Murphy SportsMedicine Center: Paul C. Murphy, MD

Dr. Murphy is great. He knows his stuff and easy to get along with and easily understood. If he would only train his team better. The people up front could care less to be there. They absolutely are the opposite of good customer service. If I could rate the people at the front desk as a ZERO or NEGATIVE STAR I would. I have to much good to say about Dr. Murphy I couldn’t rate less than a four star.
IF you can ignore the lack of customer service from the Front Desk you will appreciate the good and honest work Dr Murphy does.

Dr. Murphy did a Great Job on my shoulder! I Highly Recommend him! I had been having trouble with my left shoulder for years, Dr. Murphy operated on my shoulder and it is much better. I am back to normal lifting weights, running etc. I know other athletes here is San Diego that also had very successful surgeries with him. That is why I went to use him, he fixed a local QB that I had known, and the athlete had a very successful finish to his college career because of Dr. Murphy. He volunteers his time at several local high schools. He is the team Doctor at the school I coach at. I know him to be a kind and caring person first hand. He is also a very good listener and gives you all the time you need when you have an office visit. If I ever need to have anything else fixed, I will definitely use Dr. Murphy.

I’ve had the privilege of knowing Dr. Murphy since my college days and have always been impressed with him from the get go. In a world where most surgeons just want to operate, Dr. Murphy has always been interested in finding what’s best for the patient. He’s open to providing multiple solutions and only pursues surgery if/​when absolutely necessary.
Dr. Murphy has performed 2 surgeries on me. In 2003, I broke my fibula and needed a plate/​pins to heal properly. This was done by another surgeon. Later in 2004, because of the discomfort in wearing a boot and the cold, I requested Dr. Murphy remove the hardware. He did an awesome job and really made it a point to put me on the proper recovery protocol so I could heal up quickly. In 2007, I tore my medial meniscus playing basketball and needed surgery. Without hesitation I called Dr. Murphy again to help me thru this. He did another amazing job and thankfully I’m still extremely active and feel great with both the ankle and the knee. He’s always made it a point to prepare me before and after surgery with the best ways to ensure the quickest recovery possible. When I say active, it’s important to know that I play golf frequently and Olympic Lift multiple days a week. My joints get put thru full ranges of motion with quite a bit of load so for me to be able to do that safely with no pain speaks volumes to the work Dr. Murphy does. This is also why he has such a large professional athlete following.
Whenever anyone asks me who to see for an orthopedic concern, without hesitation it’s Dr. Murphy. If you want a «review» from someone who actually has experience with a surgeon, I’ve had 2 surgeries done and the review period is well over 10 years post op. I’m in excellent shape after the work he’s done and he’s definitely one of the best out there. If you have an orthopedic issue, call Murph!

I was told that I was simply going to have to live with my pain as I was diagnosed with calcific tendonitis in my rotator cuff and that there was no solution. Another doctor had referred me to Dr. Murphy because he said he is a doctor’s doctor.
I had waited 7 months with no success to get a MRI and within a week I not only had it scheduled, but I got insurance approval and had the MRI. Two days later I was in Dr. Murphy’s office where I learned I needed rotator cuff surgery. I was a wreck as I was so sure he would have said there was no tear. And I had my surgery shortly after.
Let’s jump ahead to 2.5 months later – I returned to teaching my yoga class with modifications and no pain. Lots of other people who were NOT Dr. Murphy’s patients told me all sorts of nightmares about this surgery. NOT! The office manager took lots of time giving me suggestions about what to do to prepare since I am single but I do have friends.
Six months later I finished a week long residential training in Santa Barbara where I was doing yoga twice a day, etc. Yes, six months and by following what Dr. Murphy told me and going to his unbelievably excellent physical therapy referral I was pain free within a month.
Not only is his work impeccable (most people can’t even see the incisions) but he has a calm demeanor and is very thorough. I did not even know that he is a sports medicine orthopedist –I just knew that my other doctor’s daughter went to him and was happy with the results. Today is six months from my surgery and I am ready to get back into an outrigger canoe! Oh, all those other NON PATIENTS told me that it would be 2 years till I could do that.
I am also a person who will do anything to avoid surgery and Dr. Murphy’s attitude and expertise put me at ease. He is also very aware of the use of nutritional supplements and is far more cutting edge than the stereotypical surgeon who simply looks at one way. I actually looked forward to my appointments with him as he is so positive and the autographed photos, jerseys, and framed letters made it a unique experience. On my way out of the office today after being given a clean bill of health for my shoulder, I saw a photo (on the wall) of a high school student of mine who went pro basketball. And I know for a fact that he is playing ball in the present!
Dr. Murphy is the doc for results. His staff is wonderful and his billing department is the most effective of all the medical facilities I have had to visit.
Thanks so much, Dr. Murphy!
Marcia S

My first experience with this office is when I called to make an appointment. The girl on the phone was unpleasant and cold. I was surprised since I heard such great things about this place and figured it was maybe just one bad seed. My first visit it was the same thing… cold, unpleasant and rude! Like I was bothering them when I tried to check in. Obviously to say my first and second impressions with this place were NOT GOOD and did not hold up to the reputation I heard about. The PA was friendly and so were the nurses. The care was fine nothing impressive and nothing that would make me want to go back. Like a previous persons post states you definitely make you feel like you are wasting their time. Sorry not a big shot athlete.
I want to make this clear that this is an «EDITED» review since after the first one I posted I received a very aggressive phone call from the Office Manager demanding that I take down my previous Unilocal post. He did not allow me to speak or explain myself and basically went on a rampage. It now makes sense why the front office acted how they did. I guess it is their «culture» there. Definitely something I would not want to be associated with since I work in Healthcare. Even our students interning know you don’t treat patients like that. I would be embarrassed to be associated with this group or have these people representing me. This was followed by a phone call from the physician who very kindly told me «you need to be very careful what you post on social media because you are liable».
In my opinion they seem to be more concerned with Unilocal comments then looking into and taking care of any issues that may be happening within their department.
This is one office and one physician that has definitely LOST my TRUST and business!

