San Francisco Animal Medical Center

I had a fantastic experience with the SF Animal Medical Center. Our little Chihuahua mix suddenly started limping and persistently licking her paw, so I rushed her in immediately. Naturally, the moment we walked through the clinic doors, her limp magically vanished! Even so, the staff triaged her right away with virtually no wait. The doctor performed a quick, thorough examination to make sure everything was truly alright, gave us the all-clear, and kindly sent us on our way without charging us for the visit. Their efficiency, kindness, and honest care during a stressful moment were incredible. I highly recommend SF Animal Medical Center to anyone needing urgent pet care!

The funny thing about animal hospitals is that they're generally better than human hospitals because everyone working there tends to love animals. I could tell that everyone at SFAMC loves animals, and that's really important. SFAMC is not the cheapest option. It does not appear to have been consumed by private equity though. Just like any other health care, you should always make sure that ultimately you are the one making decisions. No one knows your dog or cat as well as you do. The doctors and staff at SFAMC did everything they could to save our dog, including keeping her in their ICU for three nights. The hospital is very well kept and well equipped. We were able to visit her three times a day during visiting hours. We were able to bring her home, but ultimately her age caught up with her. It made it sting just a little less knowing that we got her the best possible care when she needed it. We miss her so much.

My two fur babies needed their regular checkups and vaccinations. The staff notified me it was time and set up an appointment convenient for me to bring in both. The staff was so helpful bringing in the two cat carriers after I was dropped off by a taxi. My ambulating is not great even with a cane. Every staff member was cheerful and helpful throughout the visit. Dr Gervais is like an old friend to the cats. Their exams and treatment were carried out expertly, quickly and the cats used their best manners---they like the gentle treatment and sweet words. I certainly will be back. Dr Gervais explained their followup care do be done until we return.

Our experience with SFAMC has been very mixed. First, I want to acknowledge that Dr. Aarti Sabhlok and Ruby from the oncology department have been wonderful. They have been compassionate, knowledgeable, and thoughtful in discussing Lily's treatment options, and we genuinely feel that our dog has received excellent medical care from her team. We also appreciated that she repeated Lily's chest X-rays at no charge after a communication issue amongst staff led to our X-ray being omitted at our initial visit. Unfortunately, the administrative and communication side of the practice has been extremely frustrating, particularly during an already stressful cancer diagnosis. Over the course of just a few weeks we experienced repeated communication breakdowns, including: * being given inaccurate appointment discharge timing and waiting several additional hours without any clear updates; * repeated delays obtaining an itemized invoice because our email address had been entered incorrectly; * multiple instances where we were told someone would call us "soon" or "leave a note," only for no follow-up to occur and for us to have to initiate contact again multiple times; * waiting well beyond the expected turnaround for chest X-ray staging results without updates, despite having surgery already scheduled; * receiving only a brief one-sentence email with the X-ray results, and never receiving a response to our follow-up questions; * and finally, not receiving the promised pre-operative phone call before surgery. We ultimately had to call the hospital ourselves late in the afternoon before surgery to obtain fasting instructions and arrival information. None of these issues individually would have prompted this review. What is difficult is the repeated pattern. As oncology clients, we fully understand that emergencies happen, doctors run behind, and schedules change. What we struggle with is the lack of proactive communication or compassion from the administrative staff and the repeated need to chase down information ourselves. For the price point of this hospital, their customer service is sorely lacking, leading to undue stress for pet parents already dealing with challenging diagnoses. Despite these frustrations, we remain grateful for Dr. Sabhlok's medical expertise and trust her recommendations for Lily's care. Our hope in writing this review is simply that the practice can improve communication and care coordination, because families navigating a cancer diagnosis already have enough to worry about.

This veterinary clinic did an excellent job of helping me get the required certification I needed to travel internationally with my cat. Anna Abundo in client services was incredibly attentive and caring. USDA-certified vet Dr. Gervais helped me understand how to make the transition for my cat go as smoothly as possible. I’m so grateful that they helped me get through what was a very stressful, somewhat high stakes situation. I highly recommend that anyone traveling with pets (especially for the first time) come to this clinic for the required documentation needed.