Chattanooga Bone & Joint Center — Local services in Chattanooga

Not sure actual doctors work here. When referred to this location by Erlanger so evaluations could be done and Fmla/short-term disability insurance paperwork could be filled out, making appointment was told they did that paperwork and they handled chronic conditions. Then had over 1 month before appointment...then at appointment "doc" claims paperwork could be done. 3 more weeks go by after appointment and losing paperwork repeatedly, then suddenly entire front office staff claim NO Short-term disability paperwork can be done here by ANYONE. They call it IME paperwork, which they claim is Independent Medical Exam...and they Can't do that. So their "doctors" are unable to do Medical Exams....do these people even have licenses to be Real Doctors? What real doctor can do surgery on anyone without ever looking at the patient? Dumbest thing ever said by office staff that I heard at this location. There is no such thing as an independent medical exam, either the doctor doing exam is hired by patient or they are hired by insurance company/work....no doctors work for free when filling out any insurance paperwork.

Not to mention they also CANNOT prescribe any LONGTERM medicine like for ARTHRITIS. Which their office staff so nicely explained their doctors cannot prescribe long-term medicine because their doctors cannot do any testing like bloodwork. So my primary care doctor was wrong in thinking these people were any kind of doctor that can handle CHRONIC conditions that need chronic treatment, like arthritis.

Lastly, yes after we had made appointment and suffered waiting a month for the appointment, we sat in waiting room over an hour to be seen, then felt rushed to give cliff notes of problem and told sure sure on paperwork with doctor barely looking at paperwork....which they lost paperwork over 3 times. Took them nearly 2 months to then be truthful they wouldn't do paperwork. They did the Fmla paperwork but not my insurance claim paperwork so been out of work now over a month with no pay, because without that paperwork my claim is autodenied....Fmla is approved but insurance claim denied because they wouldn't fill out the paperwork I paid them to fill out. One day I

Basically it appears actual CARE, COMPASSION, MANNERS, and WORK ETHIC is nonexistent here. If you aren't a case for expensive surgery with a nice insurance they can pad up the charges, your needs for your healing are not given any feeling of importance and your paperwork to get your paid for insurance to get your replacement pay while you heal will be strung along until you can't find real doctors who actually do their job of examining you and filling out 2 pages of multiple choice so you can have the funds and time to actually heal and return to work.....if you are strung along other good doctors can't honestly fill out the paperwork while you had wasted so much time here.

The spine surgery associates across the street, while being more expensive, actually get your paperwork filled out in a timely manner. Though yes they expect family doctors to treat chronic conditions as well, and family doctors mistakenly think these specialists can treat the chronic conditions in their speciality....but special doctors want the high payday shorterm conditions only or high payday shot treatment with same anti-inflammatory medicine as can be prescribed orally (they have $1000s of reasons per shot to prefer that method instead, even when its riskier...

Definitely not impressed at all. I arrived at 1:36pm today for a scheduled 2pm appointment and was not called back until after 2:15. It's now 2:58 and I am still waiting in the room for the doctor, a stuck her head in at 2:57 and grabbed something off the counter and said "I'll be back in a little bit" and quickly shut the door. Maybe letting scheduled patients know they'll be here for hours would be a good idea so we can clear our day.

Thought I made some progress here until Amanda left and I had to go to the walk in clinic to be seen about my back again and had to see Don on 1/25. Don was pretty quick to recommend me to do physical therapy at the practice he had just sold to his friend and was happy to let me know the hot receptionist was his wife.... I don't think much more needs to be said there.

Fast forward to today, 12/2 and my back is inflamed again so I call for an appointment or to see if they have the walk in open today only to be told they don't see back issues in the walk in clinic this has apparently changed since January and I did not receive notice. When asking about an appointment, I was told I had to see Don because my insurance won't pay for me to see another provider. I did express that this was news to me as Don was never an assigned provider and was simply the person in the clinic that day. Be aware they will assign you to the person in the clinic without notice and they will only book you with them going forward, this is my experience with this as Erlanger VW I book with my provider but when I needed to go into the clinic they didn't change my provider to the person in the clinic so Bone and Joint definitely has a bit of their own rules going in my opinion. Different rules for 2 practices bother under Erlanger wouldn't be bad if they at least advised you of what they are and the differences at each. Now I'm calling around to see if anyone has an opening before the 5th or I'll get to hear about Don's "hot wife" and be pitched to his friend for...

I fell and fractured my shoulder ,the doctor at the emergency Room told me to follow up with an ortho doctor so I set up an appointment at Chattanooga bone and joint and whenever I went there they said that I had to have an appointment which whenever I talk to the secretary on the phone beforehand she said that I had to come as a walk in because I've never been there before. Well whenever we got there at 12:45 they said that we would have to wait until 2:45 for an appointment so there was a couple hours already that we had to wait and I waited in the waiting Room for hours they did not allow my sister in law in there to even fill out the papers for me cause it was my dominate hand that got hurt. We had to take them out to the truck ,then she had to sit in there the whole time (and she had her mask, we both did) and it started storming bad and she had a migraine etc... and she was waiting for me for almost 4 hours in the car .they finally put me in a Room after I had asked how much longer it was gonna take cause I was in misery and pain and they said that he was with a patient and then he had to see another patient before me. I was so upset and my arm hurtingI that told them that I was leaving that I was hurting I had a fractured shoulder I was in pain and I wasn't waiting no more and I left, so I would not recommend anybody to go to this place they are highly unorganized and the staff was rude and I would not recommend anyone to go there. A couple walk-ins came in after us and they were even seen before us. I would of been the last patient seen, and Lord knows what time that we would of got...