Cheri Forrester, MD

I have been going to Dr. Forrester since the age of 21 and I am now 46.
I have had some serious health issues and have not once been made to feel rushed or made to feel as though I were crazy. She has read reports from specialists and sent me to better specialists because she felt the first was not doing enough follow through.
She calls me to make sure I’m okay, that medications are working. I unfortunately am in the ER once a year or so and she always calls as soon as she is notified to check in.
I can’t imagine anyone else being my doctor.

Cheri is incredible. She’s been my doctor for 10 years and I’ve never had such good, meticulous care. Super smart, massive breadth of knowledge, and deeply caring. Despite being busy and sought after, she is always available, and great with follow up. She even read my a poem once to help me relax ;)

I was shocked to find less than stellar reviews for Dr. Cheri. She is absolutely hands down the best doctor I have ever had, and I am known for firing doctors. I went to doctor Cheri after years of condescending doctors who didn’t believe anything I said and thought I was a liar or stupid, or that it was all in my head or stress related. I’m glad I kept trying, because she is fabulous! I went to her for years and only stopped because I moved 3000 miles away. She has twice called me on the weekend to tell me she was thinking about me and researching my condition and had a suggested course of treatment. I have had chronic pain for decades and her suggested care ended it. She saw me during her lunch break multiple times when I had something that needed immediate attention. She recognized a condition in my son and helped him immeasurably. She was patient with another son who has deep needle phobia. When I went to her feeling completely unlike myself, she correctly diagnosed the beginning of menopause and began to shepard me caringly through that change. She cared about me and about my health and she improved the quality of my life and of my sons’ lives. If I could afford to fly back to San Francisco to see her whenever I needed a doctor I would. I could not recommend any professional more highly.

This review is a tough one for me.
Dr. Forrester was our GP for over 15 years. While never warm and fuzzy, she was very competent and responsive during our visits.
When her practice moved from Mill Valley to Sausalito and she joined Prima, there was a significant change. It always felt she was rushed… frustrated when asked questions… a bit condescending, even. I ended up feeling worse after every visit I had with her.
After so many years of seeing her, I was used to lack of eye contact, but when it became 75 percent of the visit she was staring at a computer/​25 percent face time (and I think I might be underestimating, even) it just became ridiculous.
I am sad to say that I would never recommend Dr. Forrester to anyone… something I never thought I would say when she first became my doctor.

I was terribly sick for three months. I couldn’t walk and couldn’t write because of pain. I had low grade fevers all the time and I was extremely fatigued. A friend of mine recommended Dr F. On my first visit she didn’t even exam me and she didn’t order labs. In the first three minutes she told me it was all in my head and I was depressed. I was so insulted! Fortunately soon after I had seen a top rheumatologist and she diagnosed me with rheumatoid arthritis. I called Dr F and told her the diagnosis and she didn’t say anything. I told her I don’t want anybody else to have experience what I experienced with her and I hung up. Since then I have only heard terrible mistakes she has made with other people.

Dr. Forrest was my family doctor for past 10 years. She was cold and unfriendly, but I thought she was confident in her job. However, I lost my voice for 3 – 4 days with mild coughs so it was painful as a teacher so I went in for emergency, she forgot to collect my throat culture and told me that I have a virus. She said there was no medicine to cure it, so rest and drink lots of hot tea and soup. So I did for another week, but nothing got better. On my second emergency appointment she finally collected culture from my throat and left a message three days later that I have an infection and I can pick up the antibiotics from the pharmacy. So I called office requesting to inform me about the infection whether it’s contagious or not and explain more details about the infection so I can decide to request another sub for my class or not. She didn’t call back. The day later, an assistance called and said it’s strep throat type A and it’s not contagious. I could have gotten the antibiotic at the first visit and I didn’t have to suffer for extra week and half if she took my throat culture at the first visit. I am looking for a new doctor!

Dr. Forrester is very thorough and extremely competent. Forrester has picked up the phone to call me to follow up dozens of times and, most remarkably, when she thought a specialist left me hanging, she phoned him and read him the riot act. She got results. She believes that a doctor should be there to help and should have a plan of action. She doesn’t always communicate that well, and sometimes she is busy typing what you are saying into the record on her computer, but you will not find a better doctor. If you want somebody to feel warm and fuzzy with, go elsewhere, because Dr. Forrester is serious about doing everything she can for her patients. If that means she has squeezed you in to help with your most urgent problem and that you will have to come back for a second problem, perhaps she — or the staff — should have told you that she squeezed you in and has a limited time. But it’s a plan of action. She is a perfectionist at being a doctor, and over the 10 years or so I have been her patient, I have seen her improve her bedside manner skills too. She knows what’s important in my life. When I ran into her and her husband, she introduced me with exactly the salient details from my life I would want people to know, my most creative endeavors. I feel appreciated by her. If you want 25 eye contact seconds per minute and a hug when you arrive or even when you get bad news, then you need another doctor. Myself, I have fired doctors who are all touchy-​feely. I want competence and the facts.

The doctor-​patient relationship is so important! This doctor can be intimidating. Never let anyone, and especially your doctor, cause you to question your judgement when it comes to health care. Know that it is unacceptable, harmful for your doctor to tell you to stop thinking and blindly follow their directions instead. It is possible that the doctor is right and you will see later, but doctors can be wrong, and this happens most when they adamantly disregard a patient’s concerns.

Cold and mechanical, you must have been there on a good day. She does not ask questions or listen to my concerns. When talking to me on the phone I know she was also on the computer or something, she was totally distracted. She never bothered to check about updating my prescriptions I got years ago from another dr. She just kept writing refills. My new dr. took me off them, and I feel better. Will never go back. Oh, and when my new dr. requested my records, and I signed a release, she never got them. We sent in 3 requests in 8 months. Still nothing.

Dr. Forrester’s bedside manner is rather cold and mechanical. I made an appt. for a vaccination and then when I went in they didn’t have it and hadn’t bothered to let me know, so I had to come back. I’ve been to her twice and both times was overcharged (charged double). They ended up collecting from my insurance company and dropped my charges. What’s up with that? I guess that works for them, but it doesn’t work for me.

I don’t think Cheri really cares about the individual. I usually only get to see a nurse and when I see her it’s brief and impersonal. I want to switch because I don’t think she gives enough attention to the patients needs. I had a reoccurring problem and instead of discussing it she would just blow me off by prescribing me antibiotics that I had already taken before and leaving abruptly so I never had time to speak with her about it. The problem would go away then come back later so I figured out on my own that I had to change my lifestyle i.e. eating habits etc. to make it less persistent. … Also DON’T go to her for a gynecological exam… it was painful and it shouldn’t be. I went to Dr. Galland later and it was great. Well, ‘as good as it gets’, I should say.