James McClurg

There is barely more to say than Kate W. (8÷31÷12) already did! Her review took the words right out of my mouth! I have experienced EVERYTHING she describes (and more).
Dr. McClurg’s surgical skills are FANTASTIC, he is incredibly knowledgeable and really on the cutting edge of technology. He is thorough in discussions with you on what to expect, etc. However, unless you are prepared for EVERY appointment you make to be 3 – 4 hours long, you’ll want to shop around.
Unfortunately for him, his business is going to diminish unless he fires Silvia at the front desk and gets a handle on his time management skills. Silvia MUST be related to the Doctor, otherwise there is NO reasonable employer would still have her on staff. She gave us the nastiest look EVERY one of the 20 times we’ve walked in the door. (We have a 3 year history of 2 knee repairs with Dr. McClurg.) She never once has greeted us with as much as a «Hello», «Good Morning», «Can I help you» …NOTHING. She sits there while you stand in front of her and lets the awkward silence get the best of YOU until you say «I’m here for a 10:00 apt». She’s disgusting to talk to on the telephone and is one of the laziest people I have encountered in quite some time. While sitting in the waiting room, I over heard her tell a client to go to their website and fill out the patient form before she arrives for her appointment, to which the client must have said «can you email it to me» and Silvia says «my email doesn’t work and hasn’t for a while, just go to our website». What business doesn’t have a working email account for their admin?
There is a sign on the front door that states they no longer share the suite with «Dr. X» and give his phone# and new address. Yet when I heard her receive a phone call requesting an appt with «Dr. X», Silvia said, «We no longer do business with him…(pause)…no, I don’t have a new phone # for him.» WHAT? IT’S PASTED ON YOUR FREAKIN’ FRONT DOOR LADY! LAZY, that’s it.
After spending 4 hours at his first appointment, sitting in a room alone, my husband finally asked for his copay back and wanted to leave (I would have only waited ½ hour, but he’s different — wink)…they sent in a nurse to write him a prescription for pain pills and sent him home, keeping the copay even though he didn’t even see a doctor. Went back 2 weeks later, waited again in the waiting room for over TWO hours this time. Never an apology or even acknowledgement of their inconvenience. After PCL/​ACL surgery, he has been going back for check ups every 2 weeks for 2 months. My husband thought he would get smart and book his appointment as either the first or 2^nd appointment of the day, so as to avoid their habit of «running behind». Still didn’t work! Right now, my husband had an appointment at 10:30 am today, just called me from the waiting room and hasn’t been seen (11:49am). How is your office running behind after ONE patient in the morning? This is total insanity!
I do want to give a VERY POSITIVE review of his nurse, CARLOS. He has fantastic bedside manor, he’s knowledgeable and efficient. I hope he gets an offer from another orthopedic center someday for better hours and more money… he deserves it! Great job CARLOS!

Dr. McClurg is reputed to be the best orthopedist in San Diego. Maybe he is. But you have to muddle through a few issues in order to find out:
1. Exceedingly long wait time. (My daughter and I waited almost an hour and a half. It would have been nice to know Dr. McClurg was running so far behind.)
2. Exceedingly rude staff. (No greeting when we came in. Foul language in their conversations amongst themselves. Actual *eye rolls* when I asked how much longer we’d be waiting. No apologies. No smiles. We were very much made to feel like nuisances instead of valued patients.)
3. And Dr. McClurg… again, no apologies for running so far behind. Foul language *in front of my daughter*! Spent an excruciating amount of time fighting with his tablet. Not fully listening to us. Writing my daughter the wrong prescription.
We finally got through the appointment and were handed out the print-​out of the prescription. The rude assistant told us to have the woman at the front desk scan it before we go. Ummmm… if it’s all computerized, then why do we have to wait for the rx to be scanned? Just another waste of our time.
We’ve been to Dr. McClurg several times now and given him and his office repeated benefits of the doubt. No more. I’ll find another orthopedist.