Humphrey Lu MD

This is a long overdue review but I wanted to share my experiences with Dr Humphry Lu and my daughter. When I was searching for pediatricians for my daughter I request a meeting with Dr. Lu to ask some questions from a first-​time parent. He had us come on into the office and spent about an hour and a half with us answering all our crazy questions. I felt secure that I did not need to seek out another pediatrician.
From the newborn stage to the early toddler stage we absolutely loved our time with his office. (we moved away at 18 months old on 2014. He was Always pleasant, taking his time to answer our questions, always respectful of the schedule and our apt times. I respected the fact that he used technology during our visit for recording our questions and keeping track of his patients being a single doctor office. He was always attentive and our daughter was always excited to see him. Mary and Melissa were fantastic with her as well. In addition it was always great that you could each someone on the phone and he was always getting back to us with quick responses to questions or concerns
I found him to be knowledgable and up to current questions, concerns and issues!
Now living on the East Coast we are in a much bigger pediatric office. We enjoy our pediatrician however I really loved the small town culture of Dr. Lu’s office and his accessibility.

Dr. Lu and his staff are great. When you live in a small town you don’t necessarily expect top notch care from the local doctors, dentists and pediatricians. However, Dr. Lu is the rare case of a small town doc with a world class pedigree and approach to his patients. Both of our young sons are patients and we’ve been through annual check ups and emergency drop ins. Every time Dr. Lu takes the time to listen, take in the situation and give us sound medical advice. We couldn’t be happier that he is in Half Moon Bay. If you have kids here on the coast you should feel fortunate you don’t have to go over the hill for this level of care.

We feel so fortunate to have found Dr. Lu. He is an absolute gem. He has been caring for our 3 year old son since birth. He is very caring, attentive, and knowledgeable. He is also very accessible. I really appreciate that, if I have a question, I can talk him directly via phone or email. If your child is really sick and needs to see a doctor, he will always make time for you. If you are looking for a doctor for a newborn, I cannot emphasize enough how much this reduces stress. At large clinics, you have to ask your questions through nurses or less experienced staff. Sometimes you just need to talk to your doctor when your baby is sick, and Dr. Lu is very responsive and attentive. He is also wonderful in interacting with our son, and I always feel that there is plenty of time in the appointments to ask questions and talk with Dr. Lu about our son. I highly recommend Dr. Lu.

We’ve been taking our daughter to Dr. Lu for about the last 6 years age 1 – 7. He has always shown the utmost attention and care for her — I think he gets more worried about her colds (because of the severe asthma attacks and hospitalizations over the years) than we do! And he SO listens to not only us, and of course our daughter, that he remembers her best little friend’s name who she’s always talking about. For those concerned about his iPad — welcome to the new milennium — it’s called digital records. Much more secure and efficient than paper. We have recently moved, have seen 2 different pediatricians with personalities ranging from wet noodle to disinterested with a front office that actually picks up the phone 1 out of 5 times. To the point where I was worried about her ear infection, had to get to HMB for an event, called Dr. Lu’s office and our daughter was seen by Dr. Lu that afternoon! All of that was arranged before the other «large» pediatrician’s office with multiple doctors even called me back. No doctor or person is perfect and and we all mesh with different people, and of course, we need to advocate for what we intuitively know is up with our own child. One time he wanted to prescribe something I didn’t want her to ingest so he worked with me to find something that still worked but didn’t bother my sensibilities. So we have nothing to say but good things about Dr. Lu.

Our two children have been going to Dr. Lu as their pediatrician for many years now (they are 15), and we have had nothing but fabulous experiences with him and his staff. Both kids are very comfortable with him and enjoy chatting with him during their appointments. He has a sincere interest in how they are doing in life in general — not just in their physical health! Dr. Lu is always positive and upbeat, and we never ever feel rushed during our appointments with him. He is extremely accessible and I appreciate being able to email him questions when I think of them knowing I’ll get a personal response promptly. I have recommended him to many of our friends knowing that they will receive the same high level of care and service that we enjoy. We are so glad he has his office here on the Coast!

Moving from out of state to a small town, I was afraid we would not be able to find a good pediatrician nearby. I was wrong. We found Dr. Lu and he is wonderful! I take both of my daughters to him and he’s so nice. The girls adore him and his staff… so do I. He’s always pleasant, acts like we are the only patients he is worried about, and gets us in the same day every time we call. He also keeps open afternoon appointments so the kids don’t have to miss school.
We are very happy that we found Dr. Lu and we feel lucky!

