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Topic: RE: Local or lower 48
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!!!!!!!!!!!!
Topic: RE: Local or lower 48
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,
Topic: RE: Local or lower 48
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!
Topic: Fairbanks Support Group Meeting - March 10
Attention Fairbanks Area Patients
SUPPORT GROUP MEETING !!!!!
Wednesday March 10th, 7:00 PM
Fairbanks Cancer Treatment Center
Topic: FALLING OFF THE WAGON AND GETTING BACK ON
See you there
SUPPORT GROUP MEETING !!!!!
Wednesday March 10th, 7:00 PM
Fairbanks Cancer Treatment Center
Topic: FALLING OFF THE WAGON AND GETTING BACK ON
See you there
Topic: RE: Local or lower 48
Thanks for the info. If I do it up here. likely I will use Dr. Searles. I do have an appointment next month. I'd actually prefer a mostly handsoff approach.
One of my frustrations with Mayo is the endless hoops you have to go through to actually get an appointment with a surgeon. I've had enough friends do the surgery and done enough research to pretty well know the rules of eating, lifestyle changes, excercise, post op diet and vitamin supplementation. The touchie-feelie stuff is a bit much for me, though that might just be a gender thing :)
Thanks again
Steve
One of my frustrations with Mayo is the endless hoops you have to go through to actually get an appointment with a surgeon. I've had enough friends do the surgery and done enough research to pretty well know the rules of eating, lifestyle changes, excercise, post op diet and vitamin supplementation. The touchie-feelie stuff is a bit much for me, though that might just be a gender thing :)
Thanks again
Steve
Topic: RE: Local or lower 48
As a Dr. Searles patient, lap-band and successful to boot, I would recommend either surgeon. I have friends that have used both doctors and al have had great results with both RNY and Band. The differences, from what I've observed, are that Dr. Todd has a more thorough afttercare program and a more stringent pre-op protocol. Dr. Searles is a get to the point, get the surgery, and tell me what you want from me type. I've only had 5 fills in 2 years and seen him only that many times, but he fills aggressively and I didn't really require anything else from him.
Technically I know little about Dr. Todd, Searles is a skilled surgeon and even uses the Di Vinchi robot for some of his patients (pretty darn cool!!!) I'm sure they are both wonderful and they used to be partners. I do know that Dr. Todd is adamently opposed to taking other surgeons patients even in an emergency. If you decide to go out of state youll want to be sure that the practice you choose has some emergency protocol available in Alaska!
Kari
Technically I know little about Dr. Todd, Searles is a skilled surgeon and even uses the Di Vinchi robot for some of his patients (pretty darn cool!!!) I'm sure they are both wonderful and they used to be partners. I do know that Dr. Todd is adamently opposed to taking other surgeons patients even in an emergency. If you decide to go out of state youll want to be sure that the practice you choose has some emergency protocol available in Alaska!
Kari
Topic: RE: Local or lower 48
everything in Alaska costs more :) I went to one of Dr. Ellner's sales pitches and she's very good at what she does. But if you have a complication she has the local internists do whatever procedure is needed (like a stricture) ... no one up here (in Fairbanks) is really trained in handling complications ... so that's another consideration ... at least Anchorage is closer than San Diego ... or Mexico .. or elsewhere...
I know Dr. Todd takes military patients when they transfer in-state but I don't know if he would work on another doctor's patient .. you'd have to call and ask (re:complications)
RNY patients are funny creatures .. they are loyal to their doctors ... lol ... and if someone badmouths another doctor ask for concrete reasons .. not opinions or hearsay from someone who had their surgery done by someone else ...
good luck with your quest ... in the long run you have to do what feels best to you ...
I know Dr. Todd takes military patients when they transfer in-state but I don't know if he would work on another doctor's patient .. you'd have to call and ask (re:complications)
RNY patients are funny creatures .. they are loyal to their doctors ... lol ... and if someone badmouths another doctor ask for concrete reasons .. not opinions or hearsay from someone who had their surgery done by someone else ...
good luck with your quest ... in the long run you have to do what feels best to you ...
Topic: RE: Local or lower 48
Andrew:
Yep. it's all kind of confusing. It is a major surgery, yet at the same time, apparently has become quite safe. We'll see.
Topic: RE: Local or lower 48
I guess you would have to ask or determine why one over the other, again from patients I have talked to and what we have experienced, if I had to do it all over again, I would go with Dr. Todd.
Topic: RE: Local or lower 48
For me it is probably going to come down to success rate. Sounds like you are either going to Dr. Wittgrove or Dr. Ellner. I'm pretty sure insurance will cover it, I think their cap is $50,000.. I have noticed that in general, any medical procedure up here is somewhere between 1.5 to 2 times the cost in the lower 48. I'm just going to have to force my primary care guy to give a real opinion. I sense that he is real uncomfortable providing either a recommendation or a negative on another doc in the community. The one thing he has been clear about is a preference for Dr. Searles over Dr. Todd.
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Anyone on the Kenai Peninsula? Anyone go to Mexico for their surgery because of Self Pay?
KateinAK · 0 replies · 3357 views
KateinAK · 0 replies · 3357 views
