James Martel, MD

I highly recommend Dr. James Martel. He has a very high level of experise in his field, and is very thorough. Although the wait time to see him is long, for a high level/​high risk opthomology health issue, this is the Doctor to go to.
He has handled a very high level (severe) eye health issue for a family member who was at risk for losing her life, due to an aggressive infection in her eye socket, that was on the verge of entering her blood stream. My family was clearly communicated with about what was going on, and able to go forward knowing that she was getting the treatment needed.
We were very fortunate to be established with Dr. Martel. Anyone would be. Prepare to wait at your appointment, but know that you are going to be taken care of, and get the best level of care possible for your opthomological issue.

We arrived 20 minutes early for an appointment and were told it would be no longer than 1 hour before we were seen. It has now been 2 hours and 40 minutes and we are still waiting. Their front desk staff is less than enthusiastic and is rude when you ask a question. This is a poorly run medical clinic and their procedures are in dire need of change because there is a room full of unhappy patients.

People love to complain, but when they need help they will be the first in line. When my family member had an emergency and COULD NOT SEE he was given emergency surgery the same day with no appointment and was seen by Dr. Martel until past 8 p.m. Dr. Martel was very kind did not rush and told him to come back any time with or without an appointment, even if he couldn’t pay, not to worry about it. The doctor truly cares about his patients. You can complain all you want about the long wait time but when and if your eye sight is in danger I am betting you will be grateful that you are seen with no appointment ahead of other patients, and hopefully people waiting can have a little patience knowing that maybe you are waiting because someone’s eyesight is being saved, and have a little understanding.

Appointment at 830
It’s 10:15 … Still waiting on the doctor!
Don’t these people know we don’t have all day to sit and wait on them!!! If you can’t see a patient at 830 then don’t schedule the appointment at that time!!! If I didn’t have to drive someone here I’d never choose this facility. Ridiculous!

As a former patient I greatly appreciated all the service I received with Dr. Martel. I would recommend him but what I did not like is tge customer service I received via phine. As someone who also is in customer service, I felt really disrespected when I would call, be placed on hold, and hung up on. This was after waiting 30 minutes to speak with someone for a simple request.

This place is absolutely terrible. I don’t know why, my physicians keeps referring my mom to this doctor.
Normal wait time at this office, can be at least 1 hour plus. One time my sister waited for 5 hours. We absolutely did not know why. Luckily our patience is very high, and it’s understandable for those who do not have quality insurance. Usually I have to clear my schedule in order to take my mom to her eye appointments. I bring my extra battery pack, my iPad, and my cell phone to make sure I’m pretty occupied while waiting. You sit in their waiting room, to be called to fill out paperwork, then when you are finally called, you sit in another waiting room inside.
The doctor is not very friendly, and he talks super fast. When you ask questions, he gets annoyed. He stares at you with a blank face thinking that you are stupid. Well I’m sorry I don’t speak medical terms to understand that my mom has blah blah blah.

This was the worst experience ever. When I took my daughter in to get glasses we waited almost 2 hours until the doctor came in. 2 hours sitting in a box room is not fun. The doctor came in for 5 minutes and determined that my daughter needs glasses
* That was one thing he got right*
He was not pleasant nor was he mean, just no personality. It seemed as though he was trying to take care of too many people. I let that go.
I got over to glasses section and they said my insurance only covered a small selection of glasses. They never offered to upgrade or polarize for a fee.
I would have gladly said yes. I was so frustrated at this point that my kid just picked. After that, the lady speaking in circles said she didn’t know if my insurance covered glasses. The new girl had to tell her they do and I already knew they did. Why even say that?
Fast forward to 2 weeks later her glasses are in and I call to see if we can just walk in to get them fitted and the answering machine says that their phones are open from 8:30 to 530. That is the worst when you call during these hours 8:50 AM and some lazy person is keeping the machine on instead of doing their job.
We will he going today if anyone ever answers.
I went to another eye doctor for my other kid the very next week. The eye doctor in Rocklin off of 5 star and my experience was way different. They were professional and kind. The doctor spoke with my kid and was pleasant. This us the kind of service the Martel eye group should strive to give.
I am very unhappy with the whole experience.

Absolutely TERRIBLE, AWFUL, HORRIFIC service! I’ve been to this office twice, once for myself, from an ER referral, and 6 months later to bring a friend, also an ER referral.
On my visit, I was placed in a back room, alone, no receptionist, no other patients. No one. And I waited, and waited and waited for nearly 3 hours. Almost too long after my injury to get stitches… JUST to be told my insurance isn’t accepted!!! You’d think they would check your insurance as soon as you come in, especially with time sensitive issues. But they didn’t. I was sent somewhere else and by the time I was treated, I couldn’t get the stitches that I needed and now I have an irregular scar on my eyelid!
This visit, I’m writing from their front waiting room, as I said before, this is an ER referral and we’ve been here for 2 hours and 45 minutes. I get that being a ‘walk in’ may take longer than usual but this is ridiculous. The receptionist didn’t even give us the new patient paperwork for 30 minutes. I am appalled. When I asked the receptionist about the time frame, she blamed the other receptionist instead of being accountable!
I would NEVER refer anyone here for anything, EVER. Absolutely horrible service, and it’s a shame, I can’t even rate the doctor because I’ve never seen one.
Please do yourself a favor and see a dr who actually cares about its patients, you know, the people who actually bring in the money.
If I could rate in the negatives, I would.

