Austin Bone & Joint Clinic

I went to see Dr. Fox today after breaking my elbow on the 3^rd. The St David’s emergency clinic was great, till they recommended me to see Dr. Fox? The Dr. at the St. David ER clinic said «that the break I had was hard to heal because where it is, and as soon as the swelling goes down they will be putting on a cast. So I get there today a week later and spent about 2 minutes with the Dr. He said good news no surgery, and no cast».Ok know I am concerned I ask why no cast? Dr Fox said” studies show the cast will make it harder to heal because the elbow does not move for 3 weeks. That I would need to do physical therapy after it”.Of course I already knew that. I asked so no brace or anything he said «you can were a sling.“I asked should I at least wrap it? He then went to the garbage can in the cast room that they had me and pulled out of the garbage can the old wraps I had on that he threw away and said» you can wash these and use it if you want”. So needless to say Dr. Fox had no bedside manner this is by far the worst experience I have gad with anyone in the medical field… I wonder how much he is going to charge my insurance for gracing me with his presence. Not to mention I can barley move my arm I have been in lots of pain for the last week. Now I am going to have to pay to go see another Dr. to get this all explained to me and a 2^nd opinion. If I don’t need a cast I would like to know why the ER Dr. told me this is one of the hardest healing breaks.

I went to this place to have my knee checked after an injury, I have had an ACL reconstructive surgery performed on the same knee a while back, and I had re-​injured it. The doctor, Pearce, recommended I do another surgery. A second ACL surgery on the same knee, usually called revision ACL surgery, while doable is done less frequently and has a lesser degree of success. I tried to ask a few questions to make myself comfortable with the idea, and get some sense on how he would proceed. It was eminently clear he hadn’t thought much about the surgery even thought he was recommending it, how he would proceed, what would happen to the existing graft and screws, what kind of graft would he use etc… It simply looked like he wanted another customer for a surgery, and money in his pocket. What a disgrace!

It is a chronic problem it seems for some clinics to be on time, but Austin Bone & Joint Clinic takes it to a new level. If I would set an appointment with a prospect or client and actually finally showed up an hour after the time we set, I think I would have to change careers. I don’t know how they figure out their schedule for appointments. The frustration is Dr. Pearce is a competent doctor and has a great bedside manner. His nursing staff are also friendly and engaging. The clinic is always busy and there is some redundancy which I don’t quite get.
It has been awhile since I have been by, but unfortunately Carpal Tunnel has raised it’s ugly head and an appointment was in order. I booked an appointment for 10.30am and mentioned to the scheduler that I would arrive a little earlier to complete appropriate paperwork so I could get in and out in time for my schedule client appointment at noon. She mentioned I may want to give myself a little more time. I did appreciate that information. I took her advice and did reschedule my next appointment for 30 mins later. What I didn’t expect was arriving early and then I was asked if I had registered online prior to the appointment. No, I wasn’t instructed to do so and I have already been to the clinic many times in the past.
I completed the over the top questionnaire, made a joke when I returned it asking if they also wanted to know my suit size, the elderly couple behind me giggled at that. Check in receptionist not so much. Then the wait. It was 10.30am. At 11.15am, I was led back to the second waiting area, the examination room. Another 15 mins and a peppy little young nurse came in and basically repeated all the information to me that I wrote in the questionnaire, I guess redundancy is the norm in the medical field these days. Another 20 mins and Dr. Pearce arrived. He didn’t remember me, but that’s fine.
He went through the examination of my wrist and elbow and did a little test and told me I have carpal tunnel syndrome. I laughed and said, I waited over an hour to be told something I already knew, he smiled and apologized about the wait. He told me he could give me a shot and a brace for when I am sleeping. Another wait and I was almost ready to get up and just reschedule to come back for the shot, since I was getting very close to being late for my client. I called my admin and asked her to welcome my client and that I could very well be 5 — 10 mins late.
Dr. Pearce came back in with the peppy little nurse and administered the shot, provided me a brace and I rushed to check out, book the return appointment and actually a first happened, Austin traffic didn’t delay me getting to my office to meet my client 2 mins before the allotted time.
All in all, I spent an hour and 45 mins at the clinic, 15 mins with my doctor. There has got to be a better system. My cardiologist, neurologist, and GP seemed to get me in an out in a reasonable manner. Austin Bone & Joint seems to be constantly behind and it is frankly incredibly rude to continue to run a practice in this manner. There are many different modern solutions, such as a text update perhaps letting me know they are running an hour and half behind, just a suggestion. I’ll be back in a month for a follow up, hopefully for a better wait experience as well.

We have been seeing Dr. Fox for a broken arm. He is awesome! Just absolutely love him and he takes good care of us. Office staff as been nothing but nice as well.

