Why There Are Multiple Doctors Named Alice Chung
If you’ve been referred to a “Dr. Alice Chung,” there isn’t one—there are at least three, in different states and specialties: a family medicine physician in Palo Alto, a surgical oncologist in Santa Monica, a general surgeon in Riverton. Same name, completely different doctors. The confusion is real, and it’s not your fault.
Here’s why it happens. Directory sites like Healthgrades, Stanford Health Care, and individual hospital pages each build a profile for one physician at a time. None is designed to tell you there are three other doctors with this exact name. So you click one listing, read her credentials, skim a few reviews—and have no way of knowing those details belong to a doctor in a different state and a different specialty entirely.
This article fixes that by putting every Dr. Alice Chung side by side. As you read, focus on three disambiguators that separate one from another almost instantly:
- Specialty — breast cancer surgery vs. routine primary care
- City and state — where her office actually is
- Hospital affiliation — the system she practices under
At-a-Glance Comparison of Every Dr. Alice Chung
The fastest fix is to stop reading individual profiles and line them up side by side. Here’s every known Dr. Alice Chung at a glance.
| Name Variant | Specialty | City / State | Primary Affiliation | One-Line ID |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alice Chung, MD | Family Medicine | Palo Alto, CA | Stanford Health Care | Routine primary and preventive care |
| Alice P. Chung, MD | Surgical Oncology (Breast Cancer) | Santa Monica / Los Angeles, CA | Cedars-Sinai | Breast cancer surgery and tumor care |
| Alice Chung, MD | General Surgery | Riverton, WY | SageWest Health Care | General surgical procedures, rural setting |
Two quick tells: the middle initial and the state. The Cedars-Sinai surgical oncologist often appears as Alice P. Chung, MD, while the Palo Alto and Riverton physicians typically list no middle initial—so a stray “P.” on your paperwork points you toward breast cancer surgery in Los Angeles, not primary care or general surgery.
Now pull out whatever sent you here—the referral letter, the insurance directory entry, or the hospital intake form—and match three fields against the table: specialty, city, and hospital. If all three line up with one row, that’s your Dr. Chung. If only the name matches, you’re likely looking at the wrong profile, and the verification steps below will confirm it. Start with the surgical oncologist, since cancer referrals cause the most confusion.
Dr. Alice Chung, Breast Surgical Oncologist (Santa Monica / Cedars-Sinai)
If your referral mentions a breast cancer diagnosis, this is almost certainly the Dr. Alice Chung you’re looking for. She’s a breast surgical oncologist—a surgeon who specializes in removing breast tumors and managing the surgical side of breast cancer care, including lumpectomies, mastectomies, and sentinel lymph node biopsies. That’s a narrower focus than a general surgeon, and it matters: surgical oncology training adds dedicated fellowship time on top of a standard surgery residency.
This Dr. Chung practices in the Los Angeles area, with affiliations tied to Cedars-Sinai and the Santa Monica medical corridor. If your appointment paperwork lists a West LA or Santa Monica address—or a Cedars-Sinai oncology program—you’ve matched the right physician.
Credentials to confirm before you book
- Board certification: Look for certification in general surgery, verifiable through the American Board of Surgery’s public lookup tool.
- Fellowship training: Surgical oncology or breast surgery fellowship signals subspecialty depth.
- Experience: Directory profiles on Healthgrades and Vitals typically list years in practice and patient ratings side by side.
Who she’s right for: Anyone with a confirmed or suspected breast cancer diagnosis, a referral from an oncologist or primary care provider, or a need for surgical consultation. If your visit is for routine primary care instead, you’re likely looking at a different Dr. Chung entirely—keep reading.
Dr. Alice Chung, Family Medicine (Palo Alto / Stanford Area)
If your referral came from your insurance plan or primary care office for a checkup, a physical, or ongoing health management, this is likely the Dr. Alice Chung you’re trying to reach. She practices family medicine in the Palo Alto area—the kind of doctor you see for routine, everyday care rather than a single specialized condition.
What she handles
This Dr. Chung focuses on primary and preventive care: annual wellness visits, screenings, vaccinations, chronic condition management (blood pressure, diabetes, cholesterol), and the general “I’m not feeling right” appointments that don’t fit a specialist. She treats patients across age ranges, which is the hallmark of family medicine versus internal medicine or pediatrics.
Location and credentials
- Area: Palo Alto / Stanford region, Northern California — affiliated with a Stanford-area health system or affiliated medical group.
- Certification: Look for board certification through the American Board of Family Medicine (ABFM), which you can confirm directly at certificationmatters.org rather than trusting a directory listing alone.
- Training: Verify medical school and residency on her official health-system profile, since those details vary across the doctors who share this name.
