Taylor K Smith, MD

Dr. Smith must have the worst bedside manner of ANY doctor, ever!
He was unbelievably rude, condescending and unhelpful. He seems to find it easier to blame patients for their condition rather than to show compassion and empathy.
He’s an old guy, so maybe that sort of «tough love» (I’m being generous) was appropriate in the old days. I’m not sure why he’s still working at the age of 76; hopefully he’ll retire soon.

WORST. DOCTOR. EVER.
My daughter was referred to a different Dr. in the practice but I was told that Dr. Taylor Smith specialized in elbow injuries. Fine, I just want to make sure my daughter was seen soon.
I brought my eleven year old in, she explained what happened and I told him my concern was her elbow was still swollen after 2−½ weeks and could not bend it all the way without being in pain.
I told him that we thought she hyper extended it, we iced for the first few days, gave her ibuprofen for the pain and bought a neoprene brace to keep her from moving it too much (she is a gymnast but ironically this injury happened at home!). We thought maybe something broke or chipped.
He pokes around her arm didn’t say much and wanted to look at the x-​rays. I told him that’s why we were there… To get x-​rays!
The nurse comes and gets her, they take three x-​rays, she comes back to the room and we wait… and wait… and wait. Finally Dr. Taylor Smith appears and said nothing is broken, it’s probably just a sprain or maybe a partial tear.
He tells us that she should keep the brace off and start moving it around and it should be healed by the end of the week or maybe next week.
WHAT!!!
That didn’t make any sense to me!!! If you think there MIGHT be a partial tear, WHY would you move it?!
I knew after hearing him tell me that that I would be calling the pediatrician’s office to get a referral to a different Dr. By the time we get home it is too late to speak to the pediatrician and figure I can at least look up online, after the kids go to bed, on what we can do if it’s a partial tear. Then…
NOW THE WORST PART:
My daughter takes a shower before going to bed and I hear her SCREAMING AND YELLING OUCH, OW AND CRYING. I run upstairs and she has her arm straight out, tears streaming down her face. She leaned on her arm to pick up the shampoo, and felt a SHARP pain run down her arm and her hand went numb. NOW SHE CAN“T EVEN MOVE HER ARM AND HER ELBOW IS MORE SWOLLEN THAN IT WAS 2 WEEKS AGO.
Way to go Dr. Taylor Smith.
You need to RETIRE. YOU ARE COMPLETELY INCOMPETENT.
IDIOT.

The man changed my life. I will forever be grateful to him for making it possible for me to walk.

I broke my wrist and was referred to Dr. Smith by the ER. He was my orthopedist for the entirety of my injury recovery, and I had a very good experience with him over the course of 5 – 6 appointments. I had an injury that often requires surgery, but Dr. Smith recommended we try a cast for two weeks and see if everything would heal correctly without surgery. His decision ended up being correct, as I never needed surgery and my wrist healed very quickly compared to what is average for a displaced scaphoid fracture. He is old school, in that he actually spends plenty of time with you, as opposed to the 60 seconds you get at most doctors. I docked one star for time spent in the waiting room, although the wait times weren’t as bad as some practices I’ve been to.

Dr. Taylor operated on an open tibia-​fibula fracture I suffered. I was at the ER so I didn’t exactly select him, but it worked out well. He bored out my tibia and installed a titanium rod down the entire length as well as two screws.
This all happened an hour away from where I live so I only saw him one other time before switching to another orthopedist.
The surgery was a success and I shared my x-​rays and other photos with many doctors and people who’ve had experiences with breaks and orthopedic surgeries. Everyone said that this was a job well done! So far at T+3 months I have no indication that it wasn’t a success. I’m going to get new x-​rays done soon and hopefully nothing has gone wrong. Since I’m just starting to walk now, it feels like things are healing up OK.
The reason I must give three stars (A-​OK) versus four («Yay! I’m a fan») is because of the awful treatment I received by the staff at Dr. Taylor’s office. There had been a miscommunication with my insurance policy and the receptionist lady was EXTREMELY rude. I gave her a paper with all my proper insurance details and she yells, «Where’s the policy#?!»
My dad, who took me to this office visit (my break prohibited me from driving for at least two months), got up and politely pointed to the part of the paper that had my policy# and she SCREAMED at him and actually said «YOU DON’T HAVE TO BE RUDE!» … Uhm, EXCUSE ME?! All my dad did was get up and point to the piece of information she was asking for that was on the paper. How is that rude? She was extremely rude and a doctor’s office should not have rude staff like her as an employee. I wish I had gotten down her name as I was truly offended and wanted to write a formal complaint about her.
Like the noesurf mentions, Dr. Taylor isn’t very prompt. I waited for a very long time in the waiting room before he saw me for a few minutes and didn’t really answer questions very well or explain the situation as best he could.
I arrived 15 minutes early to fill out any additional paperwork, was admitted on time into a waiting room, and waited about another 15 minutes there before seeing Dr. Taylor.
So, in short:
Surgery Skills: A
Bedside Manner: C
Post-​Surgical Medical Advice: C
Medical Staff: A
Office Staff: F
Dr. Taylor, thank you for saving my life and fixing my leg, but you need to really look over your staff better and it couldn’t hurt to give a bit more face time with your patients and discuss prognosis and care advice. We’re not all orthopedists like you — we don’t know what to do necessarily.