Chatham Orthopaedic Associates

Short wait during regular office hours. The staff was extremely professional. MD was frank and honest. Had worked with one of the best orthopedic surgeon practices in Florida during my lengthy career and Chatham Orthopaedics gets my stamp of approval.

The clinic is disorganized and dirty. But it is very busy. When I went to the Monday night walk in clinic I was told there were 64 ahead of me. The doctor I’m currently seeing seems organized and systematic. Three starts is absolute best I can say at this point.

The doctors are the best but the practice sucks. Even if you’re an established patient you cannot get in to see the doctor. The appointment person advises you to go to the after hours clinic. The after hours clinic refused to see me about my knee because dr. Wheeler is my «knee» doctor and his staff was not in the clinic. I was astounded. At 6:00 the front desk girl starts turning patients away. She tells you there are 8 people ahead of you. This is her first attempt to get rid of you. As I sat there waiting, she even referred people to OPTUM. Crazy right. The after hours staff never has a real doctor in the house. I was misdiagnosed there TWICE. The PAs don’t know what the doctors know. I called Dr. Prather’s nurse, Jessica, for an order for a knee walker after I had been to the after hours. She never called back. I had a broken foot. It was a month to see Prather. By the time I saw him I had hobbled around in a broken foot for 4 weeks. This is not how we should b treated. I don’t feel like it’s the doctors fault, but they make the rules one would think. I don’t think they really know what is going on in their practice. I dread needing them again. As much as I hate OPTUM, I will stick with COA. I’m starting to hate them too.

While the doctors may have a strong ability to diagnose a variety of issues, (verdict is still out on that for me), the organization of the practice, wait times, and interaction between the nurses and patients are abysmal and the whole experience has been frustrating.
In 2 months I’ve left over half a dozen messages for nurses, none of which were returned. which I think is pretty lousy. I suspect that the lack of response is due to being overbooked and having too many patients per P.A./Nurse. That could also be the reason I’ve never been called into an appointment on time; usually they run 30+ minutes behind and make you wait another 30 once you’ve reached the exam room. Maybe I should consider myself fortunate because I’ve sat with other patients in the waiting room who have been delayed over 90 minutes. This practice is more a factory than an office. If you aren’t prepared to be your own advocate and do a lot of your own research and follow up, select a different provider.