Dr. James Blair Blankenship, MD

Dr. Blankenship, I cannot begin to express my gratitude and appreciation for you and your amazing staff of wonderful people. I could not have been more fortunate to have such kind, caring, passionate, and intelligent people aiding me on my road to recovery in such a difficult time of my life. I am so happy to say I can walk around campus during the day and sit in a chair comfortably without any extreme nerve pain because of you. Everyone that works in your clinic always made me feel very well taken care of whether that was asking me about my interests while getting x-rayed or greeting me with a smile at the front desk. I always felt so comfortable and reassured while under you and your staff’s care. I would also like to take a moment and appreciate the nurses and doctors that were present during my surgery and after my surgery in the hospital room. I was very anxious, as any 20-year-old would be getting major back surgery, and they made it their priority to reassure me that everything… would be okay. Thank you for allowing me to try many options before surgery such as steroid injections and physical therapy, which unfortunately did not fix the problem, but I appreciate the avoidance of surgery at all costs because of my age. Again I am so thankful to have even had the opportunity to meet you and your staff and that you were present in such an immense struggle of mine. Thank you for taking away my chronic pain and allowing me to be happy and content with my life again. Lizzy Callaway

There is no rating for Zero or Negative so let me be the 1st to ratify everything the real people warn you against on here. Dr. Blankenship is willing to do anything to protect himself and his reputation. I cannot believe he still practices anything. He should not be dealing with patients in any capacity. I went to this man a decade ago and he does an ADR L5 that he completely botches then an SI fusion that did nothing at all but make it all worse that he insisted on top of the ADR L5 fusion, supposedly to give me relief from the core nerve bundle he had caused to be just constantly crimped at the left sciatic nerve bundle from the L5 ADR Fusion. This is just the start. The ADR blows up and I end up with 8 broken screws and pieces everywhere and one of the screws was parallel and sticking my spinal column every movement, cough, laugh. When I went looking for another orthopedic in AR or especially Tulsa this man had the process stopped after every place I went ordered the same… tests and scans and after my trip to Tulsa and two years wasted I get to the so called best in Tulsa. He orders all the same scans & was going to help me. After leaving so happy from the Tulsa specialist and awaiting the order for scans, all of a sudden no contact no matter how much I called after he called Dr. Blankenship for the notes I could not get thru nor a call back ever again. Until I called and accidentally got sent to him as a dr and not a patient and the minute we spoke I said I can’t believe this and I know what you did. I told the Tulsa Orthopedic who I was and that I know what you have done and said I’ve waited hoping in pain and was in tears. He admits it and begged and begged me for forgiveness and offered to do all he said and promised to make it right and I said you think I’d trust you now. Then I said you’ll have to ask God for the forgiveness at the moment. I said I’ve sat here in hope for a year in absolute pain and you want forgiveness. I simply stated you should have done what you took an oath to do. I finally got to Dr. McCarthy at UAMS as a lost cause that had to sign away normal rights if something went wrong since it was so bad and to make a long story short I ended up in critical condition, Dr. McCarthy got the 1 screw of 8 that was directly stuck into my spinal chord out and triple fused my base and barely got me back after the massive loss of blood and bone from the scar tissue and everything since. Critical condition, pain and suffering and a narcissistic little man that will fight tooth and nail to protect his atrocities is what you can expect from Dr. Blankenship. If my story isn’t enough, just research please before you do. I now live in pain everyday from time I wake up to bed, but I am strong and really had to fight to get strong enough to continue! Everyday is pain. So many reviews and cases all saying Dr. Blankenship only cares about the money and doing as many surgeries as possible. That’s for certain but how can a surgeon this obviously in the gray, to say it as positively as possible, still be touching a single patient. I would suggest being smart enough to not ever step into this office. What I would give to not have! I never encountered someone so negligent in my life.

Was sent to Dr. Blankenship for 5 pinched nerves in my back. Only saw nurse practitioner 2 times. Never saw the doctor. It was determined I had pintched nerves and a cyst on my spine. She said that I could schedule an operation for pinched nerves now (one and half years ago). I decided I wanted both operations at the same time. She sent me to UAMS Little Rock. The surgeon there thought the cyst was too small to bother with. He did not even look at the pinched nerves. Not his specialty. After the appointment in Little Rock I called Dr Blankenship about the pinched nerves. His receptionest would not let me schedule an appointment. She would not even let me ask why. She said that he was done with it. Even though they were willing to do a operation at one time. The appointment whith Dr Blankenship was a total waste of time. It cost me almost 2 years of time waiting on other specialist. He was useless for me. John Sinclair

This Dr lies to patients and drags it out til it too late for legal proceedings...please DO NOT USE JAMES B BLANKENSHIP

This doctor has ruined my life I went in for numb hands and he had done 2 surgery's because a screw broke in my neck from first surgery. I still have numb hands and now I have limited movement in my neck and in pain everyday I know what this doctor got paid from my insurance for the 2 surgery's. And you would think he could have got it right. My wife is working on reporting this doctor to the MD people who can look into him and some of his practice's and how he runs his patient's in out like cows at at slaughter house. My dog get's treated by her vet than DR.Blankenship treated me. All I was to him was a big fat payday check from the insurance company.

