ROBERT A. ROVNER, M.D.

I should note that my review is on Dr. Rovner himself and not the «practice», or the office. Dr offices don’t always reflect the quality of the physician unless its a small office that’s dedicated to no more than one or two doctors, and the larger the practice the lower level of service that office will provide so lets leave it at that.
As for Dr. Rovner himself goes, my experience with him in the last 15 yrs has been very positive. He’s not one to baby you, he’s not one for chit chat, and some people don’t care for his bedside manner, but for my money, I expect one who a) knows what he’s doing and b) can provide high quality of medical care on a consistent level.
To that I’ve found him to be competent and knowledgeable in his craft. He’s very skillful and doesn’t mess around with un-​necessary treatments which you’re not likely to benefit by. He’s not an ambulance chaser and doesn’t write to benefit his wallet or the insurance company, if you don’t need a procedure he won’t recommend it, and he doesn’t force surgical decisions.
He fixed a broken neck which was cause of agony for many years and after we exhausted all conservative measures, I finally chose to go under the knife, I only regret not making that decision on DAY-​1 because had I known just how painless the recovery would be I would have saved myself 6yrs of pain, and I mean debilitating agonizing pain, not just a nagging pain.
He’s also provided consultation on my lower back disk issues which has panned out to be on the money. Again, there are a lot of other ortho surgeons who would book your surgery before having seen you because it is where the money’s at. But with him, surgical options are reserved for last resort when all other options have failed to bring relief.
So there it is, take it or leave it but regardless of what ortho you finally decide to go with, beware of your options and make time to get at least 2 other opinions before you go under the knife.
In my case, I saw 6 well known surgeons in BayArea, and I am glad I went with him.
Good luck to you for whatever pain is bringing you to the Doctor and I wish you a successful recovery.
Best Regards,
–F–
You may email me directly if you would like

Dr. Rovner has been our family doctor, specializing in orthopedic care, for over two decades. Raising kids in sports has brought us to his office numerous times and we have been thoroughly impressed with his knowledge and expertise. We have always felt comfortable in his care. At the moment of injury or need, our FIRST call was always to Dr. Rovner to ask his opinion.
At one point, Dr. Rovner gave us his advice on a leg injury and unfortunately we ultimately went a different route. What a big mistake. Hindsight is perfectly vivid of course and I wish we had had a crystal ball at the time, but we did not heed his advice! He was correct and the other doctor we listened to was not. We could have avoided a ruined sports year! This was a valuable lesson but painful to admit. I guess we are all human and we make the best decisions we can at the time. Needless to say, we never made that mistake again.
Now that the kids have moved on after high school and college sports, we find ourselves still calling on him for adult care such as back pain and knee pain.
Your first call or doctor visit, before injury, should be to his office so you are prepared and armed with the best medical advice.

Dr. Rovner is a fantastic! I had surgery on my lower back and almost 3mo later I feel like a new man. His office is really nice and the staff is very helpful and pleasant to deal with. I couldn’t be happier.

Dr Rovner has helped me and my bad back twice since 2004. He is the example of what a caring and passionate professional Dr should be like. Mr Rovner pursued every avenue recently to give me options to repair my bad back. I highly Recommend his system, he is extremely knowledgable caring and knows what he is doing and he knows, you are in pain.
Great Guy.

