HEAL Medical Clinic

Dr. Alemzadeh is the most awful Dr. I have ever encountered. He deceived me with his polite attitude then revealed his true self– An uncaring self absorbed mentally unfit individual. It seems as if he loathes his job and his patients. If I were him, I would seek a different job or a therapist.

The new addition to your office is great! The girls work so great together. They’re fast, efficient, and very friendly. I am definitely recommending my friends and family to your office. I have been to other health care offices before, and this is by far the best treatment I have ever experienced. Thank you heal med and keep up the great work!

I’m writing representing my daughter as she was the one with the appointment unfortunately. The appointment was a thyroid concern which she explained all the symptoms she was having. Which were a lot, she’s a young girl and was scared and intimidated especially after the front desk girl said“If your going to sit here you’ve got to speak up girl“She had signed in and sat down the girl was on the phone and hung up and said that .RUDE! Once in to see the doctor she ordered blood to be drawn which they do in their office or try to, the girl tried twice and made a horrible mess of her arm which wasn’t necessary at all because a week later she had a whole lot more drawn elsewhere without a mark! Dr. Shokouhi then asked her a few questions about why she was there. She proceeded to explain she wanted her thyroid checked because she has all these symptoms that she had written down to be sure she would remember because it was quite a list of symptoms the Dr. never touched her physically which normally you would think she would have felt her thyroid, instead she took her depression to the moon and prescribed her antidepressants and said” once your blood work comes back come back in and I’ll prescribe you some medicine I give diabetics to speed up your metabolism. From this office she had an appointment with an endocrinologist which found all kinds of tumors and she is now set up with a biopsy and his diagnosis was you do not have a normal thyroid! So with a biopsy scheduled and another ultrasound we are getting it handled with the right doctor. The follow up appointment with Dr. Shokouhi was even worse, she had just come from the endocrinologists office with this diagnosis, into her office she asked on a scale of 1 – 10 how much better are you feeling (from the antidepressants i believe) and my daughter proceeded to tell her she was just diagnosed with a thyroid problem she said «your thyroid is fine and it wasn’t until then that she felt her thyroid and said ok I’ll see you in 6 months here is your 6month prescription for your antidepressants. Her attitude changed dramatically once she said her diagnosis from the other doctor she was very short and rude. So I guess if you want antidepressants go see her! Otherwise I would take your health to a physician who will listen and hear what you have to say and take their practice a little more seriously. I just spoke with someone from her billing which was also rude we are done here!!!

Truthfully, I’m not much of a Unilocaler but I felt it necessary to warn the public about this place.
I was a new patient and the soonest they said I could be seen was the end of June (2 months later). I received a call one week prior confirming my appt. and advised to show 30 min early to fill out all paperwork or my appt would be given away (I thought that was a bit extreme to say, but OK I understood and showed up 40 minutes early to be safe). So as I’m pulling into the parking lot, I get a call from the receptionist saying that my appt. has been cancelled because of an issue with my insurance. She explains to me that she called my insurance company and I’m not covered for that office. At this point I don’t blame her because I know often there are mix-​ups with this type of thing. I politely explain to her that I just arrived and am parking (40 minutes early), there must be a mix-​up because my insurance company actually referred me to that particular doctor, and could we call the insurance company together. She responded annoyed saying that she already called and the appt is cancelled. Then I said (in a respectful but serious tone & without raising my voice) «Why did you wait until the last minute to tell me this? I’ve waited TWO months for this appt and I drove all the way down here from Newport». She said something to the effect of «I don’t know what to tell you & you need to take it up with your insurance company. So then I said (again NOT raising my voice but clearly frustrated) «What can I do right now? I’m so frustrated I could scream». Then SHE raised her voice and got a ghetto attitude and said «If you are going to be annoyed, you need to be annoyed with your insurance company and not me!» I realized at this point that I was dealing with someone that wasn’t going to try and help me save my appt, so I said «OK» and hung up.
I called my insurance company and got the glitch fixed. I told them what had just happened and I asked them if they could conference call the office to see if there was any chance of saving my appt, after all I was still 35 minutes early. Insurance company tried calling and no answer at the docs office.
I ended up showing up anyhow because I thought it would be a quick fix, since it was a minor misunderstanding. When I arrived I told Sandy (front office) that I had spoken with my insurance company and they fixed the glitch. She said annoyed, «I ALREADY called this morning!» Then I explained that I JUST called and if she could call my insurance again and make sure to call a certain dept (the insurance company told me to tell her to call a specific department). I think this is the part that set her off bc she went from being unhelpful to downright rude & disrespectful from this point on. She totally went off on me and said that she didn’t need to treated this way. I was shocked and said «what are you talking about? «She said that: I hung up on her (false), I raised my voice at her (totally false, I did express frustration calmly but NEVER yelled), I was extremely rude to her, and that I should go find another doctor. I responded without yelling and told her I did not hang up on her, and I most certainly did not raise my voice EVER, and I would like specific examples of how I was rude so that I could apologize if that’s how I came off, and that actually she was being very rude and unprofessional to me, particularly telling me to go get another doctor. She then went off again w her ghetto attitude tone giving no examples of rudeness and just saying that I was rude to her and I’m not getting any service, doctor will not see me/​go find another doctor (two more times!). Oh! The worst was her calling me «sweetheart» in her condescending tone and telling her coworker right in front of me «I swear, if I have to deal with another rude person today…» At this point I had had enough! I said (without yelling or calling her names) «You know what? I don’t appreciate you calling me names and speaking to me that way. YOU are the one treating me poorly, I’m a patient and all I want to do is see the doctor, can you just give me the paperwork already?»
In short, my overall experience was MISERABLE. The only half decent person I dealt with in the office was the petite younger Latin woman (not sure about name?). She treated me with respect and apologized (wasn’t even her fault) about having to repeat the test (apx. 10 times) bc of the old machine
Scale of 1 – 10
Doctor Shokouhi: 6 (not the worst but def had better) Dismissed serious concerns without investigating further after reviewing results from a faulty machine
Front office Staff: 1 for Sandy (heavy set woman in her late 40s/​early 50s (1, because at least she wasn’t a total b*tch towards the end, she politely offered me a cup of tea right before I saw the doctor). The rudest medical employee I’ve ever dealt with. Totally unprofessional & unethical.
Equipment: 1 (old, dirty, not working properly)

