I had a bizarre and disturbing encounter with Dr. Douglas Hemler of Star Spine and Sport in 2010-2011, and I certainly don't recommend him or his office. I'd seen him several years prior, when I was on active duty and he was a military doctor, and I brought the report of a test he'd run on me to my first appt. with him. That appointment was pleasant, and I thought his P.A., Kirk Prochnio, and I were supposedly working out a treatment plan. When I went back to their office one day however, I was sitting in the waiting room, when Hemler came out and with his arms raised to the ceiling, yelled at me that he remembered me from Walter Reed (?!). The eyes of everyone in the office grew wide--we were all in shock. Needless to say, I got out of there as fast as I could, thoroughly puzzled and disturbed by his odd and inappropriate behavior. Little did I know then that Hemler is on staff with Exempla (or SCL), as is ortho surgeon Curtis Leonard, who split a bribe in 2006 with my former PCP Peter Holt, to put in an already recalled metal hip in me in 2006 (in 2011 Wright Medical paid $7.9 million in fines for bribing doctors to use their recalled metal hips); and both Holt--who is on staff with Centura--and Leonard--have my record red-flagged (Peter Holt was technically the "distributor" of my metal hip, while Leonard was the surgeon). You can read these men's crimes against me in my yelp.com reviews of Curtis Leonard, Longmont United Hospital, Avista Adventist, Centura Health, and also Peter Holt (all "near" Longmont CO). NOW I understand that Hemler saw the red flag and contacted Curtis Leonard, and they concocted a scheme to harm me. And sadly, Hemler, his P.A., Kirk Prochnio, and Paul Battle, a P.A. in another pain management office I'd gone to, were only too happy to comply. I had just been diagnosed with b-cell follicular non-hodgkin's lymphoma, so I was seeing different physicians in 2011, but THEN I began to get insurance EOB's (Explanations of Benefits) from different area pharmacies for multiple narcotics, as well as Certified letters of rejection from many physicians, including the one who had diagnosed me with lymphoma, which COULD have had serious and deadly consequences; however (and perhaps fortunately), my type of lymphoma isn't curable. At that time, though, I was horrified, and took this information to Longmont Police, and told them someone else was getting drugs in my name. But thanks to the harm done to my reputation by Peter Holt and Curtis Leonard, the cops said I was "delusional." Holt is now retired, but he's spread MANY false, wicked rumors around concerning me, such as, when I had critically low potassium and phosphorous, that I was "psychotic" (these conditions are called hypokalemia and hypophosphatemia); that I was supposedly court-martialed out of the military when the fact is, I'm a 100 percent service-connected disabled veteran who served 9 years, with three letters of appreciation and two Good Conduct medals; while Curtis also invented a record at Good Samaritan that I supposedly went there for an STD check! So I then actually went to the pharmacies and obtained the SIGNATURES of WHO picked up the prescriptions (when you pick up a narcotic medication, you have to sign for it). Are you ready for this? It was Kirk Prochnio (Hemler's P.A.), and Paul Battle (another pain clinic P.A.), who were actually going around getting drugs in MY NAME! In one of the pharmacies, Prochnio had filled large amounts of both Percocet AND Oxycontin in ONE DAY at the SAME PHARMACY. You can't DO THAT, there isn't a pharmacy in the world that will do that, so the pharmacists had to be in on it too! I recently went to one of the doctors from whom I'd received a Certified letter of rejection and asked why he did that, and he confirmed that he'd received a letter that I was going around getting drugs from different doctors. Peter Holt and Curtis Leonard are absolute psychopaths, devoid of conscience, and it never fails to AMAZE me the ACCOMPLICES they manage to find, such as Douglas Hemler, Kirk Prochnio, and Paul Battle (and the pharmacists involved as well). And it's inexcusable that the Longmont Police didn't take me seriously, and investigate it themselves. The moral of the story however is, if you value your life, I recommend becoming homeopathic, as I am now. The medical profession HAS no integrity, and these guys should be in jail (however, as I said in my review of Dr. Curtis Leonard, wrap a stethoscope around your neck and you can get away with ANYTHING, including murder!). I actually wrote 2 reviews of Curtis Leonard "near" Longmont Co, if you care to look them up (who threatened me with "legal ramifications for exaggeration and embellishment after my FIRST review of him, so I yelped him AGAIN!). I'm thankful to yelp.com, for its integrity. Doctors can't "buy off" this website, and my thanks again to yelp staff, that SOMEONE in this evil world has integrity. read more

I was a patient of Dr Hemler and Star Spine and Sport. I was scheduled to get back injections. I was supposed to get a call back when the referral went through. I also had requested copies of my records for a VA review. I called and left a message asking how to make that happen. I didn't get calls back in a timely manner. Three weeks, or more, went by and I finally got a call back from Star Spine and Sport. They said that my referral had went through. I asked the receptionist why it took so long to get a call back. I asked why my records question wasn't answer in 24 hours, like the VM systems promises. The receptionist FLIPPED HER LID. She started blaming my insurance. She blamed other staff members for not giving her messages. She started ranting and raving. I just hung up. .... I went to the University Hospital instead. I got a referral in three days and the procedure done in less than a week. Go to UCHealth The Spine Center - Anschutz Medical Campus; the receptionists don't yell at you there read more

Dr. Hemler is only performing EMG's a few hours on Thursday mornings two days a month. He is no longer seeing pain patients.

I had a very unpleasant experience with Dr. Hemler's office staff. I called to set up an appointment and was connected to the person's voice mail which said she would call back in 24 hours. I left my cell# for the call back. After a week, I called again and left a message saying that they had not returned my call in 24 hours, or 48 hours, or a week. Finally I got a call on my cell phone and I made an appointment. I had it in my calendar as May 1st, but when I showed up they told me my appointment was for April 24th, and that they might charge me $50 for a missed appointment. I told the person I would not pay this, but as the office manager was out she would call me back. In the meantime, they scheduled me for an 11am appointment the next morning. I said I would not come to the office unless I knew that I would not be charged the $50 for a missed appointment. The office manager called me back and said she had listened to the audio tapes that confirmed that my appointment was 4/24. I said that somehow I had it in my calendar for 5/1. So I asked her if she was going to charge me the $50. She did not immediately say that she would waive the charge and we got into a more heated conversation. I hung up on her after telling her that I did not enjoy my customer experience from making the appointment to being told that I had missed the date and would be charged a fee. She called me back and we continued to talk and I informed her about my distressing experience in trying to get the appointment in the first place. Then she suggested that I shouldn't come to the appointment today. I thought that the Dr. would want to know how his staff treated customers, but she said she would talk to him. She called me back to say that he thought I should find another doctor...which I agreed with since dealing with his staff made me very unhappy...why would I want to deal with them or him in the future. I don't recommend him or his office staff. I had a PRP (Platelet Rich Plasma) shot in my right elbow 3 years ago and it seemed to help the severe tendonitis I had at the time. This was not covered by insurance and cost me $600 out of pocket. But he kept asking me to come see him every 2 months to check on my elbow. One time he said that it really takes about a year to see the results...so I said...then I'll come back in a year. Why did I need to see him in the interim when there was nothing he was going to do for me. I finally thought I might ease some of the pain in my left elbow (tendinitis there too) and called his office. But I am going to look for a more friendly place to go. read more