Northern California Orthopaedic Associates

James Drake

If we could give this place zero stars, I would. Avoid this place at all costs. Here is why: They will cancel your surgery without warning and with no explanation. If you ask for clarity on why the surgery was cancelled and what the next steps are to get rescheduled, they will drop you as a patient. Northern California Orthopedics Associates has been difficult to work with over the years. We have worked with Dr. Ron James and his staff for almost three years concerning a total knee replacement for my father. They are incredibly difficult to get a hold of and they rarely, if ever, return your phone call. We did everything that was asked of us to ensure my father was ready and capable of getting his surgery. When we got a surgery date, we were ecstatic. Originally, my father received a surgery date in mid-September 2022, but then got a call there was an opening for August 1,2022. We had to scramble to complete all the final tests requested by Dr. James, but were happy to do so, since it meant my father would receive the surgery sooner. We continued to experience issues with the in-office staff who would confirm the receipt of the test results, only for us to receive voicemails that they were still waiting on those test results. We would send the tests results AGAIN and confirm AGAIN, they were received. A week before my father’s surgery date, he was told his appointment had been cancelled. No warning. Office staff said Dr. James canceled the surgery due to not receiving test results, that his office confirmed they received on two separate occasions. As we continued to try and figure out why the surgery was cancelled, each person we spoke to gave a different reason for the cancellation. We couldn’t get a straight answer. We had difficulty getting a manager to speak with us on the phone, so we decided to go into the office and request that we speak with the Dr. James. We were told we could not talk to Dr. James but that the manager, Veronica, will be happy to relay any information to him. We decided to send Veronica an email to be forwarded to Dr. James. In this request, we were looking for clarification as to why he cancelled the appointment. We also asked for clarification on the next steps for rescheduling the surgery. Multiple emails went unanswered. The response received was that Dr. James had elected to drop my father “due to something that had transpired.” All we wanted was clarity on why the surgery was cancelled and what we needed to do to reschedule. We are left completely in the dark on this situation. My father has been living in chronic pain and we’ve now wasted years working with this doctor. Save your time and sanity and avoid this office at all costs. If you have no other choice, here’s some advice: protect yourself and communicate with them in email, so there is no disputing if test results were received. If you want to speak to someone and can’t get of anyone on the phone/email, go in person. Trust me, they will leave you on hold for ridiculous amounts of time and/or disconnect on you. Lastly, keep track of who you speak to and when. We couldn’t be more disheartened from this process. We are sharing our experience in hopes that we can help families avoid the heartache and disappointment

Gary Caldwell

If you have a injury do not I repeat do not go to this office. They informed me a response back in 7-10 days and we are going over a month now with no communications at all. 4 calls to their office with no results. I requested a mri but they performed x-rays instead which did not show the damage. O communications and unneeded medical procedures!!!!!! They will milk your insurance and that's it.

Katie Wiens

I went here several years ago and had a horrible experience. The reason why I was sent here was due to my medical insurance changing and was about to have surgery at Sutter. The Sutter doctor did all the correct tests to see the damage in my hip. Due to the insurance change it took several years to see a doctor at this place. During the two years I waited to get to see this doctor my pain got a lot worse. So obviously my tear in my hip was getting worse . So when I finally got to see this doctor this is what happened. The Staff was unwilling to listen and refused to bill my insurance. Then to top it off the Doctor refused to do the proper tests to see the damage of my Labral tear in my hip. Was told by my other doctor at Sutter that the only way labral tears show in the hip is with dye injection when doing the MRI. As said this doctor refused to do the dye MRI so when doing one without no tear was seen. So of course he didn’t want to do surgery. So I told him hey look you have my results of my other MRI which shows the tear. Still refused surgery. Then ordered another MRI still without dye. Which of course again did not show the terror my hip. After telling him off because of his Rude comments at me he said OK I’ll do exploratory. I told him nope you ain’t touching me and I left. Its now been six years and I’m still having problems and looking for a different place to do the corrective surgery.

R F

Dr. Le was very professional, attentive, kind and knowledgeable!! Would definitely recommend this doctor/practice to anyone!!