Dr. Lavin is great and I'm very grateful for how he's helping our family however, the office is impossible to get through! They don't pick up their phones and have an answering machine pick up like 90% of the time!! I have to call about 30 times before I could actually get through to someone. They also keep losing paperwork. read more

They are absolutely terrible to deal with. They never pick up the phone, they do overbilling, they do not respond to email messages. They are the worst doctor's office I have ever dealt with. read more

What a joke. No accountability to the rude receptionists, who also don't fulfill their task and duties. Long hold waits on phone, our MRI was canceled thanks to their lack of care, ineptitude and ghetto behavior. Oh, but if we were someone famous, that would be a different story? Dr Lavin who I like, needs to, has a responsibility addressing the above. But this place, is a demand service, they know it, and they dont care. There will always be an ill person next in line. A symptom of the degradation of our society, particularly California. read more

If you see this doctor, I highly recommend getting another opinion from somewhere reputable. My son had several appointments with Dr. Lavin to follow his growth. He is a nice man, but ended up trying to upsell us into doing the growth hormones. He scared us by saying he was not going to be over 5' tall. We ended up going to CHLA in Tarzana for a 2nd opinion and were told that he would be much taller than that. And they have been monitoring him since we stopped going to Dr. Lavin. Our son is just a slow grower, but is following his own growth curve and will catch up when other kids his age have stopped growing. We even got a 3rd opinion from UCLA in Burbank who took some blood and said our son is producing the growth hormone himself and also did not recommend giving him the growth hormone. I am so thankful we didn't listen to Dr. Lavin. Definitely get a second opinion. It's so worth it. read more

I don't know why this office is getting such bad reviews. They've never been anything but great with us. My son has been seeing Dr. Lavin for a few months now. His improvement has been extremely slow but that's probably to be expected. Lots of waiting for meds to work, then new bloodwork, then appts- all of this seems pretty standard though. And I love his bedside manner. He's witty and quirky (in a good way) and even my 15 year old son who thinks everything is "lame" finds him funny. I'll update as time goes on but so far, so good for us with Dr. Lavin. read more

Dr Lavin is great if the front desk will let you get back to see him. I checked in and was told to sit down. Then two people came in after me and went ahead of me. When I went to the front the girl said she didn't know I was there. They made me feel like a ghost. read more

This place is a joke, seeing them for almost a year going back and fort and nothing is accomplished yet. front office clearly doesnt give a crap, never answer the phone on normal business hours and have no clue whats going on. takes over 2-3 weeks to get in touch with someone from the office. save your time and money by going here. they will make you wait over an hour or two if your their last patient of the day. this is not how you treat a patient, don't understand how they are still in business.... change your staff!!! read more

Dr Lavin is the smartest endocrinologist I have had. He's an out of the box thinker and has had decades of experience. He's gotten my endocrine system imbalance as near to norm where a dozen other endocrinologists have failed. He listens to you. read more

Find another office. After calling and writing emails and calling and pleading on the phone for Lavin's office to PLEASE SEND MY DAUGHTERS PRESCRIPTION TO THE PHARMACY they still had every excuse why they have not. I finally had to go to the office in person and demand that they send the prescription as I wait there. They were rude. I stood my ground. I told them there was no way I was leaving their office until I had proof of that prescription! While I was waiting another dad came to the office with the same complaint, why does the pharmacy not have the prescription???!!! This office is beyond bad. Lavin might be a good doctor but his office staff is just unbelievably incompetent. We have changed to a different doctor and, no surprise, Lavin's office has failed to provide a transfer of her records....which is illegal in California. Do NOT go to this office. Your experience will be no different I promise. read more

My son has been his patient for 5 years. Dr. Lavin and his staff are always very professional, kind and caring. read more

