Dr. Juarez ~ Bridges/St. Luke ?

I am pre-op still, waiting for approval. I attended a introductory seminar at Banner Good Sam with Dr Juarez. I did not really care for him that night but changed my mind when I went for my surgical consult. I did lots of research on the surgeons and he came highly recommended. Banner Good Sam has a Bariatric Program and Dr Juarez will be doing my surgery there. There was talk of closing it but Dr Juarez and Dr Fang persuaded hospital admin to keep it open. I simply was not comfortable with St Luke's...this is my opinion only and there are many who had surgery at St Luke's and were very peased with them.  I worked for Samaritan for years and had surgery several times at Good Sam so that is the reason I am going back.

Thanks for the information, Gena. I am new to this process and this forum, as well as, being from a rural AZ location so I've never even heard of these facilities ... My PCP referred me to this MD. Would you mind sharing with me what your hesitation is with this facility and what others had concerns about? You can share off-topic if you wish at ananya @ conevery . com

Ananya  I would suggest you always take a 2nd person with you to all appts - they tend to hear things you dont and will bring up questions you forget to ask .  Good Luck with Dr Juarez & Fang  Keep us posted.

Thanks, Ginau ... My dutiful husband will be in attendance :-)

I had no idea that Good Sam is still doing Bariatric surgery!!!  My paperwork got to the insurance company TODAY and I'm hopeful that I will find out soon (this week?) whether I'm approved. Then I'll just have to schedule with Dr. J. and awaaaaay we go! 

I had mine with Dr. Juarez a really long time ago before there was a bridges program or support groups. Had it at good sams. Only complaint was that any requests for help had to be sent to the doctor, there were no standing orders for things like O2 of NG tube removal. It was pretty ghetto and only a few O2 regulators for the floor (which wasn't bariatrics at the time), but there were some pretty compassionate nurses and everything was really clean.