I had an extremely frustrating experience trying to schedule an oncology appointment for my mother through this provider. Over several days, we dealt with repeated communication failures, lost information, excessive hold times, and multiple disconnected calls. One scheduler named Jasmine behaved unprofessionally during the call, including singing/humming while assisting us, and ultimately disconnected the call after we expressed frustration with the process. When I called her direct line again, she kept rerouting me to keep me on hold and then she picked up and disconnected the call by hanging up on me again. After filing a complaint through my mother's insurance provider (Medicaid), the office apologized during a three-way call and promised that a supervisor named Adrianna would contact us the same day. That callback never happened. At this point, I will be filing a complaint through my mom's primary insurance provider (Medicare) and other oversight agencies. At a time when families are already under stress trying to coordinate medical care, this level of communication and professionalism is unacceptable. I hope management takes these complaints seriously and improves how patients and caregivers are treated. read more

I hate having to call this place because I never get a response after speaking with their team on the phone for answers to questions .They offer a text option, used it and no response. They take down messages, no one calls back I've been waiting for a call back for a week now. Their disregard for responding to messages makes me feel like what I'm going through is no big deal, like I'm a bother. Their staff is nice, in person and the NP is good, I've never seen a doctor there, again I'm assuming it's because my cancer isn't as "bad" as other cancers. Doesn't make it any less scary when it's your first time though. read more

I have been placed on hold for 20 minutes. Someone answers, I describe my situation regarding an unexpected change in treatment date. The person tells me to hold on for a moment, was placed on hold for another 10 minutes and then got hung up on. I'm back on hold, and it's been another 10 minutes. Now they're office is closing. Absolutely ridiculous but not surprised based on the reviews. I highly encourage this location to train and evaluate their front desk staff. They are working with vulnerable patients who should be treated with dignity and respect. Places like this with incompetent staff are discouraging patients who are in need of critical care. read more

After hearing amazing things about DR Ramin, i finally had my first consultation, I was very scared but he made me feel so comfortable seems like such a caring Dr. read more

If you plan on being their patient please know that if you need to transfer at all the process of getting medical records from these people is agonizing, and the process will take much longer than expected or if at all. Keep all your records you will need name and dates. You will need to babysit the staff. You will need to speak to everyone and only when they feel the pressure will you get any answers or results read more

I can't speak for the Drs or the services they provide, but i can say who ever handles the answering service after the office closes is by far the rudest person I've ever spoken with on the phone. One of these Drs patience was in the hospital and in order to facilitate care i needed to reach a Dr after hours, and the lady who answered the phone to page the Dr not only hung up twice, but also proceeded to argue with me when i attempted to tell her i have been calling the number listed multiple times and challenged me when asking her to please hold while i find the information she requested. she then went on to say, " Hurry up i have other calls to get to". I hope this person doesn't represent the professional staff that work here. read more

I am an Urgent Care physician who discovered a lung tumor in a patient who presented with shoulder pain. I realized the patient needed help in establishing follow up oncology care (no family, poor memory), so I contacted the primary care doctor to make sure the patient was referred to oncology. A couple of weeks later the patient still did not have an appointment with oncology so I tracked down the authorized referral which was for the Oncology Institute of Torrance (OIT). I have been absolutely appalled at how inefficient and seemingly uncaring some of the office staff have been to the patient. To be fair, the problem is shared between the PCP office and OIT (I was told by the PCP office that the insurance authorization had been sent to OIT and OIT said they didn't have it - multiple times). I had to make many calls on this poor patient's behalf. I explained over and over again how this patient needed immediate evaluation as he had been lost to follow up due to poor memory issues and no family to advocate for him. Only one staff member (out of at least 3) seemed to recognize the urgency and said she would make sure the PCP office sent the authorization and that it was received by the OIT - however, that didn't happen for another week or more, after I made several more calls. The patient himself tried contacting OIT and told me they didn't have any record of him in their system yet and when he tried to explain further, the staff member hung up on him! The patient finally was able to make an appointment this morning for 3 weeks from today. I believe the patient should be seen sooner. I am currently on hold (for over 30 minutes) waiting to talk to the office manager or a physician to try to get this patient an earlier appointment. I will never recommend OIT to any patient and will certainly let patients know how I feel about their office staff. If the OIT office manage or any OIT physicians care to contact me, I can be reached at jmcgarvey@dhs.lacounty.gov. read more

