Los Gatos Doctors

This is just a warning to anyone with Medicare as your primary insurance; I was turned away from this practice because none of the doctors is accepting new Medicare patients.
I was referred to them by a specialist who thinks highly of them so I spent a lot of time researching each of the three doctors and trying to figure out which one would be the best match for me. I have Medicare as my primary insurance as well as an excellent supplemental plan. I saw they were accepting new patients and they are on the «preferred» list of my supplemental insurance. Elder care is listed as a specialty for one of the doctors so it looked like a good match.
I give the office an excellent rating as a real person answered the phone and she was efficient, polite and everything one could expect. Unfortunately I will never find out if these doctors live up to their great credentials and reviews since they will not take me as a patient.
I wish they would have published that they do not accept new Medicare patients as I wasted a lot of time vetting them as potential doctors for me. Hopefully this review will help other seniors not waste their time.

I agree with the other posts about the office staff and their lack of response. It takes months to get an appt and forget about getting in for a same day sick appointment. Unfortunately I will be looking for a better managed office. Dr Shade should really have her staff trained better as it is a reflection on her.

Absolutely horrible service! AVOID AT ALL COST! Other doctors in the office, i don’t know of and can’t review them, but Dr Angela Ritz is the one to avoid. I recently got in an auto accident, the person rear ended me and messed up my back and neck. The ER said i needed to follow up with my primary doctor, which WAS Dr Angela Ritz. They required i pay cash and would not run my health insurance. They stated they did not want to get involved with the auto insurance claim and required me to pay cash so they could accomplish that and they had a form for me to submit to my auto insurance to get paid back. I’m 25 and don’t have the cash to be floating my medical bills, that’s why i have health insurance, but they wouldn’t run it. I said paying cash was not an option for me and they could care less. Said i’d have to go to another doctors office that would run health insurance or go back to the hospital. ABSOLUTELY UNACCEPTABLE. I’ll be looking into this to see if any legal actions can be taken. Aside from this, she’s just not professional. There were multiple visits in the past where she’d take out the symptom book in front of me to look up what i had. I could just go to webMD for that. IF you want a Dr that actually cares and knows their profession, look elsewhere. If health, insurance, and a good doctor is not important to you, this is the doctor for you.

Finally was able to get an appointment for January only to be rescheduled twice by the office taking my appointment into February. A bit annoying trying to schedule time off work, since I work in a doctors office with the same hours.
Dr. Ritz is very nice, prompt and office staff was nice in person. Hopefully it’s easier to make an appointment as an established patient in the future.

I am giving the low stars based on staff interaction, not the Drs.
The staff isn’t very friendly or helpful. Two recent experiences have me looking for a new office.
1) My husband had all signs of strep, was prescribed meds and sent on his way. I called the office two days later because he had started to develop sores on his hands and feet and I wanted to see if his lab results came back (they hadn’t of course) I mentioned to the nurse it looked like he had hand, foot, mouth, and she told me he couldn’t get that disease. I never did hear back about the strep results as I requested. I ended up taking my husband to another dr and he did in fact have what I thought he did HFM, not strep.
2) I got blood work done on a Monday and by Friday afternoon I called the office to get the results. The nurse in a matter of fact tone said, «in the future the rule of thumb is 3 days for labs to get back.» Hmmm that’s funny, it had been 4 days. She proceeded to ask my last name 4 more times only to tell me the results weren’t in. Ok great… so Monday then??? Seriously, it’s like pulling teeth to get a decent reply from these nurses!
If you want to stalk the office to get results, get short and uneducated answers to your questions… then this is your place!

I have been going to Dr. Shade for about 3 years now and she is wonderful! She genuinely listens and cares about her patients. Unfortunately, I have to stop seeing her because the staff can’t seem to get their act together. I called 3 times to re-​schedule an appointment and never got a call back. Dr. Shade wrote me a letter to come in and take my lab panels and I did that however, I couldn’t get an appointment with her to go over my results! Keep the doctors, lost the staff! The receptionist won’t be winning any awards in customer service anytime soon either.

