Dr. Oommen was thoroughly professional and courteous. His pre-surgery diagnosis and instructions were swift and straightforward. All my questions were answered directly, with obvious experience and knowledge. Perhaps the best thing that can be said about any surgery is that it was uneventful; everything in my case went well. Recovery for this sort of surgery is painful, there's just no way around it. Dr. Oommen left me well prepared for that, and following his instructions the healing process also went very smoothly. I'd highly recommend Dr. Oommen for this sort of surgery: careful, direct, and experienced. I bothered to write this review because I saw several very poor reviews on Yelp. Asking around for second opinions, his peers that I talked to said Dr. Oommen was very well thought of and highly competent. I found this to be accurate, and would like to help correct what I see as the highly inaccurate perception one would get by looking on Yelp. read more

Dr Oommen retired 6/25/21. If you were fortunate to have him as your surgeon, you will wish him the best as I do. I'm still here 3+ years after my surgery because of him. read more

I self referred myself to Dr. Oomen as he had seen my 93 year old mother-in-law and my wife with very positive results. As a rectal specialist, I saw him with problems in that area. I was able to get an appointment within a few days and everything was on time during my office visit. Clinically he asked all the right historical questions about my situation so he had a complete and accurate understanding before my exam started. I don't know of anyone who has fun things to say about an anoscope, but mine was fine and yielded some very importation information. The doctor's treatment plan was very through and to help me remember, he wrote down an outline of what I was supposed to do... very helpful. Seven days later I had a care question and left a message at his office for him, or his nurse, to call me back ASAP. The Dr. himself called me back with an hour and resolved my question. For me, this was one of the best healthcare, "total health" discussion, treatment actions and follow-up one could hope for. read more

I should have sued him for malpractice. I had a small lesion, and he wanted to remove it through MAJOR surgery, which included staying overnight in the hospital and a very long, painful recovery. I decided to get a second opinion at UCSF. They said it was a minor thing, and via a 15-minute outpatient procedure, easily removed the lesion with no anesthesia or complications. Avoid Oomen. He wants your money at the expense of your well being. read more

I did not have a good experience with Dr. Oomen or his office staff. I needed to have a hemorrhoid removed and Dr. Oomen performed the rubber band procedure in his office. Something didn't go correctly - my discomfort lasted for three weeks instead of three days. I had another appointment scheduled for early January but I didn't want to wait for it, so I called mid-December to request the doctor see me earlier. The person who took my call told me the front desk was "busy" and that someone would call me back shortly. I explained I was concerned that something was not right. The day came and went with no return call. I then faxed their office with a message for them to schedule me to be seen as soon as possible and just leave me the day and time on my voice mail if they do not reach me directly and they can consider it confirmed unless they hear back from me. Still, no return call. My situation improved for about a week so I let things be, but then I started bleeding quite a bit with each trip to the bathroom -- not randomly like before -- but ALL of the time. This went on for three weeks during which time I was checking out other rectal surgeons because I really didn't want to go back to Dr. Oomen, but it was around the holidays and difficult to find another appointment so I waited until my early January appointment since there was no pain, just a lot of blood. I knew something wasn't right. The day of my appointment, I arrived and the person at the front desk looks at me and says "I guess you didn't get our message -- we had to change your appointment because Dr. Oomen is in surgery all day." I'm very well connected with technology and it's next to impossible for me to miss messages -- I asked her when the message was left and what number it was left at. She said it was left at my home number. I have internet phone service and can access call logs for each day -- on the day she told me they left the message, the only call I had received was from my sister back in Pennsylvania. So they either dialed wrong, or never bothered to call at all. They rescheduled my appointment for three weeks later and I told her I was having problems and couldn't wait that long, but she was unable to give me an earlier time. I asked if I could see one of the other doctors in the practice and was told that "we don't let patients hop around from doctor to doctor and they need to see the person they first saw" which made absolutely no sense to me since I wasn't asking for a consultation -- something was wrong with me. I told her to forget about the rescheduled appointment because I obviously needed to find another doctor. She couldn't have cared less. As far as Dr. Oomen goes, I did not find him to be a doctor who liked to engage the patient in the treatment. Whenever I would ask him questions about anything, he seemed to take offense -- as if I was questioning his abilities. I've been burned by bad doctors before -- I want to know what is being done to me. Dr. Oomen would just look at me and say "trust me." After the first procedure, he told me to schedule an appointment for the "next one" and I asked him how many there were that needed removed because at the first appointment, he told me there was only one. He wouldn't even answer the question! Sorry, I don't have that kind of blind faith in a doctor - I don't care how well credentialed they might be. Look a little farther south and you'll be able to find better and more accommodating rectal surgeons. read more