OMG worse place to come! We’ve been waiting for 2 hours and 20 min already and no doctor has came! Even tho I’ve made this appointment 2 months ago! I still have to wait for more than 2 hours to see 1 doctor when they have like 15! I wouldn’t recommend this place to anybody!

Dr James Martel is excellent, kind, and thorough. He has been treating a relative of mine for a retinal tear with a very scary complication, and he always takes the time to explain everything and answer questions. This good bedside manner probably contributes to the office running about 30 – 45 min behind on appointments. The wait sucks, but the care received is worth leaving my job in the middle of the day for and the wait. Staff are courteous and follow up well.
Dr. Martel, 5 stars
Wait time, –1

10 .20. 14 Fax went over from my optomololy Dr. to Martell office for realease of records. I have been calling every 4 days. OFFERED to pick up records due to the nature of severity. Always get the excuse of the day.. These are the people Dr. Martell trust in running his business… Long story short they, today located our fax request and will try to process request in the next 3 – 5 days.. WTH I asked to speak to an office manager.. URSULA Yeah, she won’t be in until after one. Now because she did not indicate what day after 1pm that worries me.. Asked to please take a message with my phone number and have her return my call. Iwas informed that she, Ursula would try to within the next 24 hours if not I could call back and do a follow up call. Mmm .
Dr martell is a great doctor however, how the hell he has a staff that works professionally like this beyond me. I’m sure this won’t be the last post with unsatisfied patients and crappy passive customer service.

Bad service.. Good thing my phone died during the last long ass post on this place. It wasn’t pretty. So this will pretty much be sugar coat compared to what I said before. Took me about a month of calling everyday and getting put on hold for 20 minutes at a time to get hung up on. And when I finally get there for an appointment, I witnessed one of the a-​holes put someone on hold to sit there and play on her cell phone a few minutes, then get up and walk away and not come back. PLUS, on my way home the prescription paper blew out the window. My bad. But I called 10 times a day for 2 weeks. It was way out of the way to drive there, and clashed with my schedule. I left 3 messages a day, talked to someone twice and both times they promised to fax my eye prescription but didn’t. I had to squeeze time to go over there in person and expressed how bad I needed it and tried to get it for the amount of time that I tried, for them to sit there and make me wait another hour at their ran down ghetto unprofessional establishment, to end up with the wrong prescription. The prescription makes my eyes worse, not better. I am very disappointed. I can’t believe how much time I wasted dealing with them, especially being they should know how detrimental it is to a persons job and lifestyles to be able to see. I will NEVER recommend this place. Horrible experience. Pisses me off!
Don’t waste my money or time (even more valuable).
At least if they had good customer service it wouldn’t seem as bad, but they don’t. It was literally the worst!!! They don’t give a F*** about their patients. That’s obvious.

I would give this place zero if there was an option. You have to keep calling for 3 days to talk to the receptionist. There is no voice message and no body ever picks up the phone. Doctor is good, but you have to wait at least 2 hrs before he talks to you. This place makes a mockery of appointment system.
I would suggest not to waste your time and find a better place for treatment.

I would give this place zero stars if it were an option. The time is now 1045am and I’ve been waiting with my grandma since 9am to see the doctor. And he finally walked in! I cannot believe how horribly run this place is! The doctors do know their stuff I will admit but I cannot stand to come here as half my day goes out the window with waiting here. This is not the first time I’ve been here and every time it’s the same thing. They need to schedule less people instead of having an appt every ten minutes. If you don’t have the first appointment of the day then good luck because you will be stuck for at least an hour!

I am so incredibly thankful for Dr. James Martel MD. He met me at his office at 8pm, to extract the metal shard from my eye. Without him I would be blind. He told me to come back the next day at 12pm, and don’t worry about the grumpy receptionists, that they could fit me in, with or without an appointment. I then saw him three more days in a row, with around the clock antibiotics, and a subsequent procedure. And I am healed. Remember why you choose a Doctor?; Expertise. Professionalism, directness, education.
The receptionists and Assistants were courteous, though not experts in customer service, and not there to entertain. But I wasn’t there for a great waiting room, and inspired reading. I was there to be seen by a top notch Trauma Ophthalmologist, who is dedicated to his craft. Not a word was said about how late it was on Thursday at 8pm. Directed me to a 24hour pharmacy so I could start fighting the eye infection immediately.
If what you want is a dental office waiting room, pretty people to make you feel good, and a Doctor there to sell you goods and services to pay for their cars and homes, this is not the place. If you need help, have eye problems, and want honest, dedicated Doctors to help you. Do not wait, ignore the receptionists, and go see Dr. Martel and his staff. I will forever be grateful.

