A Message from Dr. Bock
Thank you for visiting the California Skin & Laser Center online. This website is designed to be as informative and objective as possible. I would like you to be well informed, and hopefully, you’ll choose us to serve you based on this information.
I have attempted to give an honest and accurate description of many of the treatment options we offer. However, advances are coming very rapidly, and it is almost impossible to keep everything on our site up to date. Furthermore, some problems are best solved by a combination of procedures, and others may not currently have a solution.
The best way to learn the most optimal approach to achieving what you desire is by seeing me in person and allowing me to examine you and discuss your history, needs, and desires. I hope you find the website helpful, and I encourage you to make an appointment to see me to discuss your individual needs.
We live in an exciting time when there have been very significant advances in our ability to improve the appearance of our patients, frequently with minimal downtime. We also live in a time when information travels rapidly and when companies and practitioners sometimes promise or imply a lot more than they can deliver. We believe in being honest and straightforward with our patients, and we will tell you, to the best of our knowledge, exactly what the true risks and benefits of a procedure are.
If you choose us to provide cosmetic services, we hope to develop a long-term relationship, as we have with many other patients. That means we will spend enough time learning what you desire and what fits into your lifestyle and budget. We will realistically discuss the available options and the pros and cons of each procedure. We depend on the goodwill of our patients and our reputation in the community. We would rather not perform any procedure than perform one that is likely to result in an unhappy patient.
There is no procedure without risk, and we will not only explain the potential risks but also take every step possible to reduce risk. That is why all of our procedures are performed under local anesthesia, the safest approach available.
We will do our very best to answer all your questions, and we try, when necessary, to be available 24 hours a day. Our patient advocate, Vivian Geisbrecht, is available anytime to help you with any problems or difficulties that might occur.
Medicine is Changing, and Not For the Best
When I went into practice in the mid-1970s, most physicians were self-employed or worked for small organizations that they owned. They expected to make a decent living but did not expect to get rich.
Most doctors expected to have as part of their profession the ability to do their best to make the patient’s visit as comfortable as possible and educational as well.
As medicine advanced, procedures became more expensive and time-consuming, often requiring costly machines and medications, leading to a rapid increase in prices.
Money began to play a larger part in medical practice decisions. It became more productive to have the patient seen by a nurse practitioner, who in some cases was very poorly trained, rather than another physician. It was more financially productive to have the waiting room full than to have empty slots in the schedule. It was better to have you interact with a machine rather than get immediate responses and answers when you call the office.
As the cash flow through the office increased, entrepreneurs became interested in tapping into the money by buying the practice, resulting in another driver to increased costs without any motivation to make the parts of the practice that improved the experience without increasing the income.
We see this occurring in multiple practices in Stockton, including dermatology. We also see physicians marketing themselves as specialists without appropriate training. I have had numerous patients tell me how unpleasant it is to deal with some practices on the phone.
At California Skin and Laser Center, I have kept things mostly the way they were when I started to practice. We are not adverse to change, but only if it fits my vision of what a medical practice should represent. We have successfully added many medical lasers and peels as well as other devices with many happy patients as a result. We experimented with nurse practitioners, but I was not satisfied with the results and we no longer employ them.
If you would like to experience a practice that blends the new with the old, I suggest you give us a trial. Feel free to look at our online reviews. To schedule a consultation, please call us at 209-751-4292.
Gerald N Bock MD