that my doctor will drop everything to attend to my needs in case of an emergency gives me some comfort. To work around the wait, I always bring some reading materials with me. In setting up the next appointment, I always ask about the nature of the appointment in order to determine if I should bring along my husband. I also like to point out that the wait is usually much shorter (15 to 30 minutes).
I actually find Dr. Fillmore to be very genuine and I am so glad that she is my doctor. Because of the care of Dr. Fillmore and her staff, I was able to experience my pregnancy and the subsequent birth of my daughter in a clam and joyful manner. For that, I am very grateful.

I rated Dr Fillmore under

Terrible! You will wait for over an hour every visit. The Dr. Will see you for about 5 minutes. The staff can’t get it right with lab results, making copies or fully closing the door before asking Health information. Believe me she has bad patient satisfaction. Dumbfounded that the office still has patients and medical groups haven’t dropped.

When I read other reviews about Dr Fillmore, I do not recognize the Dr I have delivered 2 children with. I will not judge other reviewers, though, but will rather post my own opinion. Dr Fillmore is definitely a highly professional surgeon and obstetrician. I came to her office 3 years ago. For regular checkups you do not see the Dr herself, but rather nurse practitioners. For pregnancy, you see the doctor. Dr Fillmore is watching and delivering ALL her patients. She has no partners or assistants. How she does that? No idea! My first baby with Dr Fillmore is now 2. She was delivered healthy and well. My second baby with Dr Fillmore has just been born. She was delivered healthy and well. If you are looking for a doctor who will listen to what you want and follow your birth plan, you should look for another place. But if you are looking for a doctor who will take full responsibility for you and your baby, because she has 20 years of experience, including a couple of years in Pakistan (can you imagine those conditions?), with 2% of c-​sections with inductions, 13% of c-​sections with natural labor (national is 40%), then Dr Fillmore is for you. I listened to what the Dr told me during both pregnancies, and I do not regret a second! With my first baby there were no pregnancy complications, and Dr Fillmore let me carry till after week 40. At 40 weeks and 4 days she induced me. With the second baby I had gestational diabetes. Dr Fillmore induced me at 39 weeks. I listened and I am sure I did the right thing. Dr Fillmore follows the best practices, takes zero risk, does not leave any chance for a problem.
Dr Fillmore is for sure very busy. You may need to wait 10 to 40 mins for her to come. She will not spend 10 minutes with you chatting. She will come and leave. If you have questions ready, she will stay and answer them. I always have a list of questions, and she always answers them all. She will not discuss «what if» scenarios with you. She will only talk about facts. For example, she will not discuss with you what she will do if your baby is breach. She will tell you what she will do only after it is determined that she IS breach. Dr Fillmore is a very goodhearted person. She is assisting at Bakersfield hospital under quite poor conditions. She is taking her after-​hour calls. She is delivering several babies at a time. She is a working horse who, like I wrote above, takes full responsibility for every baby. Yes, communication is the area of opportunity, but who does not have any?
Every time I was afraid of something, Dr Fillmore would encourage me in a couple of words, assure that she knows everything will be fine, that she knows what she is doing, that I should trust her and stop reading horrors on Internet. She would give me her hand to stand up from the gynecological chair after every checkup, would give a hug every time I deliver and after. She has this internal warmth which goes beyond a need to talk to patients for a long time. She is the type of doctor who says: «you should worry about where to get money to pay for your child’s college, while it is me who will worry about delivering her.» The responsibility she takes is a blessing.

