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Michael Saal, MD

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Michael Saal, MD
Michael M. Saal, MD
(19 Reviews)
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311 Miller Ave Suite B Mill Valley, CA 94941
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Consumer Feedback

(19 Reviews)
Service
4 star average for Service
Environment
4.5 star average for Environment
Expertise
4 star average for Expertise
Staff
4.5 star average for Staff
Recommended
4.5 star average for Recommended
Value
3.5 star average for Value
Does this provider give unbiased advice?
Yes
by Anonymous
June 13, 2011
I feel so much better and I owe it all to Dr. Saal. I suffer from severe anxiety. I have tried several therapists and treatments in the past, but none really worked. Since working with Dr. Saal I am almost completely anxiety free. I highly recommend him without reservation.
by Anonymous
March 22, 2011
Does this provider treat every client equally?
Definitely, they make everyone feel equally respected and cared for
Was this provider's staff friendly?
Yes, they went above and beyond
Did this provider ever dismiss your concerns as unimportant?
Never, they go out of their way to address every concern of mine immediately
Does this provider treat their staff well?
Very! I've never seen an employer treat their staff better
by Anonymous
March 18, 2011
I ended up on this site trying to find a new dentist and out of curiosity did a search for my psychiatrist Dr. Saal to see what kind of reviews he was getting. Before getting into my rant I should mention that my comp

First of all, before I even get to my review of Dr. Saal...I feel compelled to say I am disgusted by the lack of professionalism associated with this wellness.com website. After looking at the standard poll questions about the provider that were given to me along with the 'multiple choice' responses, this website has lost all credibility in my mind...the poll was completely unscientific with a pathetically unsuccessful attempt to be hip and witty, and the questions were almost completely irrelevant and poorly written, but even more ridiculously they create the rating for you based on your responses to the bad questions --obviously obtaining accurate and unbiased information about a medical professional and how they may be able to meet the needs of a potential patient is not a priority for this company or the author of the survey is a complete idiot (not sure which is worse). Secondly, the site provides biased information--when I searched for Dr. Saal the search results text showed "Dr. Saal has committed malpractice....." which when you look at the reviews turns out to be a rant from an obviously disturbed individual filled with fabrications (if it were really such an emergency and the Dr. didn't respond they would have gone elsewhere). I bet if he pays to subscribe to the website that sentence from the 3rd review would no longer appear there....hmmm, sounds like a cash cow to me - develop a site drawing huge traffic that promotes biased and unreasonable reviews and does nothing to discourage a vocal minority to post multiple times with negative reviews, then set it up so that the doctors being reviewed can pay to join and improve their listing.

I'm not normally a complainer but this did irk me. So, now that I got that off my mind...I have been seeing Dr. Saal for about a year and he has been nothing short of professional, caring, and completely competent and organized in my experience. There is no shortage of psychiatrists here in Marin, almost absurdly so, if I were not completely satisfied I would have gone elsewhere long ago; I assume that to be true with most people; knowing that Dr. Saal's schedule usually fills up well in advance, I have to conclude that the vast majority of his patients are satisfied as well.

So proceed with skepticism when reading these reviews. Keep in mind the nature of his profession when reading the reviews from patients, and the fact that this website and most review websites are a magnet for complainers rather than people that are satisfied.

Also, Dr. Saal, if you are reading this don't give in and pay to join this website so they can improve your ratings, put your profile up at the top, etc.
by Anonymous
March 17, 2011
I have been seeing Dr. Saal over the past several years and I have nothing but good things to say about him. It is clear from other reviews on this website that he has received some complaints from some very disgruntled patients. He has always treated me with the utmost professionalism and gone out of his way to be as helpful as possible. It disturbs me to see that this website allows such obviously slander our remarks to be posted as though they are somehow meaningful! My advice is to totally ignore these "reviews".
by Anonymous
March 15, 2011
I don't know who these other reviewers are talking about because that does not describe the Dr. Saal my son has been seeing for the past three years. Dr. Saal is extremely caring, competent, and consistent. He has frequently been more than willing to go out of his way for us when we have waited until the last minute to get a prescription. I would recommend him to anyone who is looking for a truly wonderful child psychiatrist.
by Anonymous
March 02, 2011
We have been trying to get a very simple report of my son's diagnosis from Dr. Michael Saal for over six months. I can't tell you the number of phone calls, letters, and emails I have made in order to obtain a simple report that Dr. Saal said he could supply us for $300. For $300 we were to receive my son's diagnosis. Have received nothing to date although this was requested last year and we really needed to be able to provide his teachers/school with relevant medical/psych information for our son. I even provided the dates of treatment as well as the approximate times we gave my son certain medications as well as the names of these medications. He returned my numerous calls and attempts to reach him over Labor Day weekend and tried to give me explanations (personal problems) as to why he hadn't provided the report. He assured me he would write it by the end of the Holiday Weekend. We have received nothing to date.

It was very easy to get roped into his practice, although I sat apprehensively outside every time my son went through his office door alone for "therapy." I hate to even ask my son (now much older than when he saw Dr. Saal) about what happened at "therapy." He always hated going.