I work for another oncologist office in los alamitos. A patient has resorted to transferring care to our office because this office lacks communication and does not answer there phones. I gave them the benefit of the doubt and i tried calling there hawthorne office at 310-961-2694. I immediatately got placed on hold and i have currently been on hold for 30 MINUTES!. I work at oncologist office as well and there is NO REASON WHY ANYONE SHOULD BE ON HOLD FOR LONGER THAN 5 minutes. this rating is for front office staff as i am not a patient. I am another providers office trying to get communication on a patient who is newly diagnosed with prostate cancer. read more

This office employs incompetent and inefficient people. The ratings tell it all. Like one review, if there's a zero, i would rate them as such. Patient here will die with them doing nothing. Very insensitive and unprofessional. I have been to a lot of doctor's offices but this one by far the worst. You can only get i dont know for an answer. Stay away from this office, there are a lot better out there. read more

The other poor reviews on Yelp reflect our experience at The Oncology Institute. The nursing staff is great, but the receptionist is borderline incompetent. I brought my dad here for a routine treatment. Our prior appointment was at another clinic in Mission Viejo (MV), but we recently moved to the Torrance area, so this was our first time at this clinic. We arrived on time for the treatment, but upon check-in the receptionist (hereby referred to by her first name initial "C") informed us that we hadn't paid the copay, even though we already paid at the MV clinic. I explained we already paid, but "C" said their systems show no record of payment. I asked if they can contact the MV clinic to confirm our payment, but she said the MV clinic's system would show the same thing as their system, and that they need to confirm payment with the corporate billing department. I asked whether we could begin treatment while they sort out the billing issue, and she said no, the outstanding balance needs to be settled first. Fine, that's understandable. I ask "C" what our options are, and she says that she can send an email to the billing department but it's lunch time, so they may be unresponsive for awhile. She asks me to take a seat and wait. At this point, I have no idea how long we might be waiting, so I ask and she says, "I don't know". Not very helpful. I ask, "does it generally take 5 mins? 1 hour?". She says it can take up to an hour. My dad is sitting there waiting to start treatment, so I'd rather not wait another hour. I ask what other options we have, then "C" says there's nothing they can do because they don't see the payment in their system. I'm thinking, yes I know that, but help me out here, what else can we do? I ask, can we just pay the copay again and deal with the refund later? She says, "sure" then hands me the POS system so I can swipe my credit card. Now, I know how convoluted medical billing can be, so I'd like to avoid dealing with the refund if possible. So I say, "so you're telling me my only two options are 1) double pay now and deal with the refund or 2) wait up to an hour for the email?" "C" seems to get frustrated and says, "you're telling me two different things. What do you want to do? Do you want to pay again or wait?" I explain to her that I'm just trying to understand my options. I ask, can we call the billing department? She says, "I already sent an email". I ask her if she can call the billing department, and she reiterates that she already sent an email and that she has other patients on the line. I say, "fine, can I call the billing department?". She provides me the phone number, and I immediately connect with a representative (Tom) from their billing department. Tom confirms that indeed we've already paid the copay. I put Tom on speakerphone with "C", and they go back and forth for awhile about how the billing dept's system shows we've already paid, but the clinic's systems do not. At one point, Tom put us on hold to look up something, and "C" makes some comments to the other receptionists that she already sent an email, and seems incredulous that the billing department didn't respond to an email faster than responding to a phone call. Really? Tom comes back online and says to "C", "our systems show the patient has already paid. Can you just begin treatment and make a note on your side?" "C" says, "that's not the standard procedure" and they go back and forth for awhile. All the while, I find it incredibly ironic that the billing department cares more about expediting my dad's treatment than the clinic's receptionist who cares more about properly updating their systems. Ultimately, "C" relents, jots down some notes, and finally agrees to let my dad get treatment. Kudos to Tom for advocating for the patient. There was no tone of sympathy or apology from "C". There's no "thinking outside the box" to resolve the issue. She never thought to try calling the billing department. When I suggested it, she couldn't be bothered because she "already sent an email". I had to take matters into my own hands, which ultimately led to a much more timely resolution. The saving grace of this clinic is the nursing staff. Once my dad was brought in to start treatment, I found the nurses to be prompt, super friendly, and compassionate. They're the only reason I'm giving two stars instead of one. We didn't interact with any doctors, so I can't comment on their service. My advise to the owners: train your front desk staff. Seriously. I work in technology, so I understand that backend systems are often buggy. What I don't understand is your front desk's lack of customer empathy and basic problem solving skills. Just look at all your Yelp reviews, something needs fixing. read more

First appointment of the day, arrived 10 minutes before, nobody else in the waiting room. Despite this, I had to wait 1 hour and 10 minutes for Dr. Cheung. Upon leaving I pointed this out. Instead of a simple apology, he tried to rationalize it away, saying a long wait is standard and acceptable. Rude and disrespectful of patients' time. I also got blood work done from Quest a week before the appointment, the office called twice the day before my appointment, each time saying they didn't have it, then realizing they did. When Dr. Cheung met with me, he also hadn't seen it. He then went to the office and retrieved it. Disorganized. read more

