Dr. Jim Frazier was the former administrator of Cedars Hospital during a time of great change at both Cedars and Springfield. Jim was a retired army veteran who served in the Korean War in the same unit as Dr. Paul Fletcher, who was living in Los Angeles with his second wife, Robin. Jim and Paul had also served in the same unit with supposedly deceased, Ben Scott. Since the Korean War, Jim had met, fell in love and married the very beautiful, Martha Frazier and they had settled in Springfield with their children after Jim had gotten his medical degree. Jim moved quickly up the chain of command at Cedars and by 1966 was the hospital administrator.

Jim enticed Paul with the prospect of becoming the chief-of-staff at Cedars. Paul greatly appreciated his friend's offer and accepted and the move. Robin quickly became friends with Martha, a nurse on staff at the hospital. Martha also became friends with Bert Bauer when she and her husband, Bill moved to Springfield after Bill's public relations firm relocated there. Jim also became friends with Bill, and ended up being a difficult position when Bill had an affair with Ben Scott's "widow" and Bill's office assistant, Maggie. Soon, Ben turned up alive, in Springfield, and revealed himself to Jim. Ben never died but had, instead, deserted his family. Jim was flabbergasted but knew enough to tell Ben that he should not reveal his identify to his teenage daughter, Peggy, right away. Dr. Jim Frazier also served as a mentor to Dr. Ed Bauer, Bill and Bert's son.

Jim would last be seen accepting job as the head of the company that owned the various Cedars Hospital branches throughout the Midwest. His replacement would be Cedars' new chief of surgery, Stephen Jackson.