San Francisco North Bay Kaiser

I am so excited because my brother (300lbs+) has seen my success and is thinking about starting the process for himself. He lives in Petaluma and has Kaiser. Which facility does Kaiser refer to from the North Bay?

I am  hoping to just have him go to Fremont and use my surgeon so I can watch over him like the sister that I am!

Richmond or South San Francisco are the northern options. Those and Fremont are the Bay Area Kaisers that do bariatric surgery.

Once your brother gets to the point of being referred to a particular facility, he can request Fremont and he should be accomodated, even if he's outside their usual area.

Larra

From what I'm hearing in my Sacramento Kaiser support group Fremont is really really busy...most of our area Kaiser referrals are going to Richmond. With that said, your bother can request his PCP to request Fremont when he sends the referral in to patient services.  Good Luck!
Nancy aka Sunray

HIJACK!!!!!!!!  Just wanted to say HI!!!! to you Nancy.  Have a great 2011!!!!  Hope all is well with the two of you and you are getting in some good travels   ;-)

Hugs!!!
jillie

I live in San Rafael and had my surgery on 12/7/10 at Kaiser Richmond with Dr. Im.  I have been very pleased with the Richmond clinic and I recieved excellent care in the hospital. I agree that he would be seen sooner at Richmond and get a sooner surgery date. He might want to go to the support group east bay bariatrics there were alot of Fremont pts there . I  got the impression that it takes a long time to get things going at Fremont.
Sabryna

Maybe, things have changed since last summer, but I went through the process at Fremont in about 4 months. I had started losing weight, before my consultation with the surgeon, so that helped to speed along the process. If someone gets the weight off, then they can be scheduled. Once I had the weight off, I did have to wait about 5-6 weeks, because of summer vacations. Also, if you can get a cancellation, you can get the surgery done sooner. I was offered a date in July, 2 weeks after I reached goal, but wasn't able to do that date. I ended up with a date at the end of August, because someone else couldn't keep that date. Otherwise, the surgery date would have been in September.