Dr. Jared J Stefanko, DO

The best there is!!!!!

He performed in a microdiscectomy on me 2 years ago. Post surgery I had permanent numbness in my foot and pain in my right calf that has not gone away. Pre surgery I had experienced Intermittent numbness in my right foot but not constant. I was told that it would take a few weeks to a few months for the symptoms to go away But they have not. Now my disc gave out again and I am going to the Cleveland clinic to hopefully fix it this time with a disc replacement. I'm thankful to have been partially restored for 2 years, as I wasn't able to walk for more than a couple minutes at a time before the surgery. I'm disappointed he wasn't more gentle with my nerves during the surgery. A physical therapy friend of mine recently told me Stephanco is hit-and-miss and advised me not to go back to him. He said that if he was having back surgery he would go to the Cleveland clinic.

Good location. Very nice facilities. Staff were friendly & helpful in person. Spectrum surgeon & his Mercy surgical team seemed very skilled. Process was smooth & recovery was surprisingly easy. But it did not have any of the desired results, however, with absolutely zero reduction in pain. The rating, however, honestly has little to do with any of these things, but is based on the abysmal Spectrum patient experience, which is exceptionally impersonal, even by the low standards of 21st century medicine. Your relationship will be not so much with a doctor or a nurse, but with the nurse's desk voicemail. Calls are answered by operators who are friendly & try to be helpful. But they try to the point of being unhelpful, often giving you the impression they are transferring you to someone you can talk to but in effect just transferring you to someone's voicemail. It can take a long time to realize pretty much all your calls are fated for voicemail, because the operators sound so convincing… that you are on the brink of talking to an actual person who will answer your every question. Based on a year & a half of experience, calling about once every month or so, some voicemails get no response. You will be repeatedly left to wonder whether you should give them more time to respond or you should try, try again. The majority of voicemails get a response, but it's one of the most frustrating responses imaginable. Spectrum will make one & only one attempt to contact you about an issue. If you miss their one call, they will leave you a voicemail, typically with no helpful content but only a request for you to call them back. But when you call them back, you get an operator who transfers you back to the nurse's desk voicemail. This can happen again & again & again, with Spectrum leaving you a series of voicemails asking you to--in effect, give their voicemail a call back. And you will call them fairly often. Not only because your voicemail went unanswered or because you missed their one attempt to call. You will also call because you eventually spoke with someone but were provided incomplete, conflicting, or confusing information. When you do speak with someone, it is likely that their familiarity with your case goes no further than the summary notes they just called up on their screen, which they are reading through as they talk to you, notes which are sometimes flawed themselves. You will also call because, aside from the post-surgical period, Spectrum is thoroughly listless & passive in their communications. Aside from the post-surgical period, no one will call to check to see whether any progress is being made, whether a referred treatment is helping, or whatever. In fact, even worse, if you are on the phone about one thing, they will never inquire about anything else. It is always the bare minimum. If something is left for you at the front & ready to pickup, you may or may not receive the courtesy of a call to let you know. It's almost worse that they call, because you expect a call next time that never comes. Now, most of the Spectrum staff try to be helpful & show some awareness that problems exist. If you sound frustrated enough, operators will get someone to talk to you. And if you call enough times, you will probably be "granted" a follow-up visit. But a few seem utterly oblivious to the fact that things fall through the cracks, defensively explaining to you that you must be mistaken about this or that, or forgetting that most issues pass through a number of hands. Whatever the case, there are some kind of problems within Spectrum. Maybe it's their management or their operations (e.g. procedures, systems, under-staffing, turnover) or some combination. Overall, the Spectrum patient experience is more reminiscent of the DMV than of your general practitioner. It is so frustrating, that it is difficult to deal with them without dreading it. Little is handled efficiently & most issues require multiple efforts. It is so bad, it is hard or even impossible to trust them with something so important as your health. P.S. Please note, that this is not only first negative Yelp review, it is also first one that is not five stars. P.S. Tried to submit this through the Satisfaction Survey featured at spectrumortho.com. When survey link is clicked, the page asks for a password. But password you use to login to Spectrum account is not accepted. So maybe it is some kind of unique password? Which would be fine, except there is absolutely no indication indication of this on the page. Pretty typical.

Dr Stefanko changed my life. After years of back and leg pain, I now live my days free from pain and can enjoy spending time playing with my grandchildren. He took the time I needed to explain my surgery so I would understand every step and know what to expect during recovery. My family and I would recommend him to anyone.

Thoroughly explain what my diagnosis was. What could be done to help improvement of my pain. Very impressed that he took the time that I needed to understand.

Dr. Stefanko will only see a patient for one problem at a time. He will not treat the entire body even if you have results from x-rays, MRI's and EMG's. You have to pick out which part you want him to consult you on. I have cervical and lumbar problems most likely due to an auto accident. Another doctor ordered ALL of the tests the FIRST time I went to see him. We reviewed the results and I wanted to see what another doctor's opinion was. I was told to pick which area I wanted Dr. Stefanko to look at and that when that area of my body was corrected, THEN he would look at the other area. Cervical and lumbar are two completely different areas and affect different areas of your body; having a problem with your cervical will not affect your legs etc. But there was no way to get by his scheduling nurse, Kim. So I did not make an appt. I do have an apt with another doctor who is willing (as was the first dr.) to look at ALL my tests and give me an opinion. Personally I would never… go to this dr. He does not apparently treat the entire body at one time which makes me skeptical as to how much he really cares about his patients. Just my opinion. Also the scheduler does not answer the phone; she always has to call you back. It takes weeks to get into see him as well.