Has anyone had surgery at Duke lately?

Just wondering if anyone has had surgery there lately or have been called with a surgery date lately?  I did get a call saying that I was out of medical review but they needed one more thing. When I asked what it was, it was something that was already in my file folder that had been faxed from my Endocrinologist last month. Hmmmmm. Hopefully I will be submitted for insurance soon.

I got my approval letter and faxed it over to Duke/Angela on 5/5.  I still have not gotten a surgery date!

I just came here to ask if anyone here is a Duke patient too.  I'm so frustrated!  I went there for my first appointment on 4/21 and still haven't gone to medical review.   I'm so afraid that they are going to tell me after that that they still need something.   I know that I need to work on my patience but it seems like I should have completed this process by now.  How long does this take?

Did they tell you before you left the appt that you needed anything else? Did they tell you before you left that the next step would be surgery review for you?

Well, somone just called me to say that the fax from my Endo that was already in my folder was looked at and now they are sending me to insurance for approval--woohoo! I was warned that it would take 2 weeks because they are dealing with a learning curve in the office.

I think it's more than a learning curve going on at Duke.  I had all my tests completed 1/22/08.  I went to surgical review in Feb.  I had to have an additional test and it could not be scheduled until 3/03.  It took over a week for the test results to show up in the system, thanks to my calling and calling to check up on it.  Without going into all the phone calls and following up I had to do, Beth called to let me know that she was ready to submit to insurance on 3/20.  I still needed my PCP to send over her letter and office notes for the 3 month prep regimen of diet and nutrition that my insurance required.  That took over 2 weeks.  Then I had to wait again for Duke to send to dictation.  My paper work was finally faxed over to Aetna Insurance on 4/16....but only after I had to call again to complain about why it was taking so long.  Beth's last day was 4/16 and my case was one of the last ones she worked on....Thank God!  I got insurance approval 4/30.  Aetna called Duke and left a messaage to say I had been approved.  I spoke with John (Beth's replacement) and even though I did not have the actual letter of approval, since they had the voice message from Aetna, they could begin.  I called the office the next morning to talk to Angela as that is who Beth told me to call after I received my approval.  Angela would not come to the phone, so Nancy told me, and contradicted what John had told me, that they could do nothing until they had the letter.  I received the letter in the mail 5/5.  I faxed over to Duke.  Called 5/6 and Angela did not get the letter so I refaxed.  Called back to make sure she got it and Angela told me that it would be 3 to 4 weeks before I would get a date.  Now, when Beth was there, she could tell you the day she got the approval letter.  I can understand a learning curve of a week, but not 3 to 4 weeks.  I called back 5/8 and spoke to John.  He talked with Angela and I got the impression that Angela was to work on mine.  Angela told me that she would have it the next day 5/9.  I called the next day and Angela told me it would be Monday 5/12.  I called today, 5/12 around noon.  Nancy said that Angela had not done it and that she would call me before she left the office today.  Well, no call and it was 3:45.  I called and spoke to Angela and she still had not done anything.  She gave me John.  John talked to Angela, again, and he told me that she would have it tomorrow.  If I had not gotten a call by noon, to call him.  So, I have had insurance approval since 4/30 and still do not have dates. 

Unfortunately, I had to delete this post to protect my privacy.

I got a date this morning.  It's 5/28.  My appt with the surgeon is Friday 5/16 and my preop is 5/19.  What bothers me is that it took just 5 minutes to do that.  Angela called me this moring shortly before 9am and she scheduled it over the phone with me.  So, if it could be done that quickly, why did it take over a week?  And I would not have it now if I had not of hounded them like a bull dog.  Anyway, I have it!  It took me from 1/14 (first visit) to 5/13 to get a surgery date.  I am 43 and have a BMI of 42.  I have a Sleep Apnea and hypertension.  Other than that, I have no other health issues.  I had to have the one extra test, manometry.  It still took 5 months.  That's quick compared to some.  I just hope eevrything gets better soon.

I had my surgery on April 1, 2008. I went to the information session in July, First appointment in October and then finially I was approved. I called weekly . As soon as Beth got her approval letter i was able to get my date. I didn't get my letter for a couple of weeks later. I am sorry for everyones runaround. I thought that it was hard dealing with the office staff before Beth left but it seems worst now. On the plus side the doctors, dietican etc are great Good luck to all of you

Just wanted to point out something. If everyone, and Duke has thousands of patients, is calling multiple times every day. All they have time to do is field phone calls. That office gets almost 1000 calls per day, the most in the Duke system. It is absurd. No one can get anything done with that volume of calls. My advice (and of course it is just mine, take it for what it is worth) if everyone would stop calling constantly they might have a chance to get something done.  Carolyn