Advice about Kaiser Pinole

2 parent questions ▼
1 parent review ▼
Archived Q&A and reviews ▼

Parent Q&A

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  • Doctor recommendations at Kaiser Pinole?

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    Aug 22, 2020

    Hello,

    My family is in the midst of switching to Kaiser insurance. Does anyone here have recommendations for good doctors at Kaiser Pinole, in adult medicine, pediatrics, or ob-gyns? Thanks in advance!

    Laura

    Aug 22, 2020

    Dr. Mahar is a wonderful pediatrician at Kaiser Pinole. 

    Aug 26, 2020

    Dr. Cherilyn Brunetti has been my teenage kids' doctor since birth. She is A-#1! Caring, direct, friendly, thoughtful. 

    Aug 26, 2020

    We LOVE Dr Elizabeth Bassett at Kaiser Pinole Pediatrics! 

    Aug 26, 2020

    I highly recommend Dr. Sarin for adult medicine. He's personable, kind, and had great skills

    Aug 26, 2020

    Dr. Diana Mahar. She's taken care of my kids since they were born. She's wonderful. I've heard good things about Bassett, too. Saw Dr. Leo once and really liked him. It's a great group of doctors. We've been going for 8 years.

    Aug 26, 2020

    Hi! We use Kaiser Pinole pediatrics and have been with Dr. Diana Mahar for 6 years now. She is incredibly responsive to emails and has a great bedside manor. We've also been connected with Dr. Elizabeth Bassett through advice line for phone/video visits, and she was also wonderful. Pinole has such a relaxed vibe compared to the offices where there are hospitals attached. We use Richmond for the adults in our house. 

    Aug 26, 2020

  • Kaiser Oakland vs. Kaiser Pinole and Doctor recommendations

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    Jan 4, 2018

    Hi BPNers,

    My employer just switched to Kaiser and I am new to the system so thought I would reach out to this great community for advise.  We live in Albany- would you recommend the Pinole Kaiser or Oakland Kaiser?  If you have any recommendations for a General Practitioner for me (Mom) and our two boys (8 and 10), I would appreciate any advice you can share.

    Thanks!

    Newbie to Kaiser

    Jan 4, 2018

    I've been fairly happy with Kaiser through the years (with some caveats related to mental health services). When we moved to El Cerrito (and had a second child) we switched our pediatrician to one at Pinole, Dr. Mahar, and like how much easier it is to GET to Pinole & park, compared to the Mosswood building! However, ironically enough, I am about to head to Mosswood today with one child for a specialist appointment. Oakland is the "mothership" and you will still be there for various things, including urgent care & specialty care. I guess if you have a choice for your regular care, pharmacy, labwork, etc., try for Pinole (and I believe there are some docs there who are "family" meaning they will serve you and the kids), but don't expect to get everything done there all the time.

    Jan 9, 2018

    I would strongly recommend the Pinole Kaiser over the Oakland Kaiser.  I've used both, and Pinole is just so much less stress and hassle.  Kaiser Oakland is big and spread out, parking is tough, and it is much more of an undertaking.  Kaiser Pinole is small with easy parking and is very mellow because it is so small.  I can recommend my doctor, Dr. Shaw.  She's in Family Medicine so can see you and both kids.  If she's not available I would recommend choosing another family practice doctor, I've found them to be much better than the general practitioners I've used at Kaiser.

    Jan 10, 2018

     I love Kaiser Pinole! I moved from Berkeley to Richmond last year, and use Pinole for my pediatrician. I love how easy it is to park – free large suburban parking lot. Plus, if you have an early morning appointment you are going against traffic.  You can always see somebody in Oakland if there’s a more serious problem that can’t be addressed in the clinic setting. My baby sees Dr. Leo and we love him!  

    Jan 10, 2018

    My son's pediatrician is Dr. Leo at Kaiser Pinole and we couldn't be happier!  Dr. Leo is wonderfully attentive and responsive to questions.  In every visit with him we are just so impressed with his kindness and caring manner. 

    Jan 10, 2018

    If you don't mind paying for parking, traffic, Oakland has it all. But if you want a small, facility, free parking and no traffic, unless it's rush hour, I'd go Pinole. 
    We are in El Cerrito.

    Jan 10, 2018
RE:
Kaiser Oakland vs Richmond (Aug 22, 2018)

I find both facilities to be stressful and overwhelming for routine care, especially with two young kids.  I would consider heading out a bit past Richmond to go to Kaiser Pinole.  Since it's not part of a hospital it's small, friendly and with easy peasy parking.  Whenever I go to Kaiser Oakland I have to build in an extra 20 minutes just for parking and finding my way through the huge maze of buildings/offices so it might not add too much time to your overall journey.  Also, an amazing pediatrician is located there, Dr. Elizabeth Bassett.

Aug 24, 2018

Archived Q&A and Reviews

​April 2012

Re: Pediatrician, PCP and Gynecologist reccomendations
You know, you don't have to have all your family's doctors at the same Kaiser facility. If you already have, say, your OB at Oakland, keep it and move some of the others to Richmond if that's more convenient. (That's what I did - it's not like you see your OB very much if you're not pregnant anyway.) You can get your prescriptions at any facility too. But in fact, let me really recommend the Pinole clinic. If you're in N. Berkeley or north, it's as easy to get to or more so than Kaiser Richmond; it's small so easy to navigate, and parking is a surface lot (!!!). After moving closer to the Richmond facility, we got a Richmond based pediatrician who... argh. long story. Both my kids now have a pediatrician in Pinole who we love. Kaiser Pinole works for us

Sept 2010

Re: Good OB and delivery at which Kaiser?
I did not have any complicated pregnancies or risk factors with my pregnancy, but for my third pregnancy I saw Dr. Tracy Seo, who now works at Kaiser Pinole. (She used to be at Richmond.) I've decided that I will continue to see her in Pinole, I loved her that much. She always made me feel like she would be happy to sit and talk with me, even though I know she was really busy. She was very good at ''reading'' my hesitations and was very good about pausing to investigate them.