I agree with the other two postings, his office is disorganized, he pushes medications on young patients, he pretty much never returns calls, and although his credentials might look impressive, I would definitely take my children somewhere else. By the way, I'm a nurse who works with kids, and I would just like to say one more time, please, please, think about taking your children elsewhere for treatment. Treatment doesn't just happen right at the moment, but involves follow-up in the future (including summation reports), contacting pediatricians, teachers, or pharmacists. This man is extremely disorganized and cannot keep all the balls in the air. I don't think he has any support staff to speak of. I happen to believe that Dr. Saal cannot FIND my son's information anymore and, therefore, cannot put a report on paper. He possibly doesn't even remember my son, and definitely can't tell me over the phone what my son's diagnosis was. He told me by law he doesn't have to keep records, but that for $300 he could give me a summary of treatment and a diagnosis. Please, take your kids elsewhere...
by Anonymous
December 01, 2009
Dr. Saal has committed malpractice. This doctor has repeatedly and consistently not only not answered phone calls for weeks, but he has not filled up a prescription medication that CANNOT be stopped suddenly. He has been called on numerous occasions when the 3 prescribed refills were about to finish so that he could fax a new prescription refill to the pharmacy and he has not done that. He is well aware that this medication cannot and should not be abruptly stopped. Once he took over 2 weeks to call back and his voice mail had no specific messages of vacation time or another physician to call in case he was not available. The symptoms of stopping the medication were severe and repeated phone calls were made to him to call back and/or fax a new prescription. He finally called after 2 weeks and said he had not received a message [again, let me write this clearly: he was called at least half a dozen times and several messages were left on his voice mail]. After those 3 new refills were about to finish he was called again. This time we were about to go overseas for over 3 weeks and there was medication for about 4-5 more days. My husband wanted to make sure he would have the medicine with him when he was out of the country. Dr. Saal didn't call back and did not fax a refill. Date of departure was indicated in several messages my husband left for him and he did not respond. We went to Europe without the medication and this was a major concern. My husband was able to get a replacement medicine from a doctor who refilled the prescription in Europe for a month. And when we came back there were 3 messages that Dr. Saal had left (after we had left the country) indicating my husband needed to have another consultation before he could prescribe the medicine again. [It should be explained that this medicine has been prescribed by Dr. Saal to my husband for well over a year and he had had several appointments with him every few months. These consultations were completely uneventful, and they were just for him to be able to prescribe the medicine again and supposedly to bill his high rate to the insurance company]. He also indicated his co-pays had not been paid. First of all the co-pays were a small amount -less than $100 - and he knew that my husband was out of the country with no possible way to get his medicine or even send that small copay payment at that time. And that reason is not acceptable to leave a patient without medication refills when that particular prescription cannot and should not be stopped suddenly. And of course the doctor knows it was not possible to have a session while being out of the country and he did not call before the departure time to either fax a refill or to set up an appointment. After returning back home, the doctor was called again because the prescription that was filled in Europe was about to run out. My husband had to leave 2 messages before Dr. Saal called back. And when he spoke with him, he did not ask him how he did with no medicine while on his trip, or what he was able to do about that while we were away for almost a month. He did however indicated that he was going to fax a new prescription to the pharmacy immediately and it has been 2.5 days and no prescription has been faxed. My husband called the pharmacy several times and they even offered to fax the prescription to the doctor for him to fax it back -which they did - and Dr. Saal has not returned that fax either. To repeatedly have a patient with no medicine under these conditions is MALPRACTICE. And a formal complaint has been set up with his board.
by Anonymous
September 19, 2009
Michael Saal was 10 minutes late, then he went to the bathroom and I could hear everything and he did not wash his hands. He was wearing sweats and sandals and looked disheveled. We went into his office and he had patient information everywhere in full sight, full names, drugs prescribed and more. This information was thrown about everywhere, on the table where I sat down, on the counters, on the floor. I was on the verge of walking out of there when he told me that he requires at least 7 business days notice to cancel an appointment which is totally inconsistent with general practice...usually 24 to 48 hours are required.

I told him that he was not the doctor for me and that I was leaving without having a session. He said that he was charging my insurance company a couple hundred dollars for the session, regardless of if I stayed or not. This is insurance fraud, by the way. A doctor may not charge an insurance company for a service that was not rendered.

After he insisted that he was charging me for the full visit, I picked up some scripts that were sitting in front of me (literally...I did not even have to get out of my chair which was approximately 8 feet from his desk). I had in my hand first and last names of patients and the drugs they were prescribed. I told him that one reason I do not wish to work with him is because confidential patient info is all over the place in plain sight. He lunged at me and cut his finger on the paper, and then called the police and said I assaulted him and showed the cops his paper cut! I may have pushed him off me, but come on, seems reasonable if a doctor lunges at you and looks like he is about to punch you that you get away from him as fast as possible! The police did nothing.

Do not get treated by this guy, he is a weirdo!
by Anonymous
February 14, 2008
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311 Miller Ave Suite B, Mill Valley, CA 94941