Our daughter was complaining about severe stomach pain for two days, couldn’t walk upright and had trouble sleeping because of the pain. She and my wife visited doctor Lu to get a diagnosis. My wife told him that there was no fever and my wife asked to check for appendicitis. He palpated the belly and found tenderness but ruled that it was not appendicitis, because of no fever, and prescribed a pain killer.
The next day when the severe pain did not go away we went to an emergency room that found that it was acute appendicitis and through a CAT scan found that the appendix had already ruptured. An operation was scheduled right away.
Doctor Lu did not perform all the standard tests, had to be nudged to look closer and ultimately arrived at a misdiagnosis that could have cost our daughters life.

Had a second child since my last review — still going to Dr Lu. Just as friendly, knowledgeable and caring as always. He has snazzy new offices right across from the HMB library and it’s great to see him doing so well. I look forward to seeing him regularly over the next 18 years :)

Breath of fresh air. Finally, a pediatrician that truly cares about children and knows his stuff. So glad I found Dr. Lu!

I always liked Dr. Lu but never realized how lucky I was to have him for my son’s pediatrician. Like others have stated, he’s the only one on the coast and he had been our pediatrician from my sons birth until 9 months when we moved to San Diego. Now I’ve had 2 other pediatricians and neither compare with good ol Humphry. When my son was newborn he lost a lot of weight and Dr. Lu called everyday for a week and one day when I didn’t answer he stayed at the office until I called him back. When my son was 8 weeks we had a seizure scare (turned out to be nothing) and I was hounding Dr. Lu via email (after he had seen my son and diagnosed it as nothing to worry about) sending him videos from youtube of babies with seizure and he emailed me back every time within an hour or two and got me in to get my son an ecg because I was so worried. I’m obviously a first time mother. And my last example of why the Dr. rocks is that my son just had a 12 month checkup with his new Pedi here in San Diego and I left with questions that she didn’t answer, I emailed Dr. Lu hoping he would take a minute to give me his thoughts on a particular manner. He emailed me back in 2 hours with more info than my pedi here gave me at our appointment. He even asked for a picture.
He seriously cares about the child and the parent. Friendly, gentle, great bedside manner and will take you the same day if there’s an issue. We love Dr. Lu.

I would recommend Dr. Lu to anyone looking for a great Dr. on the coast. We have been going to him for three years. It is so nice to have my child’s Dr. right off Main St. I have made appointments the same day, I have called with my concern. Dr. Lu is friendly and very professional. He is very easy to contact. He always returns my emails or phone calls promptly. Dr. Lu has awesome credentials and a kindness to match. Stop driving over the hill to see the Dr. Go to Dr. LU right here on the coast.

Our son had been a patient of Dr. Lu’s private practice for the past 3 years and even a few years before that when he was with the Coastside Clinic. As a doctor, I would give Dr. Lu 5 stars. However, his front office and billing practices bring the rating way down. We have had major issues each year that have resulted in fees higher than they should be.
Year 1: During the annual check up, Dr. Lu diagnosed a potential hearing problem, and recommended a follow-​up appt. At the follow-​up appt., my husband suspected the equipment was faulty and asked that the headset be switched around. Once he did this, suddenly it was his other ear that had the problem. Thus, it became clear that the equipment was actually faulty and my sons hearing was fine. In spite of this, he insisted on charging us for the additional office visit and the second test itself. After pushing back, we settled on a compromise to keep the peace even though we shouldn’t have paid at all for this second visit and test.
Year 2: We went in for a physical, but at the same time my son was not feeling well. My husband requested a strep test so that we could cover it without paying for an additional office visit. We were billed not only for the test itself (which we were expecting), but a 2^nd office visit as well (which was a complete surprise and counter to our prior discussion). This caused another argument and the office manager suggested that if we didn’t like their policies, we could find another doctor.
Year 3: At this year’s physical, my son was due for 2 immunizations, which would be covered by insurance. When Dr. Lu mentioned this would make his arm sore, we discussed delaying the shots to the following week after our son’s baseball camp was over. No mention was made that doing this later would cost us money for an additional visit. Had we known that, we would have gotten the shots at the physical. So, afterward we learned that not only would we have to pay an additional nurses fee, but also the immunization cost — which would have been covered had they been given the day of the physical. After calling and discussing, they were not willing to compromise.
I explained we would like to continue to see Dr. Lu — but would need them to be up front in giving us information with respect to what might cost additional, as we need to manage our medical expenditures very carefully as we have a high deductible plan. They are not willing to work with us in this way.
Our take is that they are looking for opportunities to charge more to insurance companies — and don’t seem prepared to be proactive and work with those of us with high deductible plans. We are disappointed to have to go elsewhere, as we would like to keep business on the coastside, but cannot afford to continue with this type of relationship.
This experience helps us understand why medical costs in this country are so high. When a patient attempts to be proactive in controlling costs, some (perhaps many?) doctors seem unwilling to operate like most other vendors of services in the rest of the world, who of course are always clear up front with estimated costs. My husband has experienced similar issues with his doctor as well.