Dr.Lavin has great bedside manner. It's a shame that his office staff is incompetent. I wasted THREE YEARS trying to get my daughter on medication that's medically necessary. She needed all kinds of labs and tests. The referrals in the mail were to places that didn't even take children. I would call the office and no one ever picks up the phone or when they do you're on hold forever. Referrals were all spaced out and came way too late. In the end they couldn't gather all the results and submit correctly to get the medication approved. Once I mailed a LETTER because I COULDNT GET AHOLD OF ANYONE for weeks! I'm in the medical field I was very patient for a long time. There is no teamwork or system flow in this office. Now they won't even send the records to the new doctor. DONT WASTE YOUR TIME HERE. Disappointing to say the the least. read more

The decision to go out of network to see Dr. Lavin has turned out to be the biggest blessing for our family. I've always been concerned about my child's height but doctors at Kaiser have never been concerned. I inquired about going the CHLA to see an endocrinologist, but they wanted to make my appointment over 4 months out and might not do anything for my child at his age. I realized I was running out of time to make a difference in my child's future stature and psychological well being... so I went to Dr. Lavin. Despite occasional difficulty getting through to the office (they are a pretty busy office & have specific phone hours) and occasionally a long wait to be seen (especially for an after school appointment)... Dr. Lavin is an expert, and it shows. I got an appointment within the next week. He not only spends all the time you need to reassure you on the growth hormone process, but his staff goes above and beyond to make the difficult process as easy as possible. I'm not sure what staff the previous reviews are speaking about, because everyone I've encountered at the office is just lovely and so empathetic. And most importantly, my child is now growing at a healthy rate. Thank you Dr. Lavin ! read more

Dr. Lavin and his staff are amazing!! I've been going to him since 2011. I don't understand all the bad reviews on here, because ..They truly go above and beyond for everyone. The people that work here are so nice and professional. Dr. Lavin, Randi and Ashley, are just few outstanding and remarkable people that always have a smile on their face. I will always be grateful for all that they have done and continue to do for me. Lisa Feingold read more

I came to like Dr. Lavin over the years and find the office staff real nice, but they seem often overwhelmed. It is just so hard to get in touch with the office and it is always about the refills. When I try to call, I often get their exchange, but you can't leave a message with the exchange; they ask you to keep calling the doctor's office. And I call again and again - always during office hours - and I am so glad when the exchange doesn't pick up, but neither does the office!! So much time wasted. Did I mention that I have a job? Dr. Lavin is very stringent about needing to evaluate my kids every three months; it seems he is pushing more and more for a two months schedule even if the dose hasn't changed. That means a Quest appointment at least at every three months for a blood draw and to just schedule those appts. right, so the results are timely and available by the time we see the doctor. I try so hard to get this right, but often the results are available, but didn't make it to Dr. Lavin's office yet. No idea why? I already have the results on my phone. The staff is nice and will reach out to Quest and obtain the results, but that translate to us waiting for an additional 15 - 30 min even though we are already in one of the rooms hoping to the see the doctor :(. I have to take time off work for the almost one hour drive to the office, time in the waiting room, followed by "meeting the doc time", then scheduling the follow up appointment, pay for parking and then drive back, usually during rush hour time. I am a contractor; any hour I don't' work, is an hour I don't get paid and any time missed is falling behind on the project. I try to be nice, but it's tough. However, if that what it takes to get the right treatment for my kids, I do it. I just don't understand why the refills are such a nightmare. Optum Rx, my insurance "preferred Rx provider" says they faxed Dr. Lavin's office the refill request. The office regularly say they didn't receive the fax. I check with Optum Rx to make sure they had the right fax number. They to. Still the office does not receive them. I am all out of options but call Dr. Lavin's office where I most often get the exchange. (see details above). If someone at the office picks up, I feel like I hit the lottery! And, don't get smart and try to email them. Refills are not dealt with through emails... you have to call :) and nowadays they don't except emails from patients anymore at all. I wish I could do the same with the bills that come in. Try to catch me :0 read more

The are staff are great, accommodative and responds to all patient's needs. In short they are all professional!

