DFW area AME

pilotdude1987

Soy Piloto!
I wanted to share with everyone on here about my recent experience with a Dr. Russell Smith outta Plano TX.

To start off I am on the HIMS program and have been for a 1yr and half and know the program requirements quite well. I went to see Dr. Smith after relocating to DFW and was in need of a new AME to oversee the rest of my program running through OCT 2016. After being on the program for 1 1/2 yrs. all I needed was a dr. who could monitor my progress and provide updates to the FAA (and write a new medical when it was time).

This doc is a general practice family doctor and does not give preferential treatment to aviators. From the moment of our first meeting, he ran an hour late keeping me waiting in his patient room sitting on some bed.(typical family doc running behind. Meeting was at 11 I didn't get out of there till 1230). After I finally got some time to speak with him it appeared to me as though he did not understand what he was supposed to be doing with me (almost as if i was his first ever HIMS client). We agreed he could provide what I needed and I was going to have the FAA send him my med records for him to review. It took a couple weeks for the FAA to get him my records but the kicker here is I never received a phone call from either him personally or one of his assistants, telling me they received my records. I finally called one morning and asked the assistant if they had received my records. She simply said yes they had received them a few days ago and was planning on calling me soon. To me personally that is unacceptable, when you received my records you should have called and let me know you had received them and schedule the next meeting. Whatever the case I never received a phone call from him or his assistants. If I wanted to get in touch with them about whether they had received something or schedule a new meeting it fell on me to make a phone. Almost as if I was not important to them. Fine I could deal with that I can do all the leg work if thats what it took to make things work. Not really a big deal. The big part of my experience with dr. smith was that to even start seeing me as a patient he was wanting to do a full blown new physical with lab work, ekg, the works. at the tune of $600.00 This is something I found out btw from calling and talking to his assistant. Let me clarify that nowhere in my program does it say I need full physical with the works. and to bat I'm 28 i don't need an EKG period. If he had taken the time to read and learn about my program or my requirements he would've known this. • he should've known that a 28yr old doesn't need an EKG period. So after I found out this outlandish information I asked the office lady to have the dr. please call me and talk me through his process. Why he felt this was necessary and what his game plan was going forward. After all I was willing to pay the outlandish fee if he could explain to me why he felt it needed to be done. however after waiting a day and a half to hear back from anyone at the dr.s office I finally called them again to get some clarification. By this point I was pretty irritated. Knowing I did not need a full work up and that the good dr. was basically just robbing me to pay for his "Hawaii Vacation". From my stand point If you going to charge someone $600 dollars for work that doesn't need to be done you need to have the common courtesy to take 5 minutes out of your busy day and call them personally. However that did not happen. Infact no one at the office had the common courtesy to call me and ease my mind about robbing me blind. After I finally got ahold of someone at their office the lady just simply said. It's protocol its what the program requires. No ma'am its not. That's not what the program calls for. I was severely irritated by this point said you will not be getting my business hung up and found a dr down in san antonio to monitor me.

To end my rant, this does not seem like a quality AME that anyone of us should be seeing whether or not you need a HIMS dr. or regular medical. Also might I add that after i walked out of our first and only meeting I overhead another guy getting charged $140 for a regular first class medical!

If you are in the DFW and are in need of a medical of any class I strongly suggest you find any other AME in the area, as I would never recommend this dr to anyone.

I may be wrong about all of this but that is my 2 cents on my experience with Dr. Smith from Plano.
 
Wow I'm surprised and sorry to hear this. I've been using him for years. Always a quick in and out experience for my first class. I've sent several other guys and gals his way and always heard the same. Glad you found someone you're happy with though - having a good working relationship with our AME is something we all need.
 
Idk if happy is the word i would use to describe it. Since now i have to drive 6 hours down to SAT just to find a qualified dr. But yes i found a dr. who isn't going to rob me blind; who is very familiar with the HIMS program; who is rather easy to get ahold of. and will communicate back with me as needed. But yeah I get your point.
 
I just got my First Class with Dr. Krass. His office is in Bedford just off Highway 183. Very personable, and very easy. Only downside is he takes cash & checks only so I couldn't use my HSA :(
 
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