Local or lower 48

Hey all:

I live in Anchorage and have started working on getting RnY surgery at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN (went down there for the initial evalulations etc.).  I have the usual comorbidities for this (diabetes, high blood pressure), but nothing way out of the ordinary.  I'm about 80-85 lbs overweight.  I've been happy enough with everyone I've met at Mayo, but it also is, a pretty major hassle.  They are very structured in their program, and they want to do most things themselves (which means several trips to Rochester).

In general, while I have very high confidence in my primary care provider, I've not been real impressed with the quality of the specialists here.  I go to OHSU in Portland for a lot of my stuff (I'm a testicular cancer survivor).  I'm wondering what you all think in terms of having the surgery done locally vs. going to the lower 48.  As best I can tell there are two WLS surgeons here, Dr. Searles and Dr. Todd.  Both have good reviews.  The impression I guet is Dr. Searles is perhaps a bit more technically advanced.  I'd be interested in any opinions or experiences.

Thanks.

Stephen Bloom

 

I live 7 hours from Anchorage and see Searles and let me tell you even though it is only an hour flight or a days drive it is a pain. I could not imagine having to go out of state. Keep in mind what if something were to go wrong and not being close to your WLS doc. Both are great docs, if i were you I would talk to both and see what you think. best of luck!

My wife, daughter, and many people I know and consider friends have had Dr. Todd as their surgeon, I know one person who has used Dr. Searles. One thing I can say about Dr. Todd is that he is not a "slice and dice em, see ya later" kind of DR. he is concerned for his patients, he wants his patients to learn that this is a life long  journey and not a magic pill, and that you need to use your tool to help you change your life, As far as Dr Searles being more technically advanced I dont know, I know that Dr. Todd performs bothe  the lap-band and the RNY bypass surgery, laproscopically and open, depending on the needs of the patient. I know Dr. Todd has completed around 1680 surgeries, that also helped us make the decision, knowing he is not new to the practice. 

We live in the Fairbanks area and the travel required for everything and the hassle of being away from home is a bit of a pain, you have the oppurtunity in your home town, with two very competent surgeons. I would look at both and weigh the pros and cons, and then compare all of the with what you will have to do to complete the journey in MN. Good luck and if you have any other questions dont hesitate to ask.

Thank you Andrew and Rebecca:

All of what you guys said makes sense.  My primary care guy seems to think more highly of Dr. Searle than Dr. Todd.  I'm real aware of the changes that need to be made.  I start my 6 month program next week.  Mayo is quite thorough with their psych evaluation and nutritional counseling.  My issues are recovery and complications.  The stats seem to indicate that some docs have a lot more complications than others, and some hospitals do as well.  I don't think I'm in a particular risky group.  We'll see.  I have an appointment with Dr. Searles in early April and I think it will be June before I go back to Mayo and meet a potential surgeon. 

I appreciate all the info.  I'll keep you all posted, and would appreciate any further info you all have.

Steve

I am a RNY patient from out of state who has moved to Alaska. I am helping my friend who is undertaking getting bariatric surgery herself. We have met Dr. Todd. He seems very nice and caring, but his staff seems fairly incompetent. They require monthly meetings with them. These visits are where they finally check to see what pre=op tests you have had done and how close you are to being ready to get the surgery. What this means to you is that they will bill your insurance and you monthly until they get all the lab tests completed. What this also means is that they do not look at your faxed information or even the MD's dictated notes until your next appointment, so if Dr. Todd ordered something extra for you to do at your april appointment, the office staff may not catch it until may, or June or until you ask what is going on with what he said.  They also do not follow through unless you complein month after month, go with the other surgeon. This staff will drive you NUTS!

You are wrong on the monthly meetings, you do your initial meeting, go do the required tests. they will schedule a phone appt so that you can confer with a nurse to insure they have your paperwork and inform you what is happening on your case.  the reason for this is that if the place you got your lab work, or upper GI or what ever test you needed did not send in the paperwork to Dr. Todds office you can contact said office and get paperwork sent. when all of your tests are complete they schedule your surgery, pending approval by your insurance. they are not going to bill you monthly if you do not either have a phone consult or an office visit. the purpose of the phone consult is to ensure your testing paperwork is being forwarded to the office and you are not sitting around wondering whats going on with your case. I have been through this with both my wife and my daughter, never had a problem, didnt have to call and complain, things went very smoothly,

If you live in Anchorage, they want to see you monthly, they are willing to do phone visits for out of area patients, like you.  As an RN who worked for physicians, I can tell you that Todd's office is not being run effeciently. I can tell you that they did not follow Dr. Todd's orders for us and it took over 7 months and repeated asking the staff to get them to follow through on the order that Dr. Todd had on our initial visit. The staffs lack of following Dr. Todd's orders even thou we have requested the special test he wanted for us, has held us up 6 months. The only reason we finally got the test order followed thru was because we called every day for 3 weeks. Finally, the staff did what they were supposed to do 6 months ago. With submission to insurance, we were told they would submit and we again had to call over and over to get them to submit. Dr Todd seems nice, his staff needs HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!

If you are having a problem with his staff that took 7 months to clear up then maybe you should have talked to Dr. Todd himself, I am not saying its your fault but at some point you have to stand up and say "HEY, there is a problem here and MY Care is being comprimised". also as a supervisor of people I would definatly want to know if my staff were not following my guidance so that my customers would have a positive experience. I understand your being frustrated, it just wasnt our experience. I truly feel bad for you about that, but I do believed that Dr. Todd should know about the situation and that you are disgruntled about the whole experience because of his staff.

We did make him aware as soon as we were allowed to by the staff. Unfortunatly, alot of us go to lunch after the support group meetings and our story is not unique. Many people who live in Anchorage have had the same experience. We all agree that Dr. Todd seems great, but his staff is a major drawback. Dr. Todd is working to change his staff, he has recently hired a nurse who actually has a brain and follows through when she says she will, but they are on a tough learning curve and peoples health is at stake. They need to pull it together quickly.

Well... here's a different perspective:

My insurance doesn't cover the surgery, so I have to pay out of pocket.  The Anchorage doctors charge $45,000 for the surgery, which is absolutely ridiculous.  I can go out of state to San Diego, to Scripps Hospital (or Alvarado), and use doctors with a much better reputation and success rate (not to mention more experience), for about $25,000 out of pocket.  For me, it's a no brainer: I am going outside for the surgery and for the peace of mind.

My local primary care physician can do all the labwork requests, follow up, etc.