Dr Lavin and his staff Randi & desk greeters are EXCELLENT! My several chronic conditions require special Rx's which he tracks together with my primary Dr Michael Hirt (Tarzana) coordinating blood-work results between offices. Dr Lavin is TOP NOTCH endocrinologist & paediatrics in LA area! "Five out of Five" rating for caregivers & coordinating Rx providers! Don't understand the strange negative comments (must be very ungrateful people??) He has a keen sense of humor and always cheers us up visiting him regularly! read more

I would not recommend Dr. Lavin to anyone. At first I thought he was great, and he was. But as the years went on, he slowly started getting worse at what he was doing. I don't know why, maybe he got comfortable with us. For me it was the realization that he didn't have any real understanding of my daughter's disorder. He kept treating it like Diabetes, and it isn't Diabetes. Treating her disorder as if it is Diabetes is potentially harmful. He couldn't ever correctly identify her disorder, even though we had a diagnosis when we came to him. He always called it Diabetes. Add onto it the fact that the office staff was just rude and appointments were routinely an hour late, I had to make a change. I finally took Dr. Lavin's advice to move my daughter over to a specialist that deals with her disorder at UCLA. It's something that he had been telling me for nearly a year, but I stuck with him until I just couldn't anymore. I requested medical records be transferred, which took forever, and he sent off a nasty letter to my daughter's Pediatrician about how he didn't think it was a good idea to go elsewhere and didn't understand why I was, even though he had been telling me it would be a good idea to do so. In the end it's clear to me that Dr. Lavin wasn't for us anymore. He was good at first but horrible in the end. read more

I've been a patient of Dr Lavin for 12 years and the way they treat their patients has gone more and more downhill. The first incident happened when I was out of town a couple years ago and my bottle of insulin broke when I was changing my insulin pump, I called the After hours number to see if they could fax an emergency prescription to the closest CVS or Walgreens, only to be told that Dr Lavin wouldn't do it. I thought it was a mixup because he had always been so kind in person, so I tried calling a couple more times and they checked back with him- nope, same answer. Wouldn't help. I've had 3 kids in the last 4 years and after each pregnancy when I'm in the midst of post-partum and dealing with toddlers and babies, I find out my prescriptions aren't being filled and the doctors office is refusing to submit them. I contact them and am told "Oh, we thought you found a new doctor because it's been 3 months since you were here last." Why didn't they bother calling me to ask?? They knew I had just had a baby! So, instead of checking on me and seeing if I was okay and had indeed left for another doctor, they assume that I have and refuse to refill crucial prescriptions- which (if I was going to another doctor), that doctor would be filling for me. I assumed again this was just a glitch, but no, it happened 2 more times. After my second was born and spent 2 months in the NICU and required nurse care when he came home, I got the same cold treatment and refusal to work with me and space out my visits for when I could find someone to watch my oldest, and have a nurse watch my second born. After my 3rd child was born, it came time to have some paperwork filled out for my CGM and at my in person doctors appointment they told me it would be taken care of that week. I was calling literally every day for 2 months and it still wasn't done. They would send my calls to the answering service and wouldn't return emails or phone calls, despite me leaving my phone number for them every. SINGLE. DAY. At that point I was done. I shouldn't have to hound them to get help filling prescriptions that, by the way, are necessary for me to live...it's not like I was asking for diet pills. They don't care about their patients, they don't do what they say they are going to do, Dr Lavin asks the same questions every time he sees you- do yourself a favor and find a doctor and staff who care about you, you'll save yourself a major headache and stress. read more

Horrible!!!! Waited 1.5 hrs to see the doctor for 5 minutes!! He's more worried about promoting his book than he is anything else ! His staff is loud and unprofessional!! The place is dirty. And BTW they're violating HIPPA with all those charts laying around where the patients can easily grab!!! read more

A great dr and staff. Everyone is willing to answer all your questions and help you with anything. The wait is long in the afternoon but it is worth it. I recommend this dr. read more

Dr Lavin is just awesome! We visited Dr Lavin hoping for help with my daughter's high cholesterol . Dr Lavin in one day was able to set a plan , run all needed tests including an ultrasound and give us the results . He was so sweet with my daughter, didn't use big words or hurt her feelings like other doctors sometimes do. He encouraged her to eat right and exercise and now we are seeing Christine, the dietician in his office which is also awesome and my daughter loved her :). The office staff on the other side need help! they are unorganized and they all seem very overwhelmed. It was hard getting an appointment and I called over 5 times to make sure they had my daughter lab work before our visit. read more

