Dr. Richardson at Ocshner?

Can anyone tell me the process you have to go through with Dr. Richardson??? Thank you a lot!! I'm attending my first seminar next Thursday at Ochsner.

You will learn everything you need to know at the seminar. Good luck to you.

The Seminar is your first step, then you call the next day  and get your appointment.   They will tell you what all have to be done at  the seminar and at your doctors appointment!!!! Dr. Richardson and his staff are great, I had my surgery(gastric bypass) on 10/15/07 and was home the next day!!!!         Good Luck!!!

About how long did it take you to get everything accomplished? Thanks for your response!

It  was about 1 month from the time I started my journey until the time I had my surgery!!!   I had most of mt testing done here in Baton Rouge, the only test I had to have at oschner was the EKG.  I was working with care coordination dept with uhc so when I went for my appointment with Dr. Richardson everything was done!! Oh I took all my labs at oschner.  The things you are gonna need are: sleep study, cardio, clearance, ekg, psych. evaluation, swallowing study and I had to have  6 month medically  supervised diet history for the insurance company.           I hope this helps!!!  My husband goes to Dr. Richardson to, they told my husband that he has to loose 50-60 pounds before he can have surgery. He weigh 525

Wow, so he makes you take a sleep study? How do you do that? Or was that because you had sleep apnea already? I don't have that yet thankfully...I only weigh 320lbs so hopefully it won't be too long before I could have the surgery too...I have Humana and I have to have 12mths diet, which I have, so it shouldn't be a big deal.  Thanks for your help though! I may have more questions, though, after tonight because tonight I go to the seminar in New Orleans. 

He only makes you take a sleep study if he feels you have sleep apnea. I did not have to have a sleep study, a cardio exam or a swallow test. all I did was the visit with him, labs,ekg, gallbladder ultrasound, psych eval and clearance from my pcp and a nut consult with Laura.

When did you have to get clearance from your PCP and what did that entail? Like going to him and asking for a letter of some sort, or what?

You will need to get one to turn in to the insurance and after aproved and within a week of surgery atleast what I had to do. Did you go to the seminar last night.  Sabrina

I sure did and I met Dr. Richardson (who has a very discreet sense of humor haha) and his team who seem to be fantastic.  I am going to call them today to see what I need from my PCP and if I could get all of it done in one trip (I made an appt. to see my primary doc on monday) so thanks for asking and I'll be on the journey more after the holidays! (kinda want to enjoy one last christmas without being restricted)