Specialty Psychiatry Facility Pleasanton Medical Offices Department of Mental Health/Chemical Dependency Services Address OFF-SITE CAMPUS 3825 Hopyard Road Suite 140 Pleasanton CA 94588 Map & Directions Telephone Office: (510) 675-3080 E-mail your doctor View your preventive services

My Office Hours

Sunday	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday
	10:00 am 7:00 pm	10:00 am 7:00 pm	10:00 am 7:00 pm	9:30 am 6:30 pm	8:30 am 5:30 pm
Closed during lunch, 12:30 pm to 1:30 pm

Welcome to My Home Page!

Let me introduce myself first. I received my medical degree at Peking Union Medical College in 1989. I completed my Internship and Residency in Psychiatry at the University Of Texas, Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas in 2002 and joined the Permanente Medical Group in the same year.

I enjoy dancing, playing tennis and piano, and gardening at my spare time. I am fluent in Mandarin.

What does my service provide?

My role as a psychiatrist in Kaiser Psychiatry Department is to help people feel better through medication treatment. I stive to provide high quality service tailored to individual need.

How does my treatment work for you?

Amid many factors affecting your mental health, brain chemistry can be an important one. Brain chemistry can be influenced by genetics, childhood experience, and significant life events. When brain chemistry is not in good balance, medication treatment has a role in improving mental health by chemically correcting the imbalance.

Of course, medication may not be the panacea in some cases, especially when you are sensitive to the medications’ side effects or the medications do not exert good treatment effects on you after multiple trials. In that case, counseling/therapy on the difficult issues in your life, reading self-help books, stress management (allocate more time for sleep, slow down your pace, reduce caffeine), relaxation, alternative medicine, healthy diet, exercise, cultivation of positive thinking habit, spiritual or religious quests may be considered, since they can be the important steps to our emotional wellbeing.

What will happen during your visits?

Your initial visit with me spans a longer time, in order for me to get to know you and vise versa. I will spend time to collect relevant clinical information, go over medical and mental histories, make diagnostic impression and explain the treatment options to you.

Your follow-up visit normally is of a shorter one for you to report your reaction to medications and progress to me. I will asses the need for continuation of your medication, adjust the dosage as warranted, or change your medication, order necessary blood tests, and add refills to your prescriptions.

During the time you are taking medications prescribed by me, it is my job to make sure that medications are working effectively without intolerable or threatening side effects.

How to contact me:

You may contact me through phone 925-847-5051 or email to report problems regarding your reaction to medications. One of my nureses will call you first.

How to get your medication refilled:

All refill requests should be sent to a Kaiser Pharmacy of your choice 7 to 10 days in advance, regardless if you have refills left on your bottle or not. You can order refills via the refill phone number on your prescription bottle or on the Kaiser member website.

How to get an appointment to see me:

Please call 925-847-5051 to schedule.

How to get the blood tests done:

At times, blood cell count, liver and kidney function, thyroid function, Vitamin D level, lipid panel, blood glucose and medicine level may need to be monitored during the time you are taking certain medications.

• Fasting instruction: Lipid panel and blood glucose require fasting before the blood draw. You should not eat food or drink sugary beverage 10 to 12 hours before the blood draw.

• Instructions for checking medicine level: If you are taking Valproic Acid, Carbamazepine, or Lithium, you will be required to have the medicine blood level checked. Remember, you should go to the lab in the morning 10 to 12 hours after the previous night’s dose and before the morning dose of the medicine.

What other information you can find on my webpage?

You can read about various mental illnesses, using the links on the left side. You can find the list of self-help books. I will try my best to keep the information updated.

When you need urgent help during the off-business hours or if you have a psychiatric emergency:

Please call 925-847-5051 and your urgent need will be assisted by our psychiatric call center.

If you have a psychiatric emergency, you should go to a nearest ER.

When you plan to bring someone to my office:

Psychiatric information is highly confidential. If you have decided to bring somebody with you to my office to aid the clinical information collection and/or treatment, please ask the front desk for a Consent Form to fill out before our meeting.

I wish that your treatment here with me and in my department is of a positive experience in your life.

Sincerely,

Gena Hu, MD

My Credentials

Medical school	Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, China
Residency	University of Texas Southwestern Medical School, Dallas, TX
Board certification	Psychiatry, American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology

Disclaimer
If you think you have a MEDICAL OR PSYCHIATRIC EMERGENCY, CALL 911 IMMEDIATELY or go to the nearest hospital. DO NOT attempt to access emergency care through this web site. An emergency medical condition is a medical or psychiatric condition that manifests itself by acute symptoms of sufficient severity (including severe pain) such that you could reasonably expect the absence of immediate medical attention to result in any of the following: serious jeopardy to your health, serious impairment to your bodily functions, or serious dysfunction of any bodily organ or part. An emergency medical condition is also "active labor," which means a labor when there is inadequate time for safe transfer to a Plan hospital (or designated hospital) before delivery or if a transfer poses a threat to the health of the member or unborn child.

This site may contain links to other web sites outside of www.permanente.net. Kaiser Permanente has no control over the content or the availability of these sites, and is not responsible for the privacy practices or the content of such Web sites. Web links are provided as an educational tool, and should not be relied upon for personal diagnosis or treatment. A link or reference to a web site should not be construed as an endorsement of the site or its contents. Any medical content that you feel may be important to your health should always be discussed with your Kaiser Permanente physician.