There are two aspects to review: Dr. Rovner, and the experience at his office.
The good things about Dr. Rovner:
— he knows his stuff
— he made a recommendation that I get a microdiscectomy, which ended up being the procedure I had — but with a different surgeon — and it has helped me tremendously.
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The bad things about Dr. Rovner:
— he is unapologetic for being late (and he was late for every single appointment I’ve ever had with him)
— he tends to rush you; he’s not one of those doctors where you feel like you’re important, or that he/​she genuinely cares what you have to say.
— after waiting for a minimum of 45 mins each time, he doesn’t spend more than 5 minutes with you.
— he does MINIMAL physical examinations; he does more writing than examining you
The good things about the office:
— the staff seem like nice people
— Rovner’s Medical Assistant (Katie?) is very attentive and sympathetic
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The bad things about the office:
— the staff seem incompetent with scheduling because they OVERBOOK Rovner CONSTANTLY. You will see this complaint on other reviews on Unilocal,I encourage you to read others’ reviews as well because you will see a theme.
— my last visit to Rovner was a 3-​month post-​op appointment. My appt was at 11:45, which I scheduled around my lunch break, so that I wouldn’t miss more work. They called me at 11:30 saying he was running behind about 15 – 30 minutes. I showed up at 12:10, and the first receptionist said that he was «somehow double-​booked» and they don’t know how that happened, but he was an hour and a half behind! He was just about to see his 10:45 patient!!! I needed this appt or else I would’ve had to wait 2 months to be seen by him. I ended up waiting an hour and then furiously complained to receptionist #2. She denied the double-​booking and said he had an emergency appt that morning, which pushed back every single patient after that. She then proceeded to have me fill out a huge packet since this is his new office, even though I already filled out all of that info at Webster. And no one gave me these papers in the HOUR I had been sitting there. After waiting an HOUR AND A HALF to be seen, he spent 3 – 4 minutes with me and he never asked to see my incision site from the surgery. I said to him «can you take a look at this to make all of this worthwhile?» (He looked for a second and said it looked as it would if he had performed the surgery.)
Bottom line: life is too short to waste so much time in his office. You can find something better.

This review has no reflection on Dr. rovner.
Let me first start with the wait time. Every time I have brought my elderly mother in for a appointment the wait was always at least one hour to one and a half hour to see her doctor, even though she has appointment that you usually wait for a month to get. That is one issue with this office.
They never return your calls, the surgery scheduler in San Ramon Kristin is horrible. She never returns calls., voice mail box is full all the time, even after many attempts to get a hold of her. Excellent doctor, lousy scheduler.

Dr. Rovner is amazing! My anterior posterior spinal fusion was a success and I am so happy with the results. Dr. Rovner is very personable, caring, detailed in explaining the operation and all of my questions that I had. He came to visit me in the hospital daily to make sure I was doing fine. Thank you Dr. Rovner for giving me back my life!

Rovner’s practice is a joke– I would call it more of an assembly line than a medical practice. They take on more patients than they can handle and really do not care about the well being of them. First off, I often had to wait for an hour and a half in the waiting room. Rovner decided to give me pain pills rather than get to the root of my chronic back pain — he said it’s not bad enough for surgery and did nothing else to help. I guess since I wasn’t getting surgery I was no good for him and/​or he didn’t have enough time to care about my back. I spent good money as I had terrible insurance to see him as he was supposedly the best– not. I finally went to a surgeon at John Muir who actually took time with me and figured out what was going on– rather than just give me pills.
Fast forward to a few years later. My elderly Father has herniated discs and is in excruciating pain. He told me he was going to see Rovner and I cringed. Sure enough, after getting an MRI last week they couldn’t get him in to see Rovner for 4 days. My poor Father ran out of pain medication yesterday and started calling Rovner’s office early on. They said they would have his assistant call the pharmacy and by 2:30 he had not called it in. My Father even staggered in pain down to the office to try to make sure they were going to call it in and they said that they were on it. By 4:30 it had not been called in to the pharmacy. He called the office back and they sent us to the assistant’s voicemail again. The prescription was never filled and my Dad went to bed in excruciating pain and can’t even stand this morning. I’ve never seen him like this and I feel helpless and angry.
My Father never complains or says anything bad about anyone but he made a comment about how upset and disappointed he was with Rovner and his office.
Rovner and his assembly are unprofessional in every sense. What kind of surgeon/​practice tells someone who has herniated discs and can’t even walk or function that they ARE calling in their prescription and never does? Never returns a call. Never apologizes. It is pathetic and sad. No one in this much pain should have to deal with this frustration. Rovner needs to only take on as many patients as HE can handle as people are suffering in pain and he could care less.

