Dr. Robert J. Zehr
Staff
Punctuality
Helpfulness
Knowledge
2659 PROFESSIONAL CIR
Naples, FL, United States
34101
Facility Affiliations
Dr. Robert J. Zehr's Credentials
Accepting New Patients
Yes, this doctor is accepting new patients
Biography
Robert J. Zehr, MD is a board-certified, fellowship-trained orthopaedic surgeon and the founder of The Zehr Center for Orthopaedics, a private orthopaedic surgery practice located in Naples, Florida. He specializes in hip and knee replacement surgery, complex revision joint surgery, knee arthroscopy and trauma reconstruction. He pioneered the direct anterior approach to hip replacement in the Southwest Florida area and has conducted over 1,800 of those surgeries to date. Dr. Zehr has over 30 years of orthopaedic surgical experience in complex joint reconstruction and rehabilitation, having been in both the academic environment of the Cleveland Clinic for 15 years and private practice for the past 10 years. Prior to being sent to Southwest Florida in 1998 to help develop the Cleveland Clinic Naples, Dr. Zehr was the Head of Orthopaedic Oncology for The Cleveland Clinic Foundation where he came on staff after a prestigious fellowship in orthopaedic oncology at the University of Florida and his residency training at The Cleveland Clinic Foundation. Dr. Zehr achieved further career success while an attending physician at the Cleveland Clinic Naples, where he distinguished himself as its Executive Director, Chief of Staff and Head of Orthopaedic Surgery while maintaining a full and thriving surgical practice. With the abrupt departure of the Cleveland Clinic from the Naples, Florida area, but still wanting to practice in the Southwest Florida community where he had practiced since 1998, Dr. Zehr began his new venture into solo orthopaedic practice in late 2007. His highly successful joint replacement practice has positioned him as the highest volume hip replacement surgeon in Collier County and the leader in outpatient joint replacement surgery through Seaside Surgery Center. In addition to his private practice and surgery center, Dr. Zehr has been named Chief of Surgery for Landmark Hospital of Southwest Florida and Medical Director of The Joint Care Center at Landmark. Dr. Zehr is also a consulting surgeon for Arthrex, Inc., a global medical device company and leader in new product development and medical education in orthopedics. Although it is extremely important to know where your surgeon trained and his years of experience, it is perhaps more important to know what his peers and patients think of him. By virtue of the many awards and honors of recognition that have been bestowed upon Dr. Zehr consistently through the years, you can be confident that the many patients who have gone before you are extremely satisfied with their care. In addition, most of these accolades are achieved through peer nomination where the many physicians who have selected Dr. Zehr for these awards were asked “to whom would they send their own family?” In the tradition of superior care and innovation, Robert J. Zehr, MD was recognized by one of the most distinguished physician rating services in the country, Best Doctors, Inc. to be included once again in the Best Orthopedic Doctors in America database for 2016-2017, an honor he has received every year since 1998. This annual list is compiled from surveys of physicians asking them who they would go to for treatment in their specialty. The result is a proprietary database of more than 53,000 medical experts in over 450 specialties and subspecialties worldwide. An exhaustive peer-review survey by thousands of doctors determines the physicians in this database. Only those who earn the consensus support of their peers are included. Doctors cannot buy listings. For this reason, inclusion in the Best Doctors in America database is a remarkable honor. Castle-Connolly Medical, Ltd – publishers of America's Top Doctors – has recognized Dr. Zehr as one of the top treating orthopaedic surgeons in Southwest Florida from 2004-2018. Castle-Connolly considers the following criteria to determine a doctor's eligibility for inclusion in America’s Top Doctors: professional qualifications, education, residency, board certification, fellowships, professional reputation, hospital appointment, medical school faculty appointment, experience, and disciplinary history. Consumer’s Research Council of America, a Washington, D.C. based research organization which provides consumers’ information guides for professional services throughout America, has rated Dr. Zehr nationally as one of America's Top Orthopedists for the years 2002-2017. Its purpose is to help educate and assist consumers in obtaining the finest professional services. Every month, more than 200,000 patients across the U.S. provide online feedback about their doctor experiences. They rate the various components of the care they receive, such as bedside manner, doctor-patient time, follow-up care, ease of appointment setting, courtesy of office staff, and they also share their overall opinions. From this data the very top scoring physicians are chosen for the “Patients’ Choice Award.” Over the course of 2018, hundreds of thousands of patient reviews were written and shared. While physicians generally receive positive feedback from their patients, only a select few consistently receive rave reviews. Of those with high praise, only physicians with near-perfect scores receive this honor. In fact of the nations 870,000 active physicians, only 5% were accorded this honor by their patients in 2018; only 1% have achieved five consecutive awards. Dr. Zehr has been chosen by his patients for this award every year since 2009. In addition to the Patients’ Choice Award, Dr. Zehr once again earned accolades in 2018 as one of “America’s Most Compassionate Doctors.” Fewer than 3% of the nation’s 870,000 active physicians were accorded this honor by their patients in 2018. This is truly a people’s choice award. In Southwest Florida, Gulfshore Life Magazine has honored Dr. Zehr as one of a select few best orthopedic surgeons in its annual “Top Doctors” awards for the years 2004-2018. Gulfshore Life Magazine partners with Castle-Connolly Medical in New York to develop a list of the top-tier doctors in each specialty, that is, those physicians most highly recommended in Collier, Lee and Charlotte counties each year. Dr. Zehr consistently earns top ratings and rankings on several online review websites. The culmination of these peer and patient generated ratings is Dr. Zehr’s inclusion in the American Registry’s list of “America’s Most Honored Professionals 2018 – Top 1%.” In addition, Dr. Zehr instituted the highly acclaimed Cleveland Clinic Naples “Joint Club” which cohesively coordinated the many individual talents of hospital nursing, physical therapy, case management and surgery with outpatient pre-operative treatment, bringing them into a well orchestrated and seamless educational experience. This team effort let the patient focus exclusively on returning to life’s activities after joint replacement surgery. The Orthopaedic Center of Excellence was a “Premier Site” for this system of patient care and was visited by national and international dignitaries and surgeons desiring to improve their patient care and management. His extensive experience as leader, researcher and surgeon keeps Dr. Zehr in high demand as a speaker locally, nationally and internationally. He has spoken, operated or taught in Germany, Italy, Canada and Great Britain. He has written extensively on skeletal reconstruction, but enjoys educating individual patients on their specific orthopaedic problems. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons, a Diplomate of the American Board of Orthopaedic Surgeons, a member in good standing in the American Association of Hip and Knee Surgeons and the Florida Orthopaedic Society, the Florida Medical Society and the Collier County Medical Society.
Languages
- English
Education
- St. Louis University (Grad. 1985)
Other Specialties
Areas of Expertise
- Arthroscopy
- Knee replacement
- Knee pain
- Osteoarthritis
- Hip replacement
Awards & Recognitions
- "Best Doctors in America" 2018
- GulfShore Life Magazine's "Top Docs" 2004 - 2018
- Consumer's Research Council of America "America's Top Orthopedists" 2002 - 2018
- Castle-Connolly's "America's Top Doctors" 2004-2018
From my first phone call to my hip replacement Dr. ZEHR and his staff were fantastic. I can’t imagine a better experience all around and am back to being free of pain and enjoying life again. I am so grateful for the care that I have received from Dr. ZEHR and his staff.
Submitted Jan. 29, 2024