I don’t even know where to start with this… I was pregnant with my second child and needed a new OBGYN because we had moved since our first child was born. I found Dr. Fillmore through John Muir. My first appointment went fine. Then every appointment afterwards got worse and worse leading up to my delivery. First, every appointment I had I waited an hour in the waiting room to even get into a room. This made it so my husband and first child had stopped being able to come to appointments with me because there was no way that my older child could wait that long in a waiting room. My husband totally missed out on this part of the pregnancy. Second, leading up to my delivery Dr. Fillmore barely even knew my name. She flew in and out of the room and repeatedly asked me the same questions. It was like I was just a number to her. Her office front staff was rude and unprofessional. (I want to make a point that it was the secretaries, not the nurses that helped in the rooms. The nurses were the one bright and shinning part of my experience with this office.)
Finally, the weeks leading up to my due date I really felt like I should change doctors but I was so close I just didn’t. Two weeks before my due date I went to my weekly appointment. She examined me and then we talked for the fifth time about my delivery plan. I reminded her that I had a very quick labor with my first child and I wanted to be prepared for my second. She left the room and came back saying that we should just induce the next day so that «she could control the situation.» I explained to her that since it was still two weeks until my due date I wasn’t comfortable with this. She then told me there was nothing she could promise me if we didn’t induce. She practically bullied me into inducing. I finally had to tell her that there was no way I could make this decision without my husband. When I decided not to she gave me a lecture of how dare I. At my next appointment again she tried to pressure me into inducing and again I told her I just wanted to let it happen naturally considering myself and the baby were fine and I wasn’t even at my due date yet. She then told me we should do it tomorrow since she would be out of town for the weekend and if it happened then while she was gone she didn’t know what would happen and again couldn’t promise me anything. Turned out my baby came a few days later when it wanted to. She didn’t even make the delivery. (Granted it did happen quickly.) She never came to check on me and on the day of my discharge didn’t show up to discharge me until 7:00 at night. My baby was discharged at 7:00am. At one point the nurse called to make sure she was coming and she told the nurse to tell me that she would be there when she got there. When she did come she didn’t even examine me but just gave me a «told-​me-​so» lecture, even though my delivery was GREAT and came naturally. She ended on telling me to make a follow-​up appointment with her PA, not even with her. I was greatly offended. I will never go back to her again. She’s rude and didn’t make this amazing experience worth it. Seriously, find any other doctor but her.

I made a mistake by switching to Dr. Fillmore for delivering my baby, only because I like John Muir hospital and my original doctor is not affiliated to the hospital. I stayed in Fillmore’s practice for 6 months. When i was discussing my birthing plan with her at the last visit, she said that there are doctors who send patients to C-​section at 5pm just because it’s time to go home, but she’s not such kind.
On the day of my delivery, I was admitted to the hospital at 5am. The labor did not go fast enough for Dr. Fillmore. At 10am Fillmore wanted to break my water and put me on pitosin, the medicine for inducing labor. There was no sign of any fetal distress and so I did not agree with the plan since I prefer a natural birth as much as possible and I was in hospital for just 5 hours. I said I wanted to give it more time and things may speed up later. At 4pm, I was close to 8 cm dilated and could not deal with the pain anymore. I asked for epidural. To my shock, the nurse told me Fillmore said that she would not give me epidural unless I sign a «contract» agreeing to her plan for speeding up the labor. It felt just like being blackmailed. Over the phone I told her I was not going to make any decision while in pain, I need the pain medicine first. She said she’s not letting me stay in hospital for 5 days on epidural without making progress. My husband went outside the room and dealt with the situation. She eventually let me have the epidural without forcing me onto her plan. The next day when Fillmore came for release process, she opened the conversation by «you drove me nuts yesterday» ???
I really don’t think this doctor has any sense of what’s right or wrong. To me, trying to control people by depriving their right to pain relief is nothing better than sending someone to C-​section unnecessarily. I can’t believe John Muir allows such a doctor practice in the hospital, such a rude and immoral person!

I Unilocaled a review for Dr. Fillmore under Diablo Valley Women OB-​Gyn:

My experience at Dr. Kimberley Fillmore’s office today was one of the worst experiences at a doctors office i have ever had in my life. During my exam she was extremely cold, rude, and unacceptable as a doctor. She made me feel like a piece of dirt, and i was utterly humiliate by her actions today. Unless you are used to a drill sergeant i would NOT recommend going to see her.