Friday, April 16, 2010

The surgeon has left the building

Yesterday I called my surgeon's office to make an appointment for my one-year post-op appointment. It's still a month out and they told me back in January that there was no need to call in advance for an appointment, but I'm going to be in France on the actual one-year mark so I was hoping to schedule it a week or so in advance and get a fill at the same time, so I called a little early to schedule.

(By the way, the only reason I was there in January was that when I called to make my six-month appointment--which should have been in November--they didn't have an appointment available for the next two months. But they told me at the time that it was just because of the holidays and that May would be wide open for appointments.)

So, you can guess where this is going, right? I called a month in advance and they STILL didn't have any appointments left until JUNE. JUNE. So then I said, OK, let me make my one-year appointment for June and then can I make an appointment sometime this month just for a fill? And they said no, even just for a fill it'll be the end of May.

But, they had an excuse. Their excuse is, my surgeon has left the practice. He's no longer affiliated with the hospital. He's moved to a new hospital where he will be setting up a brand new bariatric department. Which is actually kind of cool.

I actually knew that already, that he'd left, and at the time I didn't worry about it because I hadn't actually seen my surgeon since last May. I work exclusively with his physician's assistant, who was also present at my surgery and who does all my fills, and the practice's social worker and nutritionist (whom I've met a couple times each--once before the surgery, once at the three-month mark, and once at the six-month mark).

But what I didn't know was that my surgeon took his assistant with him. His assistant was my primary point of contact at the office and my primary source of care. She and I met about once a month for the first six months, and every 2-3 months since then. She knows me, and I know her. We're friendly, and she knows my whole history. She knows exactly where the port is on my band and how to do a fill for me quickly and painlessly. She knows my exercise routine and exactly what to recommend when I have questions. She's great.

So, I decided to follow my surgeon and physician's assistant to their new hospital. Really, I see no downsides to this. Here are the upsides that I see:
  1. I stick with the same main sources of care that I've had since my surgery.
  2. I don't have to wait two months to get an appointment for a fill that takes three minutes (or less) to do.
  3. The new hospital is actually closer and more convenient to our house than the old hospital.
  4. Because I'll be one of a small number of patients in the practice, at least at the beginning, I have more direct access to the doctor himself with questions.
In fact, when I called to set up an appointment I was told by the receptionist that they haven't started seeing patients yet but that she would give my message to the surgeon and then call me back. An hour later, my phone rang and it was the surgeon himself. He remembered me well, even though he does many surgeries every week and hadn't seen me for almost a year, and we had a whole nice chat. He was very friendly, gave me all the details on the new practice he's setting up, told me how to transfer my records, and made it very clear how glad he was that I'm choosing to stick with him and his team.

Then he told me, we're hoping to start accepting patients in early May but it's a slow process and I can't make promises. So, if you want a fill in the meantime I'd recommend that you go to the old office. And I told him that the old office had a two-month wait time just for a fill. And then he told me, OK, he'd set me up to come in for a fill even before he's officially opened up his practice. And since he hasn't received his insurance approval yet, and can't delay billing, he'll just do it for free. (Normally, fills cost a $30 "specialist" co-pay, or, if your insurance doesn't cover it, it's a $50 "self-pay" rate.)

So, yeah. Basically, he is awesome, and this is working out really well. A free fill! A $30 value! (Not to mention the reimbursement he's not going to get from my insurance company for the rest of the cost of the fill.) Direct access to the doctor himself! No wait times! A much shorter drive!

The only thing I can think of that is even a slight negative is switching social workers and nutritionists, but I only meet with them once a year from here on out and I'm sure the people at the new practice will be great anyway.

So basically: win win WIN. Happy Friday!

23 comments:

  1. I think it's awesome when you're THAT happy with a doctor that you're willing to follow him ... and by doing so, you're actually making visits to his office more convenient for yourself! And I know you're in a special financial situation, down to one income, but, I think I'd feel some sense of responsibility for paying for that visit (or some portion of it). I imagine start-up costs for a new office can't be cheap and there's tons of lost income in the set-up months of waiting for insurance approvals and the like. Then again, I'm sure you can also consider it a cost of doing business (how many freebies does T give away to lure customers to him - I get it!).

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  2. HOORAY! That whole post is just full of awesome!

    I love finding great doctors. :)

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  3. That is completely awesome. What a great doctor!

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  4. I'm so glad this worked out! Your doctor is completely awesome!

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  5. Very cool! Nice to have a doctor that actually cares about the patients. :)

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  6. Fabulous! Nice to know there are still doctors out there like that.

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  7. It's saying something about the doc if you'll follow him. I find the health care system daunting to navigate. Or maybe it is the insurance side of it that makes it a total pain the ass? Either way, glad you've got a plan with this and you're happy with it. :-)

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  8. It isn't often that one gets GOOD news about doctors. Hooray and Happy Friday!

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  9. I’m a big fan of following the doctor you like. I did it with my OB/GYN (midwife) when I first found out I was expecting Bud, and when then when she moved on and I hated who was left behind when I was expecting Liv, I tracked down the attending from the hospital for BOTH of my prior births who had gone in to practice, and used her and her new office. I can’t believe it’s almost been a year for you—AWESOME!

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  10. Thrilled for you! What a great outcome.

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  11. Nice! Good doctors are worth following to the ends of the earth.

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  12. I'm with everyone else: this post is chock full of awesome!

    I love it when you find a doctor like that. It is unfortunate that such great quality of care is not the norm. My chiropractor is like that -- determined to help, gets to know each patient, thinks outside the box if necessary when something isn't responding to treatment, and if the adjustment didn't quite take care of something will do a second appointment later that day at no charge. Which is why I have stuck with him for more than 10 years (except for gaps when I couldn't afford it/didn't have insurance, which is all about my own comfort level money-wise as I know he would have worked something out for me).

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  13. That is great! Even though you'e had some struggles with the getting appointments and that liquid diet was apparently pretty horrible, it sounds like this whole experience has been a pretty positive one for you.

    Have a great weekend!

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  14. That's PERFECT! Happy Friday to you!!!

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  15. That's so great, Jess! That's the kind of care that everyone should receive. So glad you're making the switch!

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  16. Wow! That's amazing! It's so nice to hear stories like this. It has taken me years to find doctors I like. I used to switch around a lot because I hadn't found a good one - but it's so nice to have a good doctor who knows you and who you can talk to.

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  17. Yay! I can't imagine ever getting care like this in DC, can you?

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  18. That is amazing. What a great doctor, it is so good to see a doctor being genuinely nice to his patients because it shows he actually cares.

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  19. That is so huge that he is giving you such wonderful service and care!! Cherish that guy!! lol

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