UCSF

The nursing team was generally very prompt in replying to my messages in the portal. If there were times when I had an urgent question and they weren't responding right away, I was able to reach them by phone. There was one time when I did not receive the instructions for my trigger shot, but I was able to figure it out. Other than that they provided very clear instructions and always answered my questions quickly, even when I was being a bit anxious and asking a lot of them.

Danielle is the first person I spoke to when I expressed wanting a new Doctor (who ended up being Dr. Fujimoto). She spent a good 20 mins on the phone with me to understand who I am and what doctor would be a good fit for me. She works in partnership with Anna, who I never met. The two of them seem very overworked but still organized, and there were some vacations and days off that seemed like someone was always covering for someone else. They always apologize for any slowness or confusion (there rarely was any, I didn't even have to call for help with medication once they sent in the order). Don't get me wrong - this was actually never a problem for me. I worried it would be. But I got all the info I needed when I needed it and they were very kind hearted.

She was informative and made sure I had all the information I needed before making any decisions. She reiterated the plan to ensure I understood it and was readily available for any other questions I had.

Olga always seems to be in a rush/frazzled when you talk with her. Luckily, I didn't need too much instruction from her on shots, but I never got a sense that it'd be easy to ask her questions. We in fact had a question about the trigger shot but didn't hear back till the next day. Luckily, we were able to figure it out on our own.

Overall, the nursing staff was great - although some were more approachable than others (I enjoyed working with Kali and Rae for the regular correspondence). I never had a message or call go unreturned, and they were often quick with their responses. Since there wasn't much face time with the Dr., I think it would have been nice to have one main designated nurse, and one backup nurse, to allow for some form of consistency. Throughout the procedure, I never got to see them in the office, and at times would end up speaking with other nursing staff that I was unfamiliar with. That being said, everyone I saw for my in person check-ins (blood draws, ultrasounds) were always incredibly kind and helpful.

Very sweet but not the brightest bulb in the room. She couldn't figure out my period days and almost had me start on a wrong day until I kicked it up to the doctor. Also when I did not conceive with my first IVF, she was robotic in her response ' these are questions for your doctor. Luckily I called the clinic and the nurse on call was so compassionate and helpful about not conceiving the first time, it really helped me at that time.

When you plan for IUI or IVF especially the first time, there are so many medications to deal with, so many schedules to follow up, and so many... everything. For the given task, Olga was really efficient and good at moving the schedule forward. She was there whenever we needed her for medical questions via phone or email. Thuy is really friendly and compassionate. We still remember how we were greeted by her when we had visited the hospital. That warm welcome was such a relief in those stressful environment where you have to deal with IUI and IVF.

The care team is awful - they will not talk on the phone with you, make you use their electronic portal, which they don't respond until 2-3 days later often not answering at all the questions at hand and super quickly. Eugenia is particularly uncaring and bad, she was so unclear about consents that she claimed that 99% of the patients mess it up with no sense of self-awareness that it because of her poor communication. My previous care coordinator had been fired due to incompetence as well.

Olga and nursing staff were so PROMPT. They always provided results, next step info, scheduling etc exactly when they said they were going to. I never had to worry about when I would hear back - they were on top of it.

Liz Gomes has been our nurse and main clinical point person while working with Dr. Rosen. Liz has been outstanding and is a true gem. It was a gift to work with her. She is caring, extremely knowledgeable, professional, ever patient and super warm. We also saw two Nurse Practitioners, Katrina and Stephanie, several times throughout the course of treatment. Both Katrina and Stephanie were fantastic. All of the nurses, techs and front desk staff at CRH (especially Maria!) have been really warm and kind. We have felt that they are genuinely rooting for us, which made all the difference while going through such an emotionally and physically taxing journey. We also worked with Annie, assistant to Dr. Rosen, at the beginning stages before starting our cycles. Annie was incredible. She was extremely organized, thorough, remarkable with follow through and had a great sense of humor throughout it all!

Liz Gomes is the best nurse! She is on top of it! Extremely knowledgable, caring and accessible! UCSF is so lucky to have her!

Liz Gomes is great and one of the two reasons I'm still with UCSF (the second reason is cheap meds). However, with the rest of nursing staff, you can have a hit or a miss. It's always a different person who does your appointments, different person who calls with you results and next steps etc. And the clerical/ admin staff at UCSF is absolutely TERRIBLE and incompetent: they mess up a $5K payment, they mess up your medical records, they give you wrong information about COVID protocol, they don't respect your privacy, and few of them are just simply rude/ snappish to patients (they clearly just don't want to be there)

She was great with emailing back promptly and answering my million questions. My only complaint is the fact that I didn't get to meet her in person until after my egg retrieval when I was prepping for FET. Lab techs are all very nice and professional. Front desk folks are warm and kind. Everyone is really great at CRH.

Cheryl is not the most organized (made us bring paperwork in unnecessarily once) but responds very promptly and was very compassionate when she had to call and let me know the embryo transfer had failed.

Maria is amazing!! I email her with questions all the time. She is very compassionate and friendly and she will spend all the time needed on the phone explaining the next steps and she will also email all the details. I absolutely love Maria.

Olga, the nurse I worked with for two cycles, was extremely rushed every single time I spoke with her, and I grew to dread calls with her as I was always stressed after getting off of them. She shared unnecessary information that created additional stress, like telling me that there was going to be a lot of competition for transfer appointments in a certain timeframe. She also sometimes gave unclear instructions and was defensive about it when I asked for clarification on details (i.e. telling me to use estrogen patches at a certain time of day, and then when I asked a related question, telling me that she never told me that and giving a long explanation for how I couldn't possibly have heard what I heard). This same issue happened on both cycles, and I was careful in taking notes from our calls, so it was extremely frustrating to both have poor information and to then have her argue with me when I asked a non-confrontational question. Unlike a previous experience at another clinic, I never felt actual emotional support from the nursing staff at UCSF. When calling with a negative pregnancy test result, they clearly have been trained to say some of the right things, but it felt like a script. When I didn't want to schedule an embryo transfer for the day before one of my biggest work days of the year, and was feeling pressured by the nurse, she didn't show any understanding of my wanting to take my work commitments into consideration and by the end of the call, I was crying, frustrated, and anxious about the choices I'd made very quickly about scheduling such an important procedure. Thuy, Dr. Noel's coordinator, is a bit scattered and required a lot of follow-up to get my labs straight, as she would request labs she had received again, and fail to notice other missing labs. She also often seemed rushed, but was kind and responsive.

I really like Huddleston’s staff. They answer questions promptly thought email. They are able to book appointments quickly. I never had any issues with the coordinating team. However, there was one lady who works front desk that both me and my partner do not like. Every time I get her, she has me standing 5-10 mins to check me in. Other front desk staff had me checked in within 1 minute. Another time, she made my husband wait while her “computer loads” so he can pay - while he was holding a specimen cup. Couldn’t we just pay after the drop off? Yes, it may be a policy issue but her slow pace work style didn’t help the situation.

The nursing staff at UCSF is very kind and compassionate. I found if I need an immediate response to select their immediate care line, otherwise emailing my care team, they were usually responsive within 24 hours.

Needed to take care into my own hands, or else major mistakes would have been made: cycle 1 - was told no need to use OPKs, ended up using them anyway and found out I was ovulating naturally ahead of schedule, needed to move up insemination date. cycle 2 - unexpected business travel for husband meant we could miss our insemination window. Was told we can make last minute appointment in case timing worked out. Nurse did not realize / failed to tell me additional insurance approval was needed and was not requested for this cycle, ended up missing opportunity to do full IUI.