This business is on Unilocal twice. So here is my review, reposted:
I purchased a Groupon for a laser treatment targeting facial scarring, valued at over $ 700. I have problematic, acne-​prone skin that has left scarring near and around my temples.
At the consultation, I was told my skin was too dark. As such, I purchased HEAL’s signature bleach pads and moisturizer, as well as a branded, high-​performance sunblock in order to protect my skin and lighten it «in preparation» for my treatment. Upwards of a $ 220 purchase. I was told up front that this would take an additional month. I’m pretty patient about this sort of thing. And I was actually pleased with the performance of the products, which indeed evened out my skin tone and moisturized without oily build up. However, I still haven’t gotten around to redeeming the Groupon at this point, and have just spent more money on prep-​work.
Fast forward to the date of my actual laser treatment, for which I’ve prepared and patiently awaited. When I arrived, I was told that due to recent breakouts, I could not undergo the laser resurfacing as it would aggravate my skin and produce more acne. I was previously told that this was the «most gentle» resurfacing on the cosmetic laser market (as opposed to CO2 and other heavy duty options with downtime), so I was pretty surprised about this. Rather, I was sold on substituting my Groupon for an acne laser treatment instead, under the premise that after achieving clear skin, I could work with them on fixing the scarring.
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Problem 1: One acne laser treatment retails for ~$ 200 here. Without a Groupon. But my Groupon was valued at $ 700. I didn’t realize this until later, and Groupon ended up sorting this out for me, but this discrepancy should have been noted by HEAL Medical Clinic themselves.
Problem 2: The entire treatment was unprofessional.
— The prep was haphazardly done, with the numbing cream applied by an untrained assistant in a chunky and messy fashion, ultimately leaving areas un-​numbed. I later discovered she had never ever done that task before.
— I was left in a back room and forgotten about until I emerged later, curious as to what was taking so long.
— Dr. Alemzadeh eventually had to «clean» up the cream and called that assistant in to give her numerous points of correction and also let her know that he’d «train» her on this application technique later. o_​O He should not have assigned that task to her if she didn’t know what she was doing.
— During the acne laser, he singed off my right eyebrow. Months later, and it is still growing back (and much finer hair).
Problem 3: The acne laser didn’t work. Actually, I broke out more severely than I’ve had in quite some time. And the break outs persisted for weeks. This apparently happens to a select few patients and while I was told and understood that there are risks /​side effects involved, I was still incredibly disappointed and distraught. Also, given that I was originally convinced on converting my IPL laser to an acne laser to avoid breaking out in the first place, one can understand my frustration.
Problem 4: Pushy sales tactics. While he was lasering my face, Dr. Alemzadeh stated several times that I should tackle my acne problem head on, and suggested I sign up for HEAL’s package «deal» involving 4+ acne laser treatments (all paid up front). After we finished with the acne laser, he then personally escorted me to the register and instructed another assistant to help me sign up for this package, though I hadn’t mentioned my intent to purchase. This would apparently «save me 20%,» was a «limited time» offer, and they planned to «raise the price of individual treatments next month.» All valid reasons to snag this «deal,» but I wanted to see how the laser performed before committing to more of them. Given Problem #3, I’m glad I didn’t get pressured into getting this package.
Problem 5: Dr. Alemzadeh sent me mixed messages about the success of the IPL laser. During the consultation and a follow up appointment, whereby I outlined my most problematic spots and the results I’d like to achieve, I was told numerous times that the IPL laser would produce immediate improvements; and that my scarring was «minimal» and would only need a handful of additional treatments to correct. Later, when my IPL was converted over to an «acne treatment,» he cautioned me about getting my hopes up and said that the IPL could never erase all signs of acne and that it was better suited to correct «skin-​tone» rather than «texture.»
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Overall, I find the general business practices of HEAL Medical Clinic to be suspect and would suggest anyone seeking cosmetic treatments to go elsewhere. After dealing with a more reputable and less pushy Dr. also based in Irvine, I’m now exploring DermaPen treatments and have left facial lasers behind.

I have been seeing Dr. Shokouhi as my GP for several years and absolutely love the care and attention I receive from her and her staff. Whether I am dealing with some painful and troublesome skin issues or migraine headaches, she is knowledgeable and up to date on treatment options. In addition, Fabi and Sandy, the office staff are always happy, ready to great me with a smile even at the end of a long day. I would and have recommended them to friends seeking quality care!

I was referred to Dr. Alemzadeh through my insurance. I’m so grateful such an outstanding physician. My husband and I both see him. He is compassionate, understanding, genuine, kind, intelligent and always lends an ear when you need it. We never feel rushed. His office has always been accommodating. We go to the irvine office. Great doctor!