Six months after my XLIF surgery with Doctor Blankenship I am back to my old self and all went smoothly, both the surgery and recovery. The experience was all I hoped it would be, Thank you Doctor Blankinship and Physicians Specialty Hospital

Dr Blankenship is the best dr I have ever dealt with. He is straight forward and doesn't waste your time. I found him to be very likable, honest, and witty. His staff is amazing and courteous. I've been dealing with numbness and pain for ten years and I've had several doctors giving me the run around for all of that time. After two visits with Blankenship he had a diagnosis and scheduled me for surgery. The surgery was quick and virtually painless. The hospital staff were all sweet as sugar and followed up regularly with me. They genuinely care for their patients. I've read complaints that Blankenship is only in it for the money. I have not found that to be the case with me. They were very good about making sure my insurance would cover everything I needed. It is true that he doesn't spend an excess amount of time with you but he is a busy man and is good at what he does. I think spending his time analyzing MRI and X-ray results is a better use of his time than hanging out with me.… His staff does spend a fair amount of time with patients so I think that makes up for it. Rhonda, who runs everything is awesome. And also, the scar on my neck is healing very well. It looks like it will hardly be noticeable. He's amazing for that alone. I will recommend Dr Blankenship to everyone I know. My surgery was two weeks ago and I am feeling better than I have in ten years.

I've read a lot of bad reviews about Dr Blankenship which scared me. My family Dr suggested him so I went. I was very pleasantly surprised. His staff was very friendly. They did call me and warn me that if I was late (even five minutes) that I would be rescheduled. This is common sense so when people complain that they were late and the Dr didn't see them I have no sympathy. A Dr's time is valuable. If I'm late it's my fault. No one else's. The ladies at the front desk were very good about letting me know everything I needed to have with me as well as info on the portal that I needed to have completed before the visit. Rhonda was the first person to see me when I was brought to the exam room. She questioned me over information in the portal. We went over past history. She was pleasant and knowledgeable. Next Dr Blankenship came in. He was very nice and got right to the point. (As I expect because again, his time is money). He asked me to take X-rays and asked if the physical therapist… could take a look at me. We did both. The X-rays looked bad so he ordered an MRI which my family Dr had already ordered but my insurance had denied. Thankfully the insurance accepted his opinion and they scheduled me for an MRI. I was in and out quickly at the Physicians Specialty Hospital. I went back to see Blankenship and he said it was very important that I have a cervical fusion (c3-c7). I had significant stenosis and risked paralysis. They scheduled me very quickly and worked with my insurance to make sure I was covered. They even called me late into the evening to update me on their progress with the insurance company. When I went in for the surgery every single person I came into contact with was sugary sweet. They were all helpful and comforting. And they all seemed to have a good sense of humor which I find comforting. I have never in my life been to a hospital as good as Physicians Specialty Hospital. The nurses were hands down the best I've ever had. My surgery went well and I was released the next day. So far everything is good. I'm very thankful for Dr Blankenship, his staff, and the hospital for taking care of me quickly and efficiently. I will recommend them to everyone I know. I was on meds so I cannot remember all of the names of the people I came into contact with but some of them are Amber, Suzanne, Debbie, Richard, J.J, and Trig. I wish I could remember the other names because they all deserve recognition. They were so wonderful! Especially the lady that put in my IV. It was quick and painless. And the lady that did my Cath. She was very sweet. I cannot say enough good things about them all!

I came to Dr.B with terrible pain in upper and lower extremities and he did an extremely great job .

Was told my appointment was cancelled after showing up 5 minutes late because it was office policy. Was never informed of the office policy when scheduling the appointment. There was no leniency given which made me feel as though patient care isn't their number one concern. Rescheduled my appointment only to be called a day later to be told that because of "the incident" I made in the clinic the day before, they don't feel comfortable treating me. The incident they are referring to is me asking for them to give me a break seeing how I was only a few minutes late and there was no one else in the waiting room when I arrived. He may be a good surgeon but this organization is a joke.