My wife went in for elbow surgery right before Christmas with Dr. Stephen Pearce. Although Dr. Pearce did a wonderful job our whole experience has been soured by their billing department. My wife is currently transferring her insurance to Obamacare and through clerical errors was not covered with insurance for 1 month but in that month required a post-​operation appointment because she was feeling extreme discomfort.
Although at the time of the appointment we were told the follow-​up would be covered by the initial cost of the surgery (which was 10’s of 1000’s of dollars) and fell into the grace period of 90 days we were later mailed out a bill for 121 dollars. The appointment ended up being on the 93^rd day and AB&J Clinic has refused to budge on this issue. We are extremely frustrated and although we really liked Dr. Pearce and appreciated his well done job we will never be back or refer anyone to this clinic. In the future I hope Dr. Pearce switches clinics so we can go back to him if we need to.

Unfortunately this is the WRONG phone number for Dr Tibbetts… he is now in KYLE, TX. The rep at Austin Bone & Joint was VERY helpful in giving me the new, correct phone number.

Avoid this place! My son injured his ankle on a Saturday playing basketball. I took him to an urgent care and they were concerned that there may be a fracture rather than a standard sprain. The Xrays were inconclusive. We took his Xrays and iced the ankle on Sunday. On Monday morning, I called Austin Bone and Joint to schedule an appointment. They scheduled an appointment on Monday at 2:00. Although my son had a science test, I took him out of school for the appointment. Before I got to the office, ABJ called to tell me that my son was scheduled with a doctor that does not see teenage patients and we would have to reschedule. They set up an appointment for 4:30 on Tuesday (now almost 3 days after the injury). On Tuesday morning, ABJ calls and says the the doctor has to the move the appointment to 1:30 instead. But my son needed to make-​up the science test that he missed on Monday due to ABJ’s mistake. The next appointment that they could offer me was Friday (6 days after his injury). I declined and found a competent doctor. I think this place was once a good practice, but I would avoid now.

I went to Austin Bone and Joint with a broken arm/​wrist (Galeazzi Fracture/​dislocation) that had been treated incorrectly by another orthopedist, and had healed crooked. We were there to get a second opinion, and saw Dr. Ryan Tibbetts. He was extremely knowledgeable and answered all of our (numerous) questions. He also noticed wrist instability that our first doctor had missed, and explained thoroughly my surgical vs non-​surgical options. The next day, he called personally to see how I was doing. I was still feeling some pain the wrist, so he came in early to the clinic so we could see him the next day.
At that appointment, we elected to go ahead with surgery-​I now have a plate and 6 screws in my arm. Monday was my first vist-​that Friday I went into the operating room. It went flawlessly, and my girlfriend (who is an EMT) says she has never seen a cleaner incision. I have my arm back now! It’s 6 weeks from the surgery, and I have almost full function (just a bit more strengthening to go).
We have also been incredibly impressed with the competence of the entire staff. All the technicians really know their stuff, and the front desk staff are incredibly nice and on top of everything.
Austin Bone and Joint has also been great when it comes to billing-​they were able to give us accurate quotes for their services up-​front, and have helped us understand every step of the process.

I went to Austin Bone and Joint to see Dr. John Pearce because I had this knee thing that didn’t seem to want to heal on its own. In the end, it turned out that I had to have an ACL replacement. Dr. Pearce knows what he’s doing. We discussed my options — at no point did I feel him pushing me towards surgery, which was actually my only option (IMO). There are more details there that I’ll spare you, but basically I felt that Dr. Pearce was professional and knowledgeable. There are a lot of my friends that have used him as well and have all been very happy.
There is definitely an annoying wait-​time. The best thing to do is show up first in the morning or right after lunch. That’s when I feel I have the best luck (i.e., the shortest wait time). The MRI appointment was pretty quick and painless (except I really hate it when they leave you in there for a long time w/​your cloths off — but that’s my complaint at all doctor’s offices).
Overall, I was very happy with the staff and Dr. Pearce. I am not happy about the length of time it has taken them to get my physician’s statement back regarding my gym membership, but that can be overlooked considering that I am now playing soccer successfully, and am happy to have used these guys for my ACL replacement surgery.
Oh, the other thing that I wanted to mention was how cool Dr. Pearce was during/​after surgery. He took my mom’s phone number and gave her a call after surgery to tell her everything went well. I also was able to see the pictures from my surgery, which I thought was totally awesome. Very professional experience… but one I hope never to repeat. :)

After waiting close to two hours, I was brought in for x-​rays. This was despite the fact that x-​rays had been taken at my sports doctor already and sent over. Then I saw the surgeon and he seemed to have not reviewed my records at all. He said my finger probably would always be bent and did not need surgery. I don’t know if it does or does not need surgery, but I know it is not right, that the MRI done by my other doctor showed the tendon is unattached and torn and has not healed in months, and that I have been trying to bend it further for weeks and it has not increased in flexibility. I will be going for another opinion which now my insurance probably will not cover, but I just did not feel comfortable with this medical opinion. What a waste of time.