I went to Oomen for minor rectal pain. He used a very old large diameter endoscope to inspect me. If that wasn't enough pain, he then went in with his fingers and was extremely invasive and abrasive. Needless to say, my daily pain increased by 10. My primary doctor and my gastroenterologist could not understand why he went in with fingers. The endoscope should have told him everything he needed to know. The other thing that seems suspicious is that he prescribed a 1 year prescription of lidocaine. He asked a lot of personal questions that didn't seem relevant to my visit. For instance, my income; my wife's occupation, kind of car I drive, religion, personal activities, etc. I understand why he asked my sexual preference because he was trying to figure out if my rectal pain was the result of homosexual activity. However, it definately felt like he was probing into our family income which really puzzled me. I would avoid this doctor if at all possible. There is something creepy about him. He also made a dark joke on race that I didn't like. Creepy is the best way to describe him. read more

Not sure why everyone's having such a bad time. Maybe this is a different guy with the same name? Dr. Oomen's current operating address is 365 Lennon Lane, Suite 365, Walnut Creek CA. No such listing is on Yelp, so I'm assuming this is the guy, and Yelp's address is just wrong. I was referred to Dr Oomen in Jan 2012. His examinations were quite respectful, as brief as possible, and as comfortable as anyone with these conditions can expect. It's not possible to perform some of these exams without discomfort, as anyone with chronic colorectal conditions knows, but I know an easy exam from a hard one. Dr Oomen made it as painless as possible. He performed surgery on me in April 2012, which was so remarkably painless that I was actually in virtually no pain afterward, even the same day, where I was having trouble prior. Previous surgeries in that area have left me useless for weeks. Fistulotomy can be very tricky, but mine went great, without any side effects or pain. I've found Dr. Oomen to be absolutely professional and an expert at his craft. I've never been asked any strange or uncomfortable questions. I can't imagine these other reviewers are talking about the same person. I've also had no trouble with the receptionists who have scheduled appointments. All appointments have been kept, and all communication has been solid and without issue. In short, if you need a colorectal surgeon, you can't go wrong with Dr. Oomen. read more

I'm sorry to hear what you went through. It just didn't sound like the Oommen that took care of me.

I visited Dr. Oomen twice in 2011. Both times, I was made to wait in a gown for 1.5 hours. After he finally arrived, he spent 10 mins on an exam which they billed me $200 each. I should have checked the ratings for this doctor before going there. read more

My husband became increasingly symptomatic after his last visit to colorectal surgeon, Dr Samuel Oomen. He was inappropriately questioned in multiple different ways regarding his sexual preferences with the insinuation that he was either gay or bisexual. Dr Oomen told my husband he would probably need surgery. His pain increased significantly after his examination by Dr Oomen. After six months of sheer agony he went to UCSF. They were able to relieve his pain and accurately diagnose him in one visit. It became obvious to us that the snake oil doctor had attempted to cause damage to my husband's colon in order to have him return screaming in pain and begging for surgery. The specialist at UCSF offered multiple tiers of non surgical treatment never mentioned by Dr Oomen. Stay out of this office unless you have a hankering for the operating room table, thousands of dollars of out of pocket expenses for copays if you have insurance and lost days at work - not to mention weeks to months of pain and suffering. read more