Dr. Lavin is by far the best Endocrinologist I've been to. He is so caring and knowledgeable! Answers all of my questions! I've seen their Nutritionists and they are the best! They've helped me bring down my A1c and I'm beyond thankful for this practice! read more

I have called the front desk again in order to complain about the no show fee. I was told that they were going to check on it since I cancelled my appointment and in that case they would waive it or call me back. Weeks later I received multiple past due notices. read more

I was referred to Dr. Lavin and I couldn't have gotten a warmer experience. Showed up on time to be greeted by the friendly staff and be helped right away. I wasn't in the office for long, but it was a short and sweet experience. Will for sure be returning! read more

Our pediatrician sent us to Dr. Lavin after we had been going back and forth with Children's hospital for 2 years. Within a month we had the medication my daughter needed and answers to really basic questions. Dr. Lavin is an expert and well worth a little bit longer office waits. read more

If I could rate it a ZERO I WOULD!!!! I needed to pull out records for one of my kids so I called in, and it began ...... i had a bad flashback and remembered why I moved my kids out of that place years ago !!!!!! Of course they weren't helpful or nice over the phone, what made me to find time and go all the way there, thinking maybe it would be better face to face ! Do you think it was better???!!!! No!! Bad service, horrible and worst attitude ever! Thank god We left years ago! read more

Well we never saw the doctor because when we got there we were told they did not accept our insurance and the visit would be $350! Something that they had failed to tell me when I made the appointment. Waited 10 days for the appointment, pulled my daughter out of school, took the afternoon off of work, drove 1/2 hour and have nothing to show for it. I am frustrated and disgusted with the staff's incompetence. read more

My daughter has been a patient of Dr Lavin for some years now. The office lact of efficiency is at a all time low. Over the last year it takes 1 month out then 3 calls a week, with hold times over 45 minutes to get a script filled. Shame on you alll!! You are to be here to help us with our sick children. You do not!! It takes me 1 month of calling your office and then connecting you to the pharmacy. When in touch with Dr Lavin's office they say everything is done finished. However when you talk to the pharmacy they say they have received nothing from them. Again and agin this circle goes around. My child has a life long illness (type 1 diabetes) her scripts do not change. But Dr. Lavin's office only refills prescriptions for three months at a time. So we are stuck in this terrible circle 4 times a year. It is draining and terrifying . I think that your child's life and necessary medication would not be filled because an office is not doing their job. Literally her life hangs in the balance of this doctors office. It is a Constant stress and fear . Dr Lavin's office is failing your kids and there family's. This is hard enough already but more so to have a doctor as a failure and the office fail you with a simple thing like filling prescriptions and being available when you need them. I would advise anybody and everyone to stay clear of this office and if Dr.Lavin. read more

Not a great first impression - have been trying to call the office for hours but the phone just rings endlessly! No one picks up even though the website says they're open and no answering machine. read more

Dr. Lavin and his office are wonderful! In the last two years, he has completely changed his office staff (still working under the amazingly organized office manager). The young ladies are efficient, courteous, and knowledgeable. Dr. Lavin is the best in his specialty! The wait time is about an hour, around the same amount of time I spend in most doctors' offices. read more

Dr. Norman and his staff are great! There is a long wait, but it is really worth it. He is very thorough and will go through all of your lab results with you, and answer any questions you have. The staff is also extremely helpful and will work hard to help with anything you need! read more

Dr. Lavin and his staff are amazing! My child sees Dr. Lavin for growth hormone therapy and I'm so happy with the results. Their office manager made applying for growth hormone so easy for me. I'm so grateful for Dr. Lavin and his staff for helping my chil read more

