Dr. Edward Alfrey, MD

Very good

I appreciate it very much

Excellent service.

Dr. Alfrey was my doctor when I came through the ER and was admitted into the hospital at Marin General. I found him to be callous, unkind, he dismissed my pain and he misdiagnosed me. I had just undergone a massive surgery that I had to fly to Atlanta for. It took a team of very specialized surgeons to do the procedure. I believe because Dr. Alfrey wasn’t the surgeon who did the procedure, he was annoyed to be dealing with me. It turns out I had a basic post-surgery infection but instead of putting me on antibiotics, he sent me home and a week later I went septic. While I was under his care in the hospital he was incredibly rude, condescending and dismissive to me and my family members. My was extensive and complicated, yet Dr. Alfrey refused to read my medical reports even when I directly asked him to. Instead, without telling me, he took me all off all pain medicine and disappeared for 24 hours! The entire nursing team and others were alarmed. They helped me request a transfer to… another doctor. It was only at this point that Dr. Alfrey reappeared and sent me home telling me I was fine, when actually I had a serious infection. I ended up back in the hospital with even more serious complications. At that point I was septic, and spent another 2 weeks in the hospital and a month of home-care to fix the damage caused from dismissing me the first time I came in. If you find yourself assigned to Dr. Alfrey, it’s important to know that his arrogance and callousness are an open secret. **All** of my nurses in the hospital shared with me that he has a reputation for being difficult and uncaring with patients. They also mentioned he has a reputation for his patients getting post-surgery infections! Given his very senior position in the hospital, he must have some special surgical skills. But if you find yourself dealing with Dr. Alfrey, he’s probably not going to care about you in a human way. If he decides you aren't interesting or if you are a woman and he decides you're hysterical, I believe you may get dangerously, dangerously bad care. Given my experience, I would run. It was very scary. I will never forget the terrifying feeling of being trapped under his care. I have never experienced anything like it and I’ve dealt with many doctors over the years given my condition.

Dr Alfrey performed surgery on me about two years ago and I have long felt the need to write a review. In retrospect, I should have found another doctor after my initial consult. He was best described as uninterested. The surgery was a pretty standard procedure, so I figured everything should be fine. When I woke from surgery I had an incision that was larger then my wife received when she delivered via c-section. The hospital staff told me everything was fine, but I never saw Dr Alfrey until my follow-up appointment a week later. When I asked him why I had such a large incision, his response was that "sometimes they are big... and sometimes they are not". Again, Dr Alfrey was uninterested. I will never let a doctor who is uninterested operate on me, or my loved ones.

This man incorrectly told a friend she had 3 months to live. Serendipitously, she met another person who had gone to Alfrey and was told to go home and prepare for her colon to perforate, as he couldn't help her. Luckily she had the wherewithal to call UCSF who got her in for surgery very quickly. It is an outrage that people like this man are allowed to practice medicine.

He was kind of rude and did not ask any questions about my tumor. He seemed like did not care.

Lack of info. Rude medical assistant hung up on me

I received a kidney transplant from Dr Alfrey in 2005 at Hershey MC. His team was great, although he himself was quite bland and unemotional. He seemed like he was bored with his job. He did take a picture of the new kidney for me to keep. That was pretty neat. Overall he's an okay guy, with great experience.

Take a moment to read through other patient reviews. The consistent pattern you will notice in the negative reviews -- other than horrible grammar and numerous spelling errors -- is that every bad experience people have with Dr.Alfrey is due to their believing that after looking on WebMD or doing a quick google search they understand their condition better than he does. As far as providing an accurate diagnosis and effective, successful surgery, you will not find better in Northern California. If you would like your surgeon to coddle you and tell you you are smart for making a self diagnosis online, look elsewhere. Suggestively therapy.