Dr. Shade is extremely intelligent, competent, up-​to-​date and has a wonderful «bedside manner.» She is not looking for ego strokes like some doctors, which can get in the way of communication and leave you feeling like a misbehaving child. She seems to care about her patients’ health and really listens. I rarely feel rushed. If I bring up two problems, she can handle both and write two prescriptions.
Minus one star for the office being quite busy; it is not always easy to get in if one is sick. Fortunately, I am not sick that often.

Beyond horrible experience.
I booked my appointment for a check up back in November and was told the first opening wasn’t until February. This was fine, I hadn’t had a check up in 6 years so i figured I could wait a few more months.
When the nurse pulled took me back, I told her that I needed everything checked as I hadn’t been to the doctor in so many years. I requested that I get my blood work done. I also mentioned that I had had a mild concussion two weeks prior. When Dr. Shade finally came back to see me I had been waiting in the room for over 45 minutes. She asked if I had any concerns besides what I had talked to the nurse about and I told her about how I was having stomach and back pain. She checked me for scoliosis… Once she ruled out that I did not have scoliosis (and in fact I have very good posture and spine alignment) she gave me a piece of paper to give to the receptionist and thanked me for coming in and walked out.
She never once asked me about my recent concussion, gave me a reflex test, or even checked my heart rate. If I hadn’t already been there for over an hour and a half on my lunch break I would have called her back over and made her give me a legitimate check up.
I only get once check up covered by my insurance every year and she wasted it.

My Dr. was a temp Dr. Too bad because she was great.
The receptionist is not very friendly. But I wouldn’t be in that great of a mood either if I had no back up help with the phones ringing non-​stop.
Always put on hold for over 5 minutes. Sometimes over 10 minutes.
Been trying to make a payment over the phone for a month now but always put on hold.
Was told I would receive a call back and never did.
Not worth it to me to have to jump through loops just to set an appointment or make a payment.
Switching practices.

Dr Shade is the best. The receptionist is always rude. Not friendly at all.

Receptionist was kind of rude. Also their new patient appointment is scheduled 3 months out. :(

I have been with a PPO style medical plan for a while, and I generally don’t go. Or, at least, I didn’t until I found Dr. Davies. I am new to the area and didn’t have the connection to a PCP or any quality specialists, and looking for a doctor on the internet, or in the listing pages from my carrier, was very difficult. Who do you trust? Then, someone I work with referred me to Tiffany Davies. She is really great and has helped me several times now when I might not of even gone to a doctor before. She is very knowledgeable about when it is important to see a specialist and when it might cost me money that I don’t need to spend.
The thing I liked the most about Dr. Davies was the attention I got from her. Her office was nice, her staff was nice, but those things are secondary to me in a doctor. Dr. Davies also has a referral network of the best doctors in the whole area and each time I have used her referrals, there were «Doctor of the Year» awards at each specialist I visited. Quality referrals and great personal attention was all I needed from my PCP and I got it.
If you need a very solid PCP who is connected to the best doctors in the area you should go with Dr. Davies.

I can’t sing Dr Shade’s praises enough! She and her whole office are wonderful. She sees me on short notice when I need to get in. She truely listens to me and is very helpful. And she is so consiencious about saving me money.

Dr. Shade is the best and should be an example for other doctors. She cares, is informed, thorough and practices in a very efficient office. You can tell that the business is run the way they would want a business to be.
She does listen to you. A lot of doctors just don’t bother to listen to the patient. I have since moved my 2 teenage children over to Dr. Shade (boy and girl) and they are very comfortable with her. Lyana, her assistant, is great too and very easy to work with.
I usually hate going to doctor’s appointments, but Dr. Shade makes it easy and comfortable.

You want a physician who is
1. Clinically sharp
2. Is up to date on ALL recent clinical studies about, Colon Cancer prevention, Heart disease, primary prevention, family history of disease, sports medicine…
3. Is compassionate, and, will LISTEN to you.
Then, look no further; Dr. Shade is very, very good.
She is in the same office as Tiffany Davies and Julie Quakenbush. She is the newest member of the 3 physician Family Practice office.
I cannot list enough positive attributes about her. Very caring and SHARP.