My daughter has been a patient of Dr Lavin for some years now. The office lact of efficiency is at a all time low. Over the last year it takes 1 month out then 3 calls a week, with hold times over 45 minutes to get a script filled. Shame on you alll!! You are to be here to help us with our sick children. You do not!! It takes me 1 month of calling your office and then connecting you to the pharmacy. When in touch with Dr Lavin's office they say everything is done finished. However when you talk to the pharmacy they say they have received nothing from them. Again and agin this circle goes around. My child has a life long illness (type 1 diabetes) her scripts do not change. But Dr. Lavin's office only refills prescriptions for three months at a time. So we are stuck in this terrible circle 4 times a year. It is draining and terrifying . I think that your child's life and necessary medication would not be filled because an office is not doing their job. Literally her life hangs in the balance of this doctors office. It is a Constant stress and fear . Dr Lavin's office is failing your kids and there family's. This is hard enough already but more so to have a doctor as a failure and the office fail you with a simple thing like filling prescriptions and being available when you need them. I would advise anybody and everyone to stay clear of this office and if Dr.Lavin. read more

This office , doctor and employees are not professional at all. She screamed at me on the phone if I would be late 10 minutes I will lose my appointements . Once we got there we had to wait 1 hour and 45 minutes for the doctor to just wrote a lab work. He never reviewed the lab work he never bothered to follow up after the lab work and when I asked a copy to be send to me and the pediatrician they never did and i called 5 times . Very unprofessional . Will never bother to go there again. Children hospital has great pediatrician endocrinologist . read more

I would give 10 stars if I could! It's amazing how yelp can misrepresent a well established doctor's office with an amazing reputation- maybe because he has such strong following that he doesn't need to encourage patients to write online reviews. It's unfortunate that as human beings, we are so reluctant to take time to write a positive review when we are happy, but are willing to do so when something isn't exactly the way we expect. Well I must say that I have nothing but praises to give to this establishment. The front desk is VERY knowledgeable about the services the doctor provides and do a great job explaining what to expect with anything prescribed, insurance billings, and follow up visits. They always answer the phone within the work hours as stated on the answering machine, and have been nothing but professional and courteous. The doctor goes out of his way to help his patients and genuinely cares for their well being. Great sense of humor, and always pleasant to chat with. He is one of THE BEST endocrinologists in town!! Highly highly recommended! read more

I have been a patient of Dr. Norman Lavin's for about 10 years now. He literally saved my life!!! I have a very rare disease that was causing my health and function to seriously deteriorate over a span of about 2 years, and NO other doctors were able to figure out why--for almost 2 years, I had numerous hospital stays and even a long, horrible nursing home stay before I was referred to Dr. Lavin. He never gave up on me! He knew which scans, labs, etc. to order for me, and now I am finally being treated for the disease almost 10 years and have as much of my life back as I can. (There is no cure for the disease, but at least the treatment is helping me live my life.) I am sad to see all the negative reviews here on Yelp. I have NOT had most the experiences described here--I usually have wait times of maybe up to 10 minutes, just like I do at most my other doctors' offices. If I had to choose between shorter wait times or shorter visits with the doctor, well, I think it's more important that Dr. Lavin spends the time with each patient that they need, so I don't mind waiting. And just like with other doctors, I have found that if you can educate yourself the best you can about your condition and be super proactive while you are with the doctor (write down all questions you have for the doctor and bring to your appointment, speak up, find out what your most recent labs/scans show and ask him to explain it to you, etc.), you will have a more positive experience with him. I remember only one occasion I had an appointment with Dr. Lavin when I had looked down briefly and when I looked back up, he was gone--so I went to the front desk and asked them to chase him down for me because I wasn't done with him yet, LOL--and they did, and by the time I left, I felt confident that I had gotten everything I needed from the doctor that day. Dr. Lavin really does have a heart of gold. He really does care about his patients. The nutritionist Kristine has a heart of gold, too, and she is super smart! She will spend as much time as needed getting answers for you, even after she has left for the day--she is also awesome in that she doesn't give up on you. As far as the front desk is concerned, Randi is the person to talk to (I think she's the office manager) if you have any questions, concerns, issues, etc., though you might need to wait till she's off the phone--she and the rest of the staff spend a LOT of time on the phone because they are speaking to your insurance company, your pharmacy, etc. which can be a huge time suck, but that part is not their fault. Randi has worked for Dr. Lavin a long time--she was there when I first became a patient 10 years ago, and she is very knowledgeable and she also has a heart of gold and cares about the patients. My first 5-7 years coming to Dr. Lavin's, the other front desk staff were the same, too--very helpful, kind, efficient, you know their names and they know you when they see you, but I have also noticed that only in the past few years, most of them are gone and now there are new faces, I don't know all of them, they don't know me, and it can be frustrating every once in a while. I, too, have found that sometimes it is hard to get ahold of them on the phone, but that is also true of some of my other doctors' offices. But in the end, it is all offset by getting to see a doctor who is so smart he probably graduated top of his class, who is smarter than pretty much any other doctor around here, and who is smart enough to figure out how to help me when no one else could. read more

