Anna Frick, M.D.

Dr. Frick may be highly skilled in her field, but her manner is quick abrupt and not sympathetic. I showed up 15 minutes early and waited one hour to be seen. I walked in and the nurse said, where’s your questionnaire that you filled out? I never received one. Hence, I filled it out asap, they took 30 minutes to come back for it. Therefore I saw the dr. almost one hour late. That being behind us, she clearly had not read my history, which was complicated, despite the fact that I had a referral to her for a specific reason. She is curt and short and not at all sympathetic. For someone who deals with pelvic/​gynecological/​bladder issues, I would expect a little more compassion. I’m sure she’s a fabulous surgeon, but I will gladly go elsewhere.

I had been going to another urologist at John Muir for a long time, and he has not helped me. As a matter of fact, His opinion was that he couldn’t do much more. I heard of Dr. Frick through my GP, so decided to get a second opinion. Our first meeting was a roaring success. She is very articulate, very knowledgable, very kind, and gave me a tremendous amount of hope that my problems could be treated effectively. The prior doctor never mentioned any of the treatments that Dr. Frick suggested, even as a remote possibility. I am thrilled, and look forward to a distinct improvement in my quality of life.
The office help was also very nice, especially her assistant Alicia.

I’ve never written a bad review for anything, but I have to make an exception for Dr. Frick’s office.
I frankly don’t think that she should be accepting new patients, because she appears to be stretched thin and has little time for existing patients.
She is extremely curt and frigid. I understand having to cut off some emotional attachment when seeing sick people all day, but she is inept at even feigning concern. She does absolutely nothing to ensure her patients’ comfort. She has never once been the one on the phone when I sought her help, and she seems to get in and out of appointments as quickly as she can. I’ve never had an appointment I felt satisfied with, and have left thoroughly disappointed and in tears almost every time.
Her office staff have the worst communication of any doctor’s office I have seen. There have been several occasions where I have had to repeatedly pester them to send a fax, and then show up in person to get documents myself because they failed to fax them. They have also failed to be forthcoming with me about the status of certain referrals, even when I would call multiple times per week. I later found out they’ve had the information the whole time but did not communicate with me even when repeatedly requested. I have not had any positive experiences with them in the time I’ve been a patient (over a year).
As for actual treatment, the medication Dr. Frick gave me didn’t help much, and all she ever seemed to do was up the dose. When another Dr. saw me, she expressed that she normally doesn’t like to use that medicine and that it’s not right for everyone. Dr. Frick gave me a referral for pelvic physical therapy which is about the only positive impact she has made, but all she did there was sign a paper. She was extremely rough and inconsiderate while using a catheter, considering I have pelvic pain. I was unable to tolerate the cystoscopy, and left in searing pain and tears, without any of the images they needed. Her office continually asked me to come in for in-​office distensions which i had to flatly refuse because it made things significantly worse. She did not use any numbing agents, which caused another doctor I saw to physically shudder and shake her head in disappointment. She didn’t understand how that disconnect could happen – there is extreme pelvic and bladder pain, yet Dr. Frick attempted to insert a catheter while I was fully conscious with no anesthetic. The findings indicated by the laparoscopic surgery performed by Dr. Frick once I firmly requested to be knocked out for the cystocopy (I.e. that my bladder could not be distended, even while unconscious, therefore again no images were collected) were not found when I sought a second opinion. That doctor put me under twilight anasthesia and distended my bladder without a problem. I saw on Dr Frick’s visit notes that she said I thought the initial distension with her had helped my sense of urgency. I never said that. In fact, it was my understanding that there was no successful distension at that time. The second opinion that I sought post-​surgery with Dr. Frick also offered additional treatment options that Dr. Frick never even mentioned.
In short: if you want a doctor to be compassionate, accessible, thorough, and up-​to-​date, and you expect even the bare minimum of respect and communication from both doctors and office staff, then Dr. Frick is NOT for you. She may have a rare specialty but it doesn’t make her the most qualified doctor there is. She may be more qualified for incontinence issues, I can’t be certain, but in my experience, her treatment of pelvic and bladder pain is remarkably subpar.

rough! hurt a lot. super impatient. i saw her for underactive bladder. took urine from me, rather then let me go on my own. no pain deadening gel, rammed the tube in there and ranked it out. then immediately after — i was in a lot of pain — she starts asking questions, real brusk and impatient — i didn’t care, i needed to recup from what she did, so i took my good old fashioned time answering. YIKES! it still hurts today to urinate — i went to see her yesterday. STAY AWAY from her, there are lots of doctors like her in the bay area, you don’t have to go through that.

I recently saw Dr. Frick and I was impressed by her. I found her very professional and knowledgeable. She is very friendly and makes you feel comfortable. She has energy and is very positive. The staff there is nice and efficient.

I have been in and out of Dr. Frick’s office for over a year, considering surgery, canceling, coming in with another problem, considering surgery again. She has been consistently friendly, extremely competent, knowledgeable, and generous with her time — patiently explaining information to me (even when she has had to repeat things to me that I had forgotten), and consistently kind — even tho she could have justifiably experienced me as a somewhat difficult patient. I brought my partner in with me to my last visits, and the perception was the same — Dr. Frick knows what she’s doing; is articulate, an expert in her field, and is still a decent human being. We are planning for surgery. I will review her again, post surgery — but up til now, she has been beyond what I have begun to think was fair to expect from doctors in the current health care system.

I have suffered from pelvic floor issues for years. Dr. Frick is the first doctor I’ve visited that really understood my symptoms and the many pelvic floor conditions that exist. Love her style, too — clinical but still warm — so important with pelvic floor issues as they can cause quite a bit of emotional pain. A real gem! Highly recommend.