This location is very unprofessional. Sometimes they have the medicine for the shot and some time they do not. No worries, if they don't have what you need they might call you the same day of your appointment. Also, they will try to charge you even though you have met you co-pay for the year. I would not waste your time here if you don't have to. read more

Just started my care here and although Dr Parikh is great, the front desk is has been consistently rude and definitely needs major training on how to communicate with people- let alone cancer patients. Might end up switching care facilities to somewhere more compassionate and professional. If you haven't started care here yet, save yourself the added stress read more

Thank you so much Charlene M. from the Oncology Institute, Santa Ana office. Charlene M. is so professional, so caring and so compassionate. Thank you so much! read more

I had 6 cycles of chemotherapy administered by nurses Susana Rubio, LVN and Jerrilyn Phu, RN. Could not be happier with their care and expertise. They are friendly, informative, efficient and knowledgeable. When I couldn't ask my doctor a direct question, they were very helpful in directing and suggesting courses of action. They were consistently helpful and caring during my 5 hour treatments. I was impressed with their attentiveness to me, the other patients and the details of their jobs. I was assured and confident that they had my best interest in mind and were thoroughly knowledgeable about my course of treatment. If I had to do it all over again - I would choose this facility. read more

My wife appointment is supposed to be June 27 and they called and move it to July 29 but the thing is , she already did her blood test prior to her appointment. And now , they move it to July 29 and she will need to do the blood test again and she will pay again, it's not FREE. So, it's like we put our money to the trash. I called them to look for earlier than July 29 appointment so our money we paid don't go to the trash. We are trying to save money here. Please , whoever in charge , look for earlier appointment than July 29. This made us mad.. read more

This practice is so far removed from the name! There is no, "Hope" or, "Innovation" here that awaits you. I will forever hold them responsible for the loss of my father. Be ready to deal with a staff that rotates like the weather and is completely unqualified at doing their jobs. Be ready for a doctor that blames his own inadequacies on his staff, and practices with a level of aloof disinterested arrogance. Be ready to argue with the doctor that you disagree with his negative interpretation of a test (a test he said was not needed, but was our right to ask for). Be ready to cry when you find out from other concerned members of your medical team that you were right, and that the cancer had indeed spread ruthlessly! Be ready to find out on your own accord that there were already successful chemo cocktails specifically made to target the cancer at hand, and then find out it was now too late for them to help. Be ready to point out to the doctor that a genetic study was done on the tumor clearly showing the patient would have been a great candidate for that treatment, and to have the doctor simply brush it off and tell you, "We're not there yet." Well we were there...we were there months earlier!! Please be aware that you will have to know every detail about your care. You will have to follow up constantly, and you will get nowhere even when you complain to the corporate office. The oncologist we went to see after leaving this office did more in one day than the Oncology Institute did in months and months of ongoing treatment...the cocktail was started immediately, but my father died because it was too late. There are so many wonderful oncologists in the South Bay. I do not recommend this office at all, in fact, I would avoid it at all costs! **The office reached out to me when they saw my post. Against my better judgement, I accepted their request to be contacted by their department head. Well in true and consistent form, NO CONTACT WAS RECEIVED! Honestly, this place just does not care!! read more

This doctor is amazing in Torrance very private and very sweet she is super professional and considerate of you're issues takes her time with you read more

It's blatantly clear these people just do not care at all. The majority of the reviews for the other location pretty much state the same. And like the other reviews, this is only 1 star because there is no option for 0 stars. Multiple times I've tried to call them and for the first time it rang completely through. Ok that's fine, they might have been away from the phone. The following phone attempts were ended short 3 seconds in. They were obviously just ending the call. This is them essentially saying I don't want to talk to you. Leave a message so I can get back to you later when I feel like it. My aunt had an appointment that she missed because they relocated and didn't even bother telling her that they did. The funny thing is they don't even have much people going in. It's just two receptionists doing fuck all and just talking to each other. When my aunt called them they asked for her name and then put her on hold without even telling her. They put the phone on hold for 40 minutes until their closing time and then just hung up with no further words said. THIS HAPPENED TWICE. It's no mistake or because they were busy. You could hear the receptionists laughing before putting my aunt on hold so obviously they think whatever they are gossiping or joking about is more important than a person's life. This is not only a lack in professionalism, it is a lack in basic empathy for a potentially terminally ill HUMAN FUCKING BEING. read more