Not a good experience!!! At all… Staff its «OK“but yet Unprofessional. But Dr. Rovner… ugh. Rude &unprofessional.etc. This is a WC case… and so far his the 4^th Doc. Ive seen in a period of almost 2yrs.
1^st visit; My app was at 3:30 I was there @ 3:00(fill out pw) so by 4:30 I was still sitting in the waiting room i mean come on I have a low back injur, So I cant be sitting for long periods. At 5 pm I finally decided to talk to front desk and she tells me «oh well Im not sure if he’ll be able to make it»
I ask why??? «well he’s performing a surgery»
I was MAD!!! i mean at least they could of tell me. HOURS BEFORE. we drove a very long distance. BUT NOOOOO, they decided to wait till i ask!!! So I just had to reschedule.
2^nd visit; I was there on-​time and waiting time was around 15m (so far so good)
They walk me trough the back and i had to wait for Dr. for like for 1hr.
When he finally shows. he was… OK.
But when he ask me about symptoms and everything (even tho he had review my MR) HE was paying really good attention and i mean he was doing his job.
So he wanted x-​rays and MRI. So he schedules me AGAIN. in 1 month. :-(
3^rd visit; He finally reviews my MRI and he found the problem…
he didnt even explain to me about exactly whats going on with my back and left leg.
all he said «solution; SURGERY» Two surgeries. one for lowback and 1 for leg.
He kinda explain the surgery procedure. and tells me to go home and think about it.
Im 23 yrsold. w 2 babies. so i was a little scared about surgery. c’mon
So i go home and i was supposed to go back to DR in 4wks.
4^th visit; I had my answer for surgery (if it was the best, i was up for it) So yes. I was willing to get it. But when i gave him my answer he tells me «I dont think surgery is the best thing for you» and that was a little weird because, he tells me that after he spoke with my insurance adjuster. hmmmm…
But instead he gives me TONS of medication for pain. Even tho i explained how that medicine havnt help me at all. (ive tried it before)
5^th and last visit;DEC.10 2013. He schedules me for a 3:30pm app… and some other of his patients where schedule at the same time too. So at 4:30 they FINALLY call my name and Dr. wasnt even there… i was seeing a different guy. Who i explained a new symptom i was having (abdominal pain, that radiates to my back and leg)
he just nod and said ok. .Sents me back home and wants to see me back in JUNE 2014… aRE U FREAKIN out of your MIND!!!
I Am switching Dr. again!!!
So for the record No im not getting paid with TD Or anything, I havent been able to go back to work and this pain KILLS ME!!! Its very hard… very very.
I know how many ppl here talk crap about WC patients and blah, blah. but believe me im not taking advantage in ANY WAY…

Dr. Rovner is kind, helpful, and competent in his practice. I visited him with horrible back pain, and was relieved when he, unlike so many other doctors, took my complaint seriously and sought out to find the route problem rather than simply treat the symptoms. After an MRI and an x-​ray, Dr. Rovner was happy to report that nothing was structurally wrong with my back. Despite being a surgeon first and foremost, he continued to offer suggestions and exercises to help me alleviate the pain even though ultimately, he could not correct the problem with surgery. As other Unilocalers have mentioned, the office is a little busy, but I see that as a small price to pay for the expert advice and patient demeanor for which you are waiting.

I saw Doctor Rovner at the practice in Oakland a few months ago, and was pleased with my visits. In my case, he made a preliminary diagnosis, but then was concerned when he saw my X-​rays. He explained why very clearly. He sent me for an MRI, and when those results came back, it was clear in my followup visit with him that the X-​rays had been a bit misleading, and that I was okay. Surgery would not be necessary. I really respect him for being able to say «I am unsure» despite having a vast amount of experience, and then seeing to it that I got the better imaging to get to the truth.
My gripes there have to do with the practice, and not Doctor Rovner (nor Doctor Peatman) themselves. This place is always *way* too busy, and they are always running late. Don’t even think about using the metered parking on the street (two hours max). Park in the lot and pay the seven bucks, and avoid the stress of worrying about a parking ticket. Anyway, some of the staff there are really nice, but some of them are rather surly, and it took me a long time and lots of phone calls to resolve an insurance billing issue so that I wouldn’t have to pay for the MRI out of my pocket.
I would rather have a great doctor and a poor practice than a poor doctor and a great practice. Doctor Rovner is that great doctor.
Update #1: After months of phone calls, I still have yet to get the insurance mess sorted out, and Doctor Rovner’s office has been totally unhelpful. The doctor himself should get five stars, but I would be very cautious about seeing him in the event that he were to send one off-​site for something as simple as an MRI.
Update #2: After many more phone calls, the billing headache finally got sorted out. The best help that I received was actually from the business that performed the MRI. Doctor Rovner is great, but one better triple-​check that the staff there is totally one-​hundred percent in sync with one’s insurance provider.