Worst experience ever. My daughter was diagnosed with diabetes type 1 and i was refered to see Dr. Lavin. I wish they would give me more information of his bad customer service before coming to see him. My first appoinment was last week and it seemed that he was in a rush we waited closer to 45 min and he only talked to us around 15. Being a parent with a newly diagnosed diabetic you have lots of questions witch it seems that he was to busy to answer any. They gave us an appoinment to come back today, i asked my daughter's pediatrician to send us to a second opinion at children's hospital. He advised us to keep today's appoinment so my daughter could see the doctor and to get another impression on doctor lavin. To give him a second chance.well nobody notified me from doctor's lavin office that my appoinment was cancelled until i got there. I called my pediatrician and the appoinment was not cancel because i asked for a second opinion like Dr. Lavin's office said. They never put a referral for a follow up. Very dissapoinment read more

Dr. Lavin himself is great, highly regarded, and good with his patients. However, his front office is chronically overwhelmed, dismissive, and disorganized. Trying to get help out of them or forms filled out is an exercise in frustration. If you have other options for an endocrinologist with better support staff, I would suggest trying another office. read more

As the previous review said, the front office staff is terrible. I called to make an appointment and asked if they take my insurance and they said they did. Once we were acknowledged at the office, we were told that they do not take my insurance. They told me I could pay cash or I could talk to the office manager. I waited for 15 minutes for the office manager. I couldn't wait any longer so I left. They are rude and incompetent. I suggest going elsewhere. read more

The worst office for kids with Type 1. I cannot speak to any other treatment but we were trapped in this hellish office for 7 years because there are not a lot of options for peds endos in our area. We dislike this office so much we are driving even further away to see a new doctor. My 8 year old daughter was repeatedly told she would go to "diabetes jail" if she didn't do better and that we needed more education. Well my daughter has been diabetic since 12 months old, she is now 8 years old. I haven't slept in 7 years, I've read every article, idea and social media post on her disease, we have all the tech, we have every gadget, we are constantly working to improve and change for her growing body. When I would try to get the help I needed from Dr. Lavin I would get script like answers and feel chastised and threatened in the nicest of ways but never get actual help. Never once did he look at her numbers, her dexcom readings or try to help me adjust dosages, in fact he would just ask me what my plan was and then scurry out. I don't even think he knows how to operate the tech we use as treatment! On numerous occasions the office staff would withhold my daughters insulin (which she cannot live without) unless I agreed to come more often and see all of the "experts, educators and specialists" that are extremely expensive. They told me Dr. Lavin would not fill her prescriptions until we did, when I confronted him he said "no no that's not me it's obamacare" well I have a PPO so I don't know how that was. He just wants to get you in there as much as possible so he can collect more and more money. They double/triple book all of their appointments to the point where there is standing room only and you will wait 45min-2hrs to even get into a room. None of the nurses are educated on Type 1 and when you ask a question in response to a diabetes question they are asking from a form they so "oh i don't know nothing about that" ummmm ok. Dr. Lavin is a nice guy but I think he also blames his office staff so he doesn't look bad, the front office staff is rude and terrible and doesn't understand the severity of my child's disease or what it takes to manage it, they have no emotions or understanding it is all about keeping the assembly line of copays moving. I would not go here ever ever ever if you can avoid it, it is time for Dr. Lavin to retire or start actually caring about the quality of care he's giving, if only I didn't wait so long! read more