James L Smith Jr, MD

Incredible Surgeon. Though today’s medical environment puts unbelievable strains on surgeons to pay staff, high rents, and supplies for the office just stay in business Dr. Smith always takes the time to be friendly and listen to people. I have had the privilege of helping him in surgery and he always holds himself and others to the highest standards, he relentlessly strives for perfection during an operation. I would recommend him without reservation to anyone with spine pain.

I believe Dr. Smith is the most skilled and compassionate physicians I have ever met. He definitely identifies with your pain and tries to suggest non-​surgical procedures before recommending surgery. He has a great sense of humor, encourages his patients and gives them hope. He will always be my physician for any orthopedic needs. I had 4 fractured vertebrae and 4 other diagnoses. He eliminated them all! It is a privilege to be his patient.

This doctor was one of the doctors recommended my my physical therapy clinic. Unfortunately, trying to get an appointment is nearly impossible. The automated answering system will put you in que to schedule and appointment, but after waiting 20 mins each time I called, I finally gave up. Their system did offer the ease of online scheduling, so I thought I’d give that a try since no one can seem to answer scheduling calls in any sort of timely manner. I scheduled an appointment through the online system, it was easy and I was happy that I’d finally get to see someone for my back injury. I rescheduled my clients to make room on my schedule for my doctors appointment. Needless to say, the very next day I receive a call from this office stating that the online scheduling system is not an accurate representation of actual appointment availability. Therefore they had to «cancel» my appt. I was furious! How can you offer online scheduling and it not be real, only an idea of possible availability? Never once an apology. The lady at Dr Smith’s office did offer to get me in with another physician in the office, but when I asked about his credentials she could not tell me and directed me to their website to read his bio. This office is horribly mis-​managed and really doesn’t care about their potential new patients. I will be seeing another orthopedic physician, at least his office was professional and accommodating.

If you are on Medicare you will not like this doctors practice.
I was in severe pain and me took me through a months process and when he deemed it a surgical solution he wanted an exorbitant fee up front to schedule the procedure. When I questioned the billing process he said he would not do the surgery and wanted to stop treating me.
Money is his motivation and defiantly not your health.

I wish I could give James 10 stars. He was highly recommended by my Chiropractor Ron Burnett so I knew I was in good hands.
I ended up finding out that I had a herniated disc at my L5 S1 after getting an MRI. James made me feel very comfortable through his wonderful humor while also being tremendously informative. He took the time to answer all my questions and helped me understand all of my different options.
We ended up decided to go with a cortisone shot in my spine to hopefully avoid surgery, but after 3 weeks and no noticeable effect, he walked me through my options with surgery. A week or so later he was the one that performed the surgery on me, and as before, he made me feel comfortable through some joking around while still making sure I knew exactly what was going on. He explained everything to my wonderful girlfriend so that after the surgery when I was on medication, she would be able to ensure that I followed the recovery plan.
His entire staff took tremendous care of me, I never felt rushed, and am overall just so happy that I ended up in his care. I am recovering very well and would recommend James to anyone dealing with any type of spinal issues. Though he is incredibly good with surgery, he will help you try all the other options out there to avoid it if possible.
Quick Update:
Just a quick update on my previous review. I would add more stars if I could! I just got back from Colorado where I spent 4 days hiking. I hiked 6 miles into base camp with a 35 pound pack on my back, summitted Mt Eolus, (14,000 feet high), then hiked 6 miles back out with the full pack.
This was all only 2 months after my surgery!
I highly recommend James!