I use the term Dr. loosely.
He experimented on me. Post op he gave the unautherized shoulder surgery a ⁵⁰⁄₅₀ chance of success. This was instead of doing what he knew would work and do what needed to be done. This is my life he is screwing with.
When it was a huge flop from the start he promised to fix it, until the insurance company apposed the repair of is unautherized surgerical procedure.
Instead of standing up his mistake he caved and hid in a corner. Anyone have a good mal practice attoney.
So, I would recommend Murphy to an enemy but not to a friend.

I will always go to Dr. Murphy no matter if I’m in or out of network with insurance. His staff is amazing and he took amazing care of my boyfriend.
ER told the bf that it would be 6 weeks, but with the help of Dr. Murphy he is cleared to lightly jog and it’s been 2 weeks.
Major props to keeping it feeling like a small business even though he had a big practice.

Cant say enough about the Great quality of care and skill I received from Dr Murphy. Had a rotater cuff done and a long head Bicep surgery with great results combine with awesome physical therapy He outline exactly what was going to happen did no more or no less than what was needed to get me back in action and his straight forward no sugar coating communication let me make my own choices based on a great education he gave me.

I was somewhat disappointed with the service I received with Dr. Murphy’s office. Ultimately, they did diagnose my problem (posterior tibial tendonitis) so they get some credit for that. but I did not feel I received all the care I (and my insurance company) am paying for.
First visit, I checked in, filled out my forms, and was promptly taken to a room. A nurse, who was actually friendly and thorough in asking what the problem was (pain in my foot/​ankle), when it had occurred (after a marathon I ran in April), and why I was anxious to get it sorted out as quickly as possible (I had just found out I got in to the NYC Marathon in November and need to start training for it soon). She then left and said the doctor would be right in. then I sat there waiting for another 40 minutes before anyone else opened the door. When the doctor finally did show up, there was no apology for my wait time. He showed up with another female (nurse?, assistant?, med student?), made me stand on my toes and quickly diagnosed the problem, told me to get an MRI and not to run on it (duh), then left. The doctor was probably in the room with me for less than 5 minutes.
MRIs are not done at their office, so the receptionist said the offsite MRI place would be calling me in the next few days to schedule an appointment. This was on a Thursday… so when I didn’t receive a call Friday or Monday, I got anxious and called the MRI place (SMI Imaging Center) on Tuesday myself… who then told me they were going to call me later that day to schedule an appointment for the following week. As you can tell, I was very anxious to get this all sorted out and pleaded with them to fit me in that week, so SMI was nice enough to let me come in the next morning at 7:45AM. The MRI itself was uneventful and I have no issues with SMI.
My followup with Dr. Murphy was the following Monday. so 11 days after my initial appointment. During that time, I’d not been running but doing some other cardio (biking, swimming)…just as he had recommended. I had held off trying many of the other treatment techniques I’d found online because I figured Dr. Murphy knew best and would have told me to start doing those things at my initial appointment if he wanted me to.
I showed up for my second visit, checked in, and his assistant (the other woman in the white coat on his website… didn’t catch her name)…brought me back and again they left me alone for 30 minutes. Both the Dr. and his assistant came in, and he told me the MRI still showed some inflammation. He asked me if I’d been icing. Since he had not told me to in the initial visit, I had not. He then gave me a quick lecture, in a rather condescending tone that I’m a tough guy and need to start being more aggressive with the injury… or something like that. He told me they’d give me a cream anti-​inflammatory to try… then he walked out and his assistant asked if I had any questions. So this time the Dr. was in the room for even less time and then just left without me having a chance to ask HIM any questions… this was rather rude in my opinion.
I asked his assistant the obvious question… how long will this take to work where I’d be able to run again. She said something about maybe a week to 10 days… but probably a bit longer. When I pressed her for anything else I could do to help it heal quicker, she was pretty dismissive. At this point I felt like I was wasting their time and they had more important patients to see. Literally as she was walking out the door I again mentioned I have a race in November and she said I’d be fine by November and kept walking.
I didn’t feel good about the visit from the start, but when I got home I felt even worse. First of all, they should have actually gone through my MRI with me and shown me where the inflammation was. More importantly, they should have CHECKED MY FOOT AGAIN. The MRI at that point was 5 days old and it had been 11 days since they’d last seen the foot. Why didn’t they even check to see if it had improved (or gotten worse) during that time? Were they basing that «maybe a week to 10 days» off of the MRI or my previous visit? I know they wouldn’t have been able to tell as well just by looking at my foot that day… but they should have at least given it a quick look to see what they can see.
As I mentioned in the first paragraph… before I went to Dr. Murphy. I wasn’t sure if I had tendonitis or a stress fracture or something else, so I’m glad I got that confirmed… but other than that I don’t feel like the office did anything to help me get better. In the last few days of taking matters into my own hands. I’ve seen some improvement based on strengthening exercises and techniques I’d found online… none of which were suggested by the Dr., other than the icing he suggested 11 days after he had already diagnosed the problem.