My husband had to see an opthamologist due to a bout with Shingles. We were referred to the Martel Eye Group by Sutter Medical Foundation. After dealing with the ever-​polite and helpful Sutter staff, the receptionist at Martel was a rude awakening. She was short and clipped over the phone, asking for forms I’d never heard of and when I asked what she was talking about, she wouldn’t elaborate. After a fashion, an appointment was made. I did not attend the initial appointment, but was there for the subsequent follow-​up.
The waiting room is cavernous and filled with chairs. We had to wait at least 15 – 20 minutes to be led into the inner sanctum (again lined up and down with chairs… was there a BOGO sale somewhere?). This was despite the fact that there were NO other people in the waiting room. During the wait to get in I found absolutely nothing to occupy our time, save for a ratty Elks magazine. That’s a pet peeve of mine in waiting rooms… if you’re going to be late to see us, you can at least provide some reading material while we wait.
Once called into the offices, the care we received was good. The assistant was polite and Dr Eisenberg took time to answer all of our questions and didn’t talk down to us as some doctors do. However… once again we waited to be seen in the exam room for 15 – 20 minutes and there was no reading material at all. And my last gripe: while the doctor was consulting with us the exam room was open and the office staff erupted into singing Happy Birthday at the top of their lungs. Twice. We could barely hear the doctor over the din. Very unprofessional.

I made an appointment here even though it was further than the other location near me because I was able to get an earlier date than the other location. Anyways I had my appointment schedule a month later which is fine because that’s normally how appointments are.
While I was driving there I knew that I was going to be late, my appointment was at 3:30, so I called them and asked them if it was okay if I was a little late and they said it was fine which was so nice of them! I came at 3:45 and when I walked in the receptionist was really friendly. I filled out forms and a few minutes later was called in for my examination where the doctor was really nice as well.
After the test I had a chance to pick what frames I wanted and they had quite a few to choose from. When I finally chose one, they gave me all the time I needed, they said that I was going to get it in about two weeks and they’ll call me to pick it up.
Really nice experience overall and I love the glass window they have because you could see yourself from the outside lol

If only ratings had options where it didn’t have stars, I would give it a ZERO! OVERALL experience … BAD.
I came here with my dad [it was his doctor appointment].
Walked in, waited for the receptionist to help us. Next thing, a mother & daughter came in shortly after us & waited behind us. Patiently waiting: One receptionist had no patient, the other receptionist was helping someone. After the receptionist with the patient was done, she walked in the back. Okay? So here we are waiting for the available receptionist that is helping NO ONE to call us up. Tick tock tick tock.
What happens next? The daughter behind us just walks up to the window & the receptionist just automatically helps her! HELLO, she just cuts in front of us! SO RUDE! of course i let it go verbally. The mom of course knew her daughter had cut in front of us & i just gave her the rude look.
Another reason why i want to give this place a ZERO, A ZILTCH!
YOU MADE US WAIT ALMOST 2 HOURS! Appointment is at 3:25. We did not get seen until 5:10. WHAT THE HELL!!! Whats the point of having appointment. I asked my father has this happened before, he mentioned this wasn’t the first time. You guys need to somehow fix your appointment procedure or do something because people do have things to do!
Oh yeah please tell your workers to smile or GREET!
NO SERVICE, NO HELLO, NO NICE GREETINGS. WHAT TYPE OF SERVICE ARE YOU RUNNING?!?
Sincerely,
Upset patients daughter!!!

Doctor James or Dr. Joseph are the best at this office.
Would recommend.

Forget it — I am done. I did trust my OD, Dr. Clark but it looks like he is getting ready to retire and nailing an appointment down with him is difficult. I called to schedule an eye exam and the girl on the phone immediately asks «what insurance do you have?» I let her know I am already a patient and will be paying for the treatment myself and she spits out some menial dollar figure like I may reconsider after hearing the cost. Pshhhh.
Instead of politely asking for my name she blurts «whats your birthdate?!» Then «Name?!» Can you distinguish between your customers and the insurance billing reps you deal with? Perhaps next time, «may i have your first name? Ed, what is your date of birth?.»
She then tells me bluntly that Dr. Clark is very booked up, can’t seem me for nearly two months. I ask if there is another OD in the office who can complete an exam as my disposable contact supply is running out and I can’t wait that long. «Let me ask him if he can fit you in and call you back later.» Hmm, I imagine later to be not call you back and I just need to get you off the phone.
This place has always felt like a procedures mill. The cavernous and stark waiting room is CONSTANTLY FULL of Eastern European immigrants talking amongst each other (i guess they have a lot of eye problems) and the front desk staff is always very impersonal and unfriendly. They have an onsite optician, I was going to attempt to use them one time after an eye exam. I literally sat in the waiting area for almost an hour with absolutely no apologies or check in that they would be with me as soon as possible. During the hour the women handled one patient with eye glasses! I walked out.
Asked a friend for a recommendation and then can see me next week.