Who she’s right for
Choose this Dr. Chung if you need a long-term primary care relationship, routine checkups, or general health guidance. If your referral mentions breast cancer surgery or surgical oncology, you’re looking at a different physician.
Dr. Alice Chung, General Surgery (Riverton and Other Locations)
Here’s where a lot of referrals get muddy: if your paperwork says “Dr. Alice Chung, General Surgery,” you’re likely looking at a different physician than the breast cancer specialist in California. General surgery is a broad field covering the abdomen, gallbladder, appendix, hernias, soft tissue, and emergency procedures—a wide toolkit rather than a single-organ focus.
That breadth is exactly why people confuse it with surgical oncology. A surgical oncologist (like a breast surgeon) trains for an extra one to three years specifically on cancer operations after completing a general surgery residency. So while both carry the same name, a general surgeon typically handles a much wider range of common conditions and may not be the right fit if your referral concerns cancer care.
Look for these signals to confirm a match:
- Location and hospital: Verify the city (Riverton or elsewhere) and the affiliated hospital matches what your provider listed.
- Board certification: Confirm certification through the American Board of Surgery via its public verification tool.
- Experience: Check years in practice and procedure focus on Healthgrades or the hospital’s own profile.
If your referral mentions a tumor, biopsy, or oncology team, double-check—you may actually need the surgical oncologist, not this general surgeon.
How to Verify You Have the Right Dr. Alice Chung
The single most reliable way to confirm you’re looking at the right Dr. Alice Chung isn’t a name or a photo—it’s a 10-digit number. Every US physician has a unique National Provider Identifier (NPI), and it cuts through name collisions instantly.
Start there and work outward:
- Cross-check the NPI. Find the NPI on your referral, insurance card, or intake paperwork, then look it up free in the NPPES NPI Registry (npiregistry.cms.hhs.gov). It returns the exact name, specialty taxonomy, and practice address tied to that number.
- Match the address and phone. The clinic address and phone on your referral should match what’s listed for that NPI. A mismatch usually means you’ve got the wrong Chung or an outdated listing.
- Confirm board certification. Run her name through ABMS Certification Matters (free) or the relevant specialty board directly—the American Board of Surgery for a surgical oncologist, the American Board of Family Medicine for primary care. This tells you the certification is active, not lapsed.
- Verify the specialty fits your condition. A family medicine Dr. Chung and a breast cancer surgeon Dr. Chung are not interchangeable. Confirm her specialty actually maps to why you were referred before you book.
Run all four and you’ll know—not hope—that the physician on your calendar is the one you intended to see.
How to Read Patient Reviews Without Confusing Profiles
Verifying the doctor is only half the job—the reviews attached to her name carry the same collision risk. A glowing five-star rating means nothing if it belongs to a different physician three states away. Before you trust a single review, confirm three things on the page: the city, the specialty, and the hospital affiliation. If the profile says “general surgery, Riverton” but you were referred to a breast cancer surgeon in Santa Monica, you’re reading the wrong person’s reputation entirely.
Stick to sources that tie reviews to a verified profile. Healthgrades and Vitals both attach ratings to an NPI number and listed locations, and hospital provider pages (Stanford, UCLA, etc.) link reviews directly to a credentialed doctor. Cross-check the name spelling, middle initial, and address against your referral.
Weight the reviews to your visit type. For a surgeon, prioritize comments about surgical outcomes, complication rates, and follow-up care. For a primary care visit, bedside manner and wait times matter more. A glowing note about a routine checkup tells you little about her operating room track record.
Red flags worth a second look
- Repeated billing complaints — surprise charges or coding disputes mentioned across multiple reviews.
- Communication issues — unreturned calls, rushed visits, or unanswered questions.
- Mismatched specialty — review text describing a procedure she doesn’t perform, a sign you’ve landed on the wrong Dr. Chung.
What to Do Next Before Booking Your Appointment
Once you’ve narrowed down which Dr. Alice Chung is actually yours, four quick steps separate you from a confident booking. A 15-minute phone call now can save you a wasted trip and an out-of-network bill later.
1. Confirm she’s in-network. Call your insurance plan or use its online provider search to verify coverage. Even doctors listed in plan directories are sometimes out-of-network, so confirm using her exact name and the practice’s NPI number rather than trusting a listing alone. An out-of-network visit can run hundreds more.
2. Call the office directly. Ask three things: Does Dr. Chung treat your specific condition? Is she accepting new patients? And is the address you have correct? A surgical oncologist won’t manage routine primary care, so this call catches a mismatch fast.
3. Gather your paperwork. Pull together your referral, recent records, imaging, medication list, and insurance card before the first visit. Offices often request these in advance, and having them ready speeds up your appointment.
4. Escalate if it still feels off. If the match remains ambiguous, call your referring provider and ask them to confirm the physician’s name, specialty, and location in writing. They made